Showing results by publisher "Penguin Audio" in Small Town & Rural

Greg is drawn to Kristen’s vibrant, independent spirit and hopes romance will flower. But she’s had enough trouble with her heart to last a lifetime, and can’t trust Greg not to break it—especially if he finds out she can never give him the houseful of children he longs for....

Keely feels alone in the world – grief consumes her, she wants to escape it, to take both her father's and her own pain away. She knows that solace lies in the act of loving and being loved but, struggling in ever-deepening waters, she doesn't know how to find it. Finn has been devastated too. As a young boy, growing up with his grandparents, he feels neglected by those meant to care for him most. With no real friends to turn to, he cannot find the vocabulary to deal with the loneliness and heartache that haunt him.

Kitty Cox is adjusting to a new life alone. She’s spent several years caring for her ailing husband but now she’s having to adjust to a life without him.When Kitty’s old friend Vee reappears in the village in desperate need of a place to stay, Kitty quickly sees an obvious solution to both their dilemmas. She invites Vee, her new partner Raf and young son Bear to move in with her for the summer.

Abigail is a proud member of the New America Baptist Church. Living miles away from the nearest town in South Carolina, she is safe from the depraved modern world. She is a good daughter. A valued member of the community. So when she is the sole survivor of a fire that burns her family's home to the ground, it seems like a tragic accident. Until a surprising discovery is made: before the fire, Abigail let a stranger in. Who was the stranger? What started the fire? And was the outside world always the threat - or did danger lurk within the community's walls?

Ireland, 1948. The potato famine has left the Cavanagh family destitute. Kitty and Peter manage to secure tickets for America - seeking hope in an unknown land. But still fortune will not favour them. On a terrifying crossing of the Irish Sea, Peter vanishes, and with him their tickets. Now, Kitty and her young family are stranded in Liverpool - with not a penny to their name. Facing prejudice and distrust, they move to Blackburn, where the welcome is no warmer, but Kitty at least can gather rags and scraps to exchange for a coin or two.

With her eagerly awaited second novel, Tawni O'Dell takes readers back to the coal-mining country of western Pennsylvania. Set in a town ravaged and haunted by a mine explosion that took the lives of 96 men, Coal Run explores the life of local deputy and erstwhile football legend, "The Great Ivan Z.", as he prepares for a former teammate's imminent release from prison.

Penguin presents the audio edition of A Slipping Down Life by Anne Tyler. In a small Southern town teenager Evie Decker becomes obsessed with local rock singer Bertram 'Drumstrings' Casey and decides to take her life into her own hands. When she carves his name on her forehead their two lives become unforgettably entwined in this remarkable novel.

Nicole and Tom's lives are changed overnight by a ten-million-pound lottery win. Before they know it they've moved into a state-of-the-art Glass Barn conversion in the stunning grounds of Lancaut Manor in Gloucestershire. But their dream quickly turns into a nightmare when Tom is found dead in the swimming pool, with a nasty wound on the back of his head. Someone close to home must be responsible. But other than the young couple who live in the Manor, and their housekeeper in the Coach House next door, there's no one around for miles.

It is Autumn 2004 and in a farmhouse on the hills outside Llandudno, a family endures the agonising wait for their son to return from Iraq. John, the father, falls once more into his gambling habit, even as the farm sits on the brink of bankruptcy. And Catrin, the boys’ doting mother begins an affair with an old flame from the city, glimpsing a life entirely different from her own. As each member of the family grasps at their own tenuous lifeline, they drift further from each other – until one fateful knock at the door.

Perdido, Alabama, has scarcely recovered from the floods that devastated the community. Now a scheme to build a levee is dogged by a series of mysterious events: unpredictable currents in the river, worrying disappearances. Meanwhile in the Caskey family, Marie-Love, the matriarch, continues her machinations against Elinor, her strange daughter in law. Plots, unholy alliances, sacrifices - in the struggle between them, nothing is off limits. In Perdido, the changes will be profound; the consequences irreversible.

The tale of Billy Lee Turner, a 10-year-old boy convicted of the murder of a white girl in Mississippi in 1937, illuminates the monstrous face of racism in America with harrowing clarity and power. Narrated in the rich accents of the American South, Billy's story is told amid the picking fields and town streets, the heat, dust and poverty of the region in the time of the Depression.

A new era has begun for the Caskey family. Elinor’s relentless determination and the years of struggle are finally beginning to bear fruit: old hostilities have faded and the town is ripe for change. The conflict in Europe has brought new blood to Perdido, men arriving from far afield wanting to ingratiate themselves with the powerful family. But tangling with the Caskeys comes at a cost, and soon they must ask themselves how close is too close…

Perdido, 1928. Torn apart by the continuing tensions between Mary-Love and her daughter-in-law Elinor, the Caskey family must also confront other crises. As the economy plummets and relationships sour, something sinister is prowling the darkest recesses of the Caskey household. Patient, implacable, waiting to catch its next victim in its deadly web…

Twenty-year-old Jago Trevarno is living a simple life in Cornwall with his uncle following a life-changing brain injury. Slowly adjusting to the reality of his new life, he gets caught up in the murky world of local villain, Bill Sligo, who appears to have designs on Jago's uncle's farm and in particular a field. Jago determines to find out why Bill Sligo wants the field – and in so doing puts his own life in grave danger.

When Lucy's estranged mother dies unexpectedly, her grief is overwhelming. So when her widowed father Edward begs her and Danny's forgiveness for his part in their argument, she's overjoyed. Newly pregnant, she's determined to give her baby the family she longed for. Danny, however, isn't convinced: Edward's mended ways feel too good to be true. But Lucy's pregnancy is difficult, and she can't hear his worries. Until the worst happens, and their fragile family is tested to its very limit… Will love be enough to get them through?

Newlyweds Dan and Bea decide to escape London. Driving through France in their beaten-up car they anticipate a long lazy summer, worlds away from their ordinary lives. But their idyll cannot last. Stopping off to see Bea’s brother at his crumbling hotel, the trio are joined unexpectedly by Bea’s ultra-wealthy parents. Dan has never understood Bea’s deep discomfort around them but living together in such close proximity he begins to sense something is very wrong.

This will be a Christmas to remember for the railway girls. Little Max is growing day by day and Joan is adjusting to her new life. But in her heart of hearts, she is desperate to return to work on the railways. Margaret's job in the engine shed is demanding. But when a friend finds herself in crisis, she knows she must do everything she can to help her. Alison is overjoyed at the prospect of organising a Christmas wedding until a long-held secret is revealed. Knowing the truth, can she find the strength to forgive those she holds most dear?

Arthur and Jake are brothers yet worlds apart. Arthur is older, shy, dutiful and set to inherit his father's farm. Jake is younger, handsome and reckless, a dangerous man to know. When Laura arrives in their rural community, the fragile balance of the brothers' rivalry is pushed to the edge of catastrophe.

August 1957. Lewis Aldridge, straight out of jail, stands alone at a Surrey railway station. He's returned to the village where he grew up: the village where, a decade earlier, tragedy tore his family apart, leaving him to a troubled adolescence without a mother and with a father he barely knew. Now, the only person who understands him is Kit, daughter of a bullying local businessman. Soon they realise that to forge their own futures, they must first confront the darkest secrets of their past.

Bonny Blankenship's most treasured memories are of idyllic summers spent in Watersend, South Carolina, with her best friend, Lainey McKay. Now in her early 50s, Bonny is desperate to clear her head after a tragic mistake threatens her career as an emergency room doctor, and her marriage crumbles around her. With her troubled teenage daughter, Piper, in tow, she goes back to the beloved river house, where she is soon joined by Lainey and her two young children.