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Broken for You

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Broken for You

By: Stephanie Kallos
Narrated by: Anna Fields
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About this listen

 When we meet septuagenarian Margaret Hughes, she is living alone in a mansion in Seattle with only a massive collection of valuable antiques for company. Enter Wanda Schultz, a young woman with a broken heart who has come to Seattle to search for her wayward boyfriend. Both women are guarding dark secrets and have spent many years building up protective armor against the outside world. But as the two begin their tentative dance of friendship, the armor begins to fall away, and Margaret opens her house to the younger woman.

This launches a series of remarkable and unanticipated events, leading Margaret to discover a way to redeem her cursed past and Wanda to learn the true purpose of her cross-country journey.

Exuberant, heartbreaking, and alive with a potpourri of eccentric and irresistible characters, Broken for You is a testament to the saving graces of surrogate families and shows how far the tiniest repair jobs can go in righting the world's wrongs.

©2004 Stephanie Kallos (P)2004 Blackstone Audiobooks Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Emotionally Gripping Heartfelt

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Critic reviews

"Well-crafted plotting and crackling wit make this debut novel by Seattle author Kallos a delight to read and a memory to savor." ( Booklist)
"[A] dreamy, powerful tale of familial warring, secrets, and redemption....This haunting, memorable debut is reminiscent of early Atwood, peopled by lovably imperfect and eccentric characters." ( Publishers Weekly)
"A dazzling mosaic of intersecting lives and fates...[A] multi-layered rhapsody....Kallos has a rare, deft way with whimsy, dream sequences and hallucinations. Comparisons to John Irving and Tennesse Williams would not be amiss in this show-stopping debut." ( Kirkus Reviews)
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I loved this story with its unusual theme. I was completely caught up with all the characters. The main story was absolutely fascinating, and so unusual. I really liked the way the facts and reasons slowly unfurled, and the sub- plots that all interwove with each other. Great narration too.

Wonderful story

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I nearly gave up with this book as I couldn’t see where it was going. I’m so glad I kept going. The author drew some really unusually but great characters and the story developed into a great ending.

Unusual and cleverly draw characters linking together eventually

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a really interesting listen about a slice of history and being human. loved the style of writing, the imperfections of the characters and the balance of everything coming back around.

The ending

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Initially I found this a slow start but then I got more and more into the story. Really well written and Interesting subject matter (appropriation of property during the Holocaust and searching for lost lovers).

Excellent interesting listen

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This book has character, quirky, thoughtful with enough famiiarity to give comfort. the ending is well earned.

Enchanting

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Loved the story which grappled with huge issues of love, abandonment, cruelty, restitution and more with understanding and humour.

The mesmerising quality of the prose and the believable but fairytale feeling of the plot.

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This seems to be about 3 novels in one. Feels like the author got excited by lots of themes and decided to put them all together. A slightly overwhelming cast of characters. A shame because the writing is sharply observational & occasionally luminous, bar a few icky sentimental bits. Hats off to the narrator who tries her best to differentiate all the characters with voices and accents, no mean feat!

Brave tackling of tricky subject matter but too much going on for me

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2.5 ⭐ rounded up to 3.

I like different. I like quirky. I don't like ridiculous. The behaviours of the characters didn't seem to fit with who they were supposed to be.
I liked parts of the story hidden inside the convoluted mess but there was just too much going on - too many characters I didn't care about, too many storylines, too many coincidences.

The narration might have been okay if it weren't for the accents! The only time I laughed in the whole book was where a character (apparently half Irish herself) instantly correctly guesses that another character is from Dublin - presumably based on his accent. The accent we hear though is that of a leprechaun!
The narrator also gets confused a few times with who she's supposed to be.

Broken for You

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