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The Storyteller of Casablanca

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The Storyteller of Casablanca

By: Fiona Valpy
Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
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About this listen

In this evocative tale from the bestselling author of The Dressmaker’s Gift, a strange new city offers a young girl hope. Can it also offer a lost soul a second chance?

Morocco, 1941. With France having fallen to Nazi occupation, twelve-year-old Josie has fled with her family to Casablanca, where they await safe passage to America. Life here is as intense as the sun, every sight, smell and sound overwhelming to the senses in a city filled with extraordinary characters. It’s a world away from the trouble back home - and Josie loves it.

Seventy years later, another new arrival in the intoxicating port city, Zoe, is struggling - with her marriage, her baby daughter and her new life as an expat in an unfamiliar place. But when she discovers a small wooden box and a diary from the 1940s beneath the floorboards of her daughter’s bedroom, Zoe enters the inner world of young Josie, who once looked out on the same view of the Atlantic Ocean, but who knew a very different Casablanca.

It’s not long before Zoe begins to see her adopted city through Josie’s eyes. But can a new perspective help her turn tragedy into hope, and find the comfort she needs to heal her broken heart?

©2021 by Fiona Valpy. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction Heartfelt Africa

Critic Reviews

“A novel that will whisk you to another time and place, The Storyteller of Casablanca is a tender tale of hope, resilience, and new beginnings.”—Imogen Clark, bestselling author of Postcards From a Stranger

“Fiona Valpy has an exquisite talent for creating characters so rounded and delightful that they almost feel like family, and this makes what happens to them feel very personal.”—Louise Douglas, bestselling author of The House by the Sea

All stars
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You certainly get involved with Josie and Zoe and the lives they lived in Casablanca, albeit many years apart. Well written and well read.

Great book

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Loved this story from the start. Beautifully written and narrated. Full of empathy and caring love.

Touched my heart

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I highly recommend this book. Wonderfully written and you can imagine how War would change the course of young lives.

Beautiful Story of courage and survival during the War. Set in a Country I didn’t even know had taken refugees.

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Loved this heartfelt story of a young mother with an obsessive compulsion to wash her hands, reason at end of the book, trying to start a new life with her husband in a new country. Finding a box with treasures and a journal of a young girl, hidden under a floorboard in the attic of her new home, we follow the amazing stories to an end I didn't see coming

Beautiful Moving Story

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When good stories are told well they come to life! Josie and Zoe’s entertained journeys across time are beautifully brought to life be Fiona Valpy. I love your books!

Brilliant and heartbreaking

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This was a very unusual story, but captivating all the same. Meaningful and touching.
I like stories that cover more than one timeline.

Very captivating.

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I loved the story and couldn’t stop listening from start to finish.
Beautifully described characters in a wonderfully, detailed description of the surrounding world.
I was recognising all the places I visited in Morocco. I could almost feel, touch and smell being there.
It’s extremely well narrated too.
A book that I will remember for the rest of my life!

Such a painful but beautiful story of courage and friendship.

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So many unlikely scenarios make this hard to enjoy. Unbelievable storyline, and unlikely and annoying main characters. I kept going for the setting and the fact I was only half listening while working. Knew there was going to be a twist at the end, but was still caught out by it, which actually made the book worthwhile.

Good Twist if you can make it through the rest.

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