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The Tuscan Child cover art

The Tuscan Child

Written by: Rhys Bowen
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble, Katy Sobey
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Publisher's Summary

From New York Times best-selling author Rhys Bowen comes a haunting novel about a woman who braves her father's hidden past to discover his secrets....

In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal.

Nearly 30 years later, Hugo's estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father's funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.

Still dealing with the emotional wounds of her own personal trauma, Joanna embarks on a healing journey to Tuscany to understand her father's history - and maybe come to understand herself as well. Joanna soon discovers that some would prefer the past be left undisturbed, but she has come too far to let go of her father's secrets now....

Cover design by Shasti O'Leary Soudant

©2018 Janet Quin-Harkin (Writing as Rhys Bowen) (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Tuscan Child

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
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You'll Want to go to Italy

This was a beautiful story about a young girl finding herself by way of finding her father. Joanna embarks on a journey from England to Italy to find out about her recently deceased father's past as an airman whose plane was downed in Tuscany. The narration alternates between Joanna's father, Hugo, and his experiences in 1944, and Joanna and her experiences in the 1970s. There's excellent mystery and intrigue, several riddles that need to be solved, and perfect love stories too. Kind of a book for everyone. And Bowen describes Italy - and especially the food - in such glorious detail you can almost feel the Tuscan sun on you. Very enjoyable book. #Audible1

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8 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable book

This book was a very enjoyable lissen There is good character development, suspense and some romance. The narration was excellent!

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6 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Enjoyable

This was a lovely book, but I wouldn't say it was excellent. I thought the performances was fantastic (especially from Keeble), but the story left me wishing it was better. I am willing to try another story by this author, but I probably won't re-listen to this book again. I think another reviewer put it perfectly for me: This story is like weak wine. It tastes right, just not that memorable or satisfying. It was hard to put my finger on what I didn't like about it. It was a nice listen, but I totally forgot about the story when it was finished. I'm just happy I bought this as the Book Of The Day and not paid full price for it.

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5 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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A weak book from a usually engaging author

Format annoying as chapters alternate between German occupied Italy near end of WW2 and early 1970s same village. Many moral and narrative questions raised but left hanging in the wartime part, a few in the later story. Male narrator good. Female narrator not so good. Later story resolves everything too fast and too easily, almost like a Hallmark made-for-TV movie.

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Good premise but an underwhelming read

I listened to the audio format of this book that has been on my radar for a while. The story is set in dual time periods with two narrators - Hugo during WWII and his daughter Joanna in 1970's in the stunning hills of Tuscany.

Bowen describes the beautiful Tuscan location and adds scrumptious descriptions of the region's food. But the historical mystery fell flat for me. It lacked tension (we're in the middle of a war for one timeline!) and the story became more of a predictable romance with characters who were one-dimensional, and the story suffered from an anticlimactic ending. It had a good premise, but the story may have been better as a short story.

Overall, this book had a simplistic feel and didn't come close to my expectations. It wasn't bad per se, but it wasn't compelling either.

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2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Narration

I loved the narration of Hugo and Joanna. Would listen to Jonathan Keebler read anything! The voices of many of the other characters, however, left a lot to be desired. They sounded so affected. The voice of young Gianni hurt my ears and the cat actually ran out of the room

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Italian story with suspense.

If you love Italy, handsome men, great food, a good story with twists and history this will not let you down. well performed too!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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Pleasant story

Just a good story to take me away from the regular routine. Yes, the accents were odd as others have noted, but not too off-putting. There were a couple of spots where the audio was garbled. Certainly that could be cleaned up, but did not affect the overall enjoyment. Just enough intrigue to keep the story going.

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Wonderful

I was so pleasantly drawn into these 2 worlds it was wonderful to lose myself in this book and the narrators were just perfect.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

So slow

I bought this book because it was $4.95. So glad I didn't waste a credit on it. This book takes so long to get to the point. Something interesting happens, and then we get to see what they are going to eat for dinner and how they cook it. I would have finished the book much sooner if it didn't keep stopping and talking about the 'veal chops in a rich wine sauce' while discussing a serious issue.

I enjoy cooking and experimenting with recipes, but this book gets way off track when it goes on an on about food.

The narrators are decent. Maybe that is why I keep listening to this long winded book.

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1 person found this helpful