Get Your Free Audiobook
The Water Cure
Non-member price: $30.38
People who bought this also bought...
-
Everything Under
- By: Daisy Johnson
- Narrated by: Charlie Sanderson
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2018. Words are important to Gretel, always have been. As a child, she lived on a canal boat with her mother, and together they invented a language that was just their own. She hasn’t seen her mother since the age of 16, though - almost a lifetime ago - and those memories have faded. Now Gretel works as a lexicographer, updating dictionary entries, which suits her solitary nature. A phone call from the hospital interrupts Gretel’s isolation and throws up questions from long ago....
-
-
Predictable
- By Hannah Petroni on 22-01-2019
-
Snap
- By: Belinda Bauer
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a stifling summer's day, 11-year-old Jack and his two sisters sit in their broken-down car, waiting for their mother to come back and rescue them. 'Jack's in charge,' she said. 'I won't be long.' But she never comes back. Three years later, mum-to-be Catherine wakes to find a knife beside her bed, and a note that says: 'I could have killed you'. Meanwhile Jack is still in charge - of his sisters, of supporting them all, of making sure nobody knows they're alone in the house, and - quite suddenly - of finding out the truth about what happened to his mother. But the truth can be a dangerous thing....
-
-
Loved it
- By Emma Thomas on 23-06-2019
-
Washington Black
- By: Esi Edugyan
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When two English brothers take the helm of a Barbados sugar plantation, Washington Black - an 11-year-old field slave - finds himself selected as personal servant to one of these men. The eccentric Christopher 'Titch' Wilde is a naturalist, explorer, scientist, inventor and abolitionist whose single-minded pursuit of the perfect aerial machine mystifies all around him. Titch's idealistic plans are soon shattered, and Washington finds himself in mortal danger.
-
-
great read
- By Amazon Customer on 02-01-2019
-
Silver
- By: Chris Hammer
- Narrated by: Dorje Swallow
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For half a lifetime, journalist Martin Scarsden has run from his past. But now there is no escaping. He'd vowed never to return to his hometown, Port Silver, and its traumatic memories. But now his new partner, Mandy Blonde, has inherited an old house in the seaside town and Martin knows their chance of a new life together won't come again. Martin arrives to find his best friend from school days brutally murdered, and Mandy the chief suspect. With the police curiously reluctant to pursue other suspects, Martin goes searching for the killer. And finds the past waiting for him.
-
-
great Australian read
- By paul on 30-10-2019
-
Normal People
- By: Sally Rooney
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in rural Ireland. The similarities end there; they are from very different worlds. When they both earn places at Trinity College in Dublin, a connection that has grown between them lasts long into the following years. This is an exquisite love story about how a person can change another person's life - a simple yet profound realisation that unfolds beautifully over the course of the novel. It tells us how difficult it is to talk about how we feel and it tells us - blazingly - about cycles of domination, legitimacy and privilege.
-
-
Two complex people - will they, won’t they?
- By Anonymous User on 26-02-2019
-
From a Low and Quiet Sea
- By: Donal Ryan
- Narrated by: Stephen Hogan, Gerry O'Brien, Ramon Tikaram
- Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Random House presents the audiobook edition of From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan, read by Stephen Hogan, Gerry O'Brien and Ramon Tikaram. Farouk’s country has been torn apart by war. Lampy’s heart has been laid waste by Chloe. John’s past torments him as he nears his end. The refugee. The dreamer. The penitent. From war-torn Syria to small-town Ireland, three men, scarred by all they have loved and lost, are searching for some version of home. Each is drawn towards a powerful reckoning, one that will bring them together in the most unexpected of ways.
-
Everything Under
- By: Daisy Johnson
- Narrated by: Charlie Sanderson
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2018. Words are important to Gretel, always have been. As a child, she lived on a canal boat with her mother, and together they invented a language that was just their own. She hasn’t seen her mother since the age of 16, though - almost a lifetime ago - and those memories have faded. Now Gretel works as a lexicographer, updating dictionary entries, which suits her solitary nature. A phone call from the hospital interrupts Gretel’s isolation and throws up questions from long ago....
-
-
Predictable
- By Hannah Petroni on 22-01-2019
-
Snap
- By: Belinda Bauer
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a stifling summer's day, 11-year-old Jack and his two sisters sit in their broken-down car, waiting for their mother to come back and rescue them. 'Jack's in charge,' she said. 'I won't be long.' But she never comes back. Three years later, mum-to-be Catherine wakes to find a knife beside her bed, and a note that says: 'I could have killed you'. Meanwhile Jack is still in charge - of his sisters, of supporting them all, of making sure nobody knows they're alone in the house, and - quite suddenly - of finding out the truth about what happened to his mother. But the truth can be a dangerous thing....
-
-
Loved it
- By Emma Thomas on 23-06-2019
-
Washington Black
- By: Esi Edugyan
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When two English brothers take the helm of a Barbados sugar plantation, Washington Black - an 11-year-old field slave - finds himself selected as personal servant to one of these men. The eccentric Christopher 'Titch' Wilde is a naturalist, explorer, scientist, inventor and abolitionist whose single-minded pursuit of the perfect aerial machine mystifies all around him. Titch's idealistic plans are soon shattered, and Washington finds himself in mortal danger.
-
-
great read
- By Amazon Customer on 02-01-2019
-
Silver
- By: Chris Hammer
- Narrated by: Dorje Swallow
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For half a lifetime, journalist Martin Scarsden has run from his past. But now there is no escaping. He'd vowed never to return to his hometown, Port Silver, and its traumatic memories. But now his new partner, Mandy Blonde, has inherited an old house in the seaside town and Martin knows their chance of a new life together won't come again. Martin arrives to find his best friend from school days brutally murdered, and Mandy the chief suspect. With the police curiously reluctant to pursue other suspects, Martin goes searching for the killer. And finds the past waiting for him.
-
-
great Australian read
- By paul on 30-10-2019
-
Normal People
- By: Sally Rooney
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in rural Ireland. The similarities end there; they are from very different worlds. When they both earn places at Trinity College in Dublin, a connection that has grown between them lasts long into the following years. This is an exquisite love story about how a person can change another person's life - a simple yet profound realisation that unfolds beautifully over the course of the novel. It tells us how difficult it is to talk about how we feel and it tells us - blazingly - about cycles of domination, legitimacy and privilege.
-
-
Two complex people - will they, won’t they?
- By Anonymous User on 26-02-2019
-
From a Low and Quiet Sea
- By: Donal Ryan
- Narrated by: Stephen Hogan, Gerry O'Brien, Ramon Tikaram
- Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Random House presents the audiobook edition of From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan, read by Stephen Hogan, Gerry O'Brien and Ramon Tikaram. Farouk’s country has been torn apart by war. Lampy’s heart has been laid waste by Chloe. John’s past torments him as he nears his end. The refugee. The dreamer. The penitent. From war-torn Syria to small-town Ireland, three men, scarred by all they have loved and lost, are searching for some version of home. Each is drawn towards a powerful reckoning, one that will bring them together in the most unexpected of ways.
-
Angel Mage
- By: Garth Nix
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The icon-maker and angel-summoner Liliath, long believed dead, has woken from her century-long sleep to pick up the threads of a plan that has already destroyed one kingdom and may yet destroy another. To succeed, Liliath must bring together Agnez the musketeer; Simeon the doctor; Dorotea the mage; and Henri, one of the Cardinal's clerks, and take them into utmost danger....
-
The Overstory
- By: Richard Powers
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Overstory by Richard Powers, read by Suzanne Toren. The Overstory unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late 20th-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
-
-
A mind changing book!
- By Anonymous User on 17-12-2018
-
Where the Crawdads Sing
- By: Delia Owens
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, rumors of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life - until the unthinkable happens.
-
-
Where the crawdads sing
- By Anonymous User on 08-09-2019
-
Milkman
- By: Anna Burns
- Narrated by: Bríd Brennan
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes 'interesting'. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and to be noticed is dangerous. Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is the story of inaction with enormous consequences.
-
-
magic
- By Dr. Sue Tait on 12-09-2018
-
Frankissstein
- A Love Story
- By: Jeanette Winterson
- Narrated by: John Sackville, Perdita Weeks, Harrison Knights
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Brexit Britain, a young transgender doctor called Ry is falling in love - against their better judgement - with Victor Stein, a celebrated professor leading the public debate around AI. Meanwhile, Ron Lord, just divorced and living with Mum again, is set to make his fortune launching a new generation of sex dolls for lonely men everywhere. Across the Atlantic, in Phoenix, Arizona, a cryogenics facility houses dozens of bodies of men and women who are medically and legally dead...but waiting to return to life.
-
-
Awful narration
- By Anonymous User on 25-08-2019
-
The Man Who Saw Everything
- By: Deborah Levy
- Narrated by: George Blagden
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1989, Saul is hit by a car on the Abbey Rd crossing. He is fine; he gets up and goes to see his girlfriend, Jennifer. They have sex and then break up. He leaves for the GDR, where he will have more sex, bury his dead father in a matchbox, and get on the wrong side of the Stasi. In 2016, Saul is hit by a car on the Abbey Rd crossing. He is not fine at all; he is rushed to hospital and spends the following days in and out of consciousness. Jennifer is sitting by his bedside. His very-much-not-dead father is sitting by his bedside. Someone important is missing.
-
-
incredible, touching, intense and magical...
- By finnea on 13-09-2019
-
The White Girl
- By: Tony Birch
- Narrated by: Shareena Clanton
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A searing new novel from leading Indigenous storyteller Tony Birch that explores the lengths we will go to in order to save the people we love. Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. After her daughter disappeared and left her with her granddaughter Sissy to raise on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families.
-
-
A must read for all Australians
- By Anonymous User on 22-11-2019
-
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
- By: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong? Our narrator has many of the advantages of life: young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, she lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like everything else, by her inheritance. But there is a vacuum at the heart of things, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents in college, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her alleged best friend.
-
-
I slept through this book
- By Geneva on 23-05-2019
-
When All Is Said
- By: Anne Griffin
- Narrated by: Niall Buggy
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you had to pick five people to sum up your life, who would they be? If you were to raise a glass to each of them, what would you say? And what would you learn about yourself, when all is said and done? This is the story of Maurice Hannigan, an Irish farmer. Over the course of a Saturday night in June, he orders five drinks at the Rainsford House Hotel, and with each he toasts a key person from his life: his adored older brother; his troubled sister-in-law; his daughter of 15 minutes; his son far off in America; and his late, much missed wife.
-
-
Fantastic touching story
- By Marianne Urth on 21-09-2019
-
Unfollow
- By: Megan Phelps-Roper
- Narrated by: Megan Phelps-Roper
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Megan Phelps-Roper was raised in the Westboro Baptist Church - the fire-and-brimstone religious sect at once aggressively homophobic and anti-Semitic, rejoiceful for AIDS and natural disasters, and notorious for its picketing the funerals of American soldiers. From her first public protest, aged five, to her instrumental role in spreading the church's invective via social media, her formative years brought their difficulties. But being reviled was not one of them.
-
-
Not just a profound story of hope.
- By David on 11-10-2019
-
Daisy Jones and the Six
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Sara Arrington, Jennifer Beals, Arthur Bishop, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the whole story, right from the beginning: the sun-bleached streets, the grimy bars on the Sunset Strip, knowing Daisy’s moment was coming. Relive the euphoria of success and experience the terror that nothing will ever be as good again. Take the uppers so you can keep on believing, take the downers so you can sleep, eventually. Wonder who you are without the drugs or the music or the fans or the family that prop you up. Make decisions that will forever feel tough. Find beauty where you least expect it.
-
-
Incredible Performance!
- By Anonymous User on 12-04-2019
-
In Our Mad and Furious City
- By: Guy Gunaratne
- Narrated by: Ben Bailey Smith, Lou Marie Kerr
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Guy Gunaratne's blistering debut, In Our Mad and Furious City, is an unforgettable portrait of 48 hours on a London council estate. For Selvon, Ardan and Yusuf, growing up under the towers of Stones Estate, summer means what it does anywhere: football, music, freedom. But now, after the killing of a British soldier, riots are spreading across the city, and nowhere is safe. While the fury swirls around them, Selvon and Ardan remain focused on their own obsessions, girls and grime.
-
-
Hold your breath...
- By andrew on 13-09-2018
Publisher's Summary
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh, read by Hannah Murray, Gemma Whelan and Morfydd Clark.
Once upon a time, damaged women came here to be cured. We took them in, fed them glasses of our clean, good water, let them scream at the waves till their lips split like ripe fruit. Now no one is left but my sisters and me. King died a year ago, quite suddenly. Mother has vanished, no one knows where. And the safe compound they built around us, far away from the toxic world, has finally been breached.
Three men arrived last week, washed up by the sea, their gazes hungry and insistent. We remember now what our father taught us. 'If the men come to you, show yourself some mercy. Don't stick around and wait for them to put you out of your misery.'
Critic Reviews
"Immensely assured, calmly devastating. This is a gem of a novel and I was bowled over by it." (Katherine Angel, author of Unmastered)
"I loved this book. It rushes you through to the end on a tide of tension and closely held panic. Eerie, electric, beautiful." (Daisy Johnson, author of Fen)
"Creepy and delightful - it has a pinch of Shirley Jackson, a dash of chlorine, and an essence all of its own." (Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Harmless Like You)
More from the same
What members say
Average Customer Ratings
Overall
-
-
5 Stars10
-
4 Stars7
-
3 Stars5
-
2 Stars2
-
1 Stars0
Performance
-
-
5 Stars12
-
4 Stars6
-
3 Stars5
-
2 Stars0
-
1 Stars0
Story
-
-
5 Stars9
-
4 Stars8
-
3 Stars5
-
2 Stars1
-
1 Stars0
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 02-08-2019
A beautiful dream
This book transported me to the strangest world, where I recognised all the parts, but not the way it was put together. The perfect solo road trip book.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- christiana O
- 06-05-2019
Great read
Really loved the characters and the metaphors of female vulnerability and strength. Would highly recommend a read
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Amazon Customer
- 31-05-2018
Extraordinary story
I can still hear the sea roaring in the background having finished the audio. Seldom have I felt swept away by the ethereal nature of a story (the last time was the Annihilation trilogy) and similarly I am still not sure what happened. was this story about the after effects of abuse, the fear of desire or about the power of patriarchy? Are the sisters three aspects of one girl or does the relationship between the girls transcend nature. I love this book and will buy it on kindle so I can ponder better and make notes. the author is a genius and one to follow throughout her career.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Mrs A S Collins
- 05-07-2018
intriguing
Beautifully narrated. Great story which really makes you think about the fragility of both sexes. I was completely hooked.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- M.E. Rolle
- 04-11-2018
A uniquely female dystopia
The Water Cure is one of the best books of 2018. The story is unlike anything I've ever read before, and it's told in a literary voice that's somehow modern and old fashioned at the same time. Evocative and powerful, this book joins a small but growing collection of dystopian novels that create a uniquely female view of the future. I can't recommend it highly enough.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- RT
- 21-10-2018
Fantastic
Absolutely loved it. Absorbing, original story perfectly narrated with an unexpected ending. I thoroughly recommend it.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- miss z tribello
- 10-10-2018
Menacing
A super debut. Haunting dystopian tale of 3 sisters living with parents on an island. They are made to do unconscionable things and live as if in a cult-style nightmare. No doubt, comparisons will be made to Atwood.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Isobel Ayres
- 24-08-2018
Bleak, depressing, with nothing original to say.
Please bear in mind that I write this as a staunch feminist, who has come across some pretty awful men in her time (and some wonderful ones, and lots and lots of in-between normal ones, y'know, because men are people and we're not one dimensional). This book is so anti-men. The book at some point says that all men want to kill women, even the ones who think they don't. I get that it's from the perspective of three isolated, abused girls, but still - it seems to be the authorial voice saying this, that this novel exposes the truth of relationships. The women are horrible, too - the author embraces some pretty boring cliches about women, as well. It's just an awful book with nothing to say. Men are horrible, women need to murder them and be sisters in solidarity, and escape, except we can't because men are bad and will hunt us all down. OK. Ugh.
It's a shame, though, as the author has a very intriguing style and I enjoyed that. I just hated what she had to say.
As for the narrators, the woman who narrated Lia's passages was great. The woman who narrated Grace's section was fine - not outstanding, but not objectionable. The woman who read the passages through all three women's perspective was really very bad - completely monotone and expressionless. It seems to be a thing with Audible recently - narrators so robotic that it's actually difficult to ascertain the meaning of what they're saying because it's so divorced from normal human speech patterns and intonation. Is Audible experimenting with machine narration? I find it hard to believe an actual human being can get a job reading this badly. I could honestly do a far better job myself.
5 of 7 people found this review helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 05-06-2019
A bit dull
It just never really got off the ground. I really liked the concept but the story never really went anywhere or gave any answers. Bit of a frustrating read really.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Charlotte
- 02-01-2019
Disturbing
Uncomfortable and challenging, ‘the water cure’ gives new meaning to the word ‘love’. A book that demands careful thought and, when possible, discussion.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- reka s
- 31-12-2018
Just couldn't get into it
Read off the feminist dystopian fiction article in the guardian and didn't enjoy the writing or the story at all.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- KJ Cannon
- 14-09-2018
Disturbing & Bleak
Disturbing and bleak, not a pleasant read. I can't say I really enjoyed this book, but it was an interesting model/illumination of patriarchy, well written with beautiful imagery - the sea was like a character in itself, the ultimate female landscape, and the natural world is stunningly and richly illustrated in all its fecundity, and outside the garden, the dangers of the forest, full of masculine imagery, are well portrayed.
The characterisation was well drawn, physical and strangely sensual/visceral.
It is a carefully constructed world that the reader is immersed in, but it's not one you would want to linger in.
It is an unsettling read that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Whether the world really is toxic the reader will never know, maybe it's just a masculine metaphor. To be honest, I'm not sure it portrays women in a better light than men, though the illustrations and arguments are appealing on some level. I can get what the author is saying, but I'm not sure I'm that interested. It's not a subtle book, more like cracking a nut with a sledgehammer
Were the girls one girl? I'm not sure I cared enough to notice. The presentation, and use of different narrators was a little muddly. I'm not quite sure why there was a (brief) male narrator.
if you are interested in patriarchy and gender, there are far better books on the market than this one.
The end went on too long and lost poignancy - we didn't need the last scene trudging through the forest. The story finished at the scene before.
I wouldn't really recommend this book, unless you enjoyed post apocalyptic type reading with more style than substance.