Listen free for 30 days
-
Things Past Telling
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $32.62
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's Summary
“This is a truly character-driven novel that explores how people define themselves, the creation of family and home, and the importance of memory and language. . . . Fans of historical epics won’t be able to put this book down.”—Historical Novel Society
“Emotionally satisfying. . . . A remarkable character portrait.”—Publishers Weekly
The author of The Secret Women tells the story of a brave and enduring woman as indomitable as Ernest Gaines’ legendary Miss Jane Pittman, in a breathtaking novel that combines the epic romance and adventure of Outlander, the sweeping drama of Roots, and the haunting historical power of Barracoon.
Things Past Telling is a remarkable historical epic that charts one unforgettable woman’s journey across an ocean of years as vast as the Atlantic that will forever separate her from her homeland.
Born in West Africa in the mid-eighteenth century, Maryam Prescilla Grace—a.k.a “Momma Grace” will live a long, wondrous life marked by hardship, oppression, opportunity, and love. Though she will be “gifted” various names, her birth name is known to her alone. Over the course of 100-plus years, she survives capture, enslavement by several property owners, the Atlantic crossing when she is only eleven years of age, and a brief stint as a pirate’s ward, acting as both a spy and a translator.
Maryam learns midwifery from a Caribbean-born wise woman, whose “craft” combines curated techniques and medicines from African, Indigenous, and European women. Those midwifery skills allow her to sometimes transcend the racial and class barriers of her enslavement, as she walks the razor’s edge trying to balance the lives and health of her own people with the cruel economic mandates of the slave holders, who view infants born in bondage not as flesh-and-blood children but as investment property.
Throughout her triumphant and tumultuous life Maryam gains and loses her homeland, her family, her culture, her husband, her lovers, and her children. Yet as the decades pass, this tenacious woman never loses her sense of self.
Inspired by a 112-year-old woman the author discovered in an 1870 U.S. Federal census report for Ohio, loosely based on the author’s real-life female ancestors, spanning more than a hundred years, from the mid-eighteen-century to the end of America’s Civil War, and spanning across the globe, from what is now southern Nigeria to the islands of the Caribbean to North America and the land bordering the Ohio River, Things Past Telling is a breathtaking story of a past that lives on in all of us, and a life that encompasses the best—and worst—of our humanity.
You may also enjoy...
-
Take the Long Way Home
- Written by: Rochelle Alers
- Narrated by: Jasmin Walker
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Freedom fighter, brilliant businessperson, devoted wife, master of languages, and ultimately, savior of a European dynasty. Claudia Patterson would become all of these—spurred on by the fiercely powerful loves and losses along the way … Denny Clark. An abused thirteen-year-old White boy whose life twelve-year-old Claudia saves—complicating her own life for years to come.
Written by: Rochelle Alers
-
A Woman of Endurance
- A Novel
- Written by: Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa
- Narrated by: Tracey Leigh
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Woman of Endurance, set in nineteenth-century Puerto Rican plantation society, follows Pola, a deeply spiritual African woman who is captured and later sold for the purpose of breeding future slaves. The resulting babies are taken from her as soon as they are born. Pola loses the faith that has guided her and becomes embittered and defensive. The dehumanizing violence of her life almost destroys her. But this is not a novel of defeat but rather one of survival, regeneration, and reclamation of common humanity.
-
-
RIVETING
- By Nano on 2023-03-16
Written by: Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa
-
The Invincible Miss Cust
- A Novel
- Written by: Penny Haw
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aleen Cust has big dreams. And no one―not her family, society, or the law―will stop her. Born in Ireland in 1868 to an aristocratic English family, Aleen knows she is destined to work with animals, even if her family is appalled by the idea of a woman pursuing a veterinary career. Going against their wishes but with the encouragement of the guardian assigned to her upon her father’s death, Aleen attends the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh, enrolling as A. I. Custance to spare her family the humiliation they fear.
-
-
Female pioneer in the veterinary field
- By Chicshiraz55 on 2023-01-12
Written by: Penny Haw
-
Light to the Hills
- A Novel
- Written by: Bonnie Blaylock
- Narrated by: Shannon McManus
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The folks in the Kentucky Appalachians are scraping by. Coal mining and hardscrabble know-how are a way of life for these isolated people. But when Amanda Rye, a young widowed mother and traveling packhorse librarian, comes through a mountain community hit hard by the nation’s economic collapse, she brings with her hope, courage, and apple pie.
-
-
Fantastic story!!
- By Budb on 2023-05-18
Written by: Bonnie Blaylock
-
Tulip Fever
- Written by: Deborah Moggach
- Narrated by: Rula Lenska
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seventeenth-century Amsterdam is a city in the grip of tulip mania, basking in the wealth it has generated. Sophia’s husband Cornelis, an ageing merchant, is among those grown rich from this exotic new flower. To celebrate, he commissions a talented young artist to paint him with his young bride. But as the portrait grows, so does the passion between Sophia and the painter; and as ambitions, desires and dreams breed an intricate deception, their reckless gamble propels their lives towards a thrilling and tragic conclusion.
-
-
Beautiful story
- By Madelyn H. on 2022-12-30
Written by: Deborah Moggach
-
The Lost Letters of Aisling
- A Novel
- Written by: Cynthia Ellingsen
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon, Stephanie Cannon
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rainey’s grandmother makes a startling request: Take me home. To Ireland, the country she fled post-World War II. Though they’re inseparably close, Rainey knows few of her grandmother’s secrets. Until they arrive at Aisling—the majestic estate on the southern coast of Ireland where her grandmother was raised—and Rainey discovers a collection of seventy-year-old letters in a trunk.
Written by: Cynthia Ellingsen
-
Take the Long Way Home
- Written by: Rochelle Alers
- Narrated by: Jasmin Walker
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Freedom fighter, brilliant businessperson, devoted wife, master of languages, and ultimately, savior of a European dynasty. Claudia Patterson would become all of these—spurred on by the fiercely powerful loves and losses along the way … Denny Clark. An abused thirteen-year-old White boy whose life twelve-year-old Claudia saves—complicating her own life for years to come.
Written by: Rochelle Alers
-
A Woman of Endurance
- A Novel
- Written by: Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa
- Narrated by: Tracey Leigh
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Woman of Endurance, set in nineteenth-century Puerto Rican plantation society, follows Pola, a deeply spiritual African woman who is captured and later sold for the purpose of breeding future slaves. The resulting babies are taken from her as soon as they are born. Pola loses the faith that has guided her and becomes embittered and defensive. The dehumanizing violence of her life almost destroys her. But this is not a novel of defeat but rather one of survival, regeneration, and reclamation of common humanity.
-
-
RIVETING
- By Nano on 2023-03-16
Written by: Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa
-
The Invincible Miss Cust
- A Novel
- Written by: Penny Haw
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aleen Cust has big dreams. And no one―not her family, society, or the law―will stop her. Born in Ireland in 1868 to an aristocratic English family, Aleen knows she is destined to work with animals, even if her family is appalled by the idea of a woman pursuing a veterinary career. Going against their wishes but with the encouragement of the guardian assigned to her upon her father’s death, Aleen attends the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh, enrolling as A. I. Custance to spare her family the humiliation they fear.
-
-
Female pioneer in the veterinary field
- By Chicshiraz55 on 2023-01-12
Written by: Penny Haw
-
Light to the Hills
- A Novel
- Written by: Bonnie Blaylock
- Narrated by: Shannon McManus
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The folks in the Kentucky Appalachians are scraping by. Coal mining and hardscrabble know-how are a way of life for these isolated people. But when Amanda Rye, a young widowed mother and traveling packhorse librarian, comes through a mountain community hit hard by the nation’s economic collapse, she brings with her hope, courage, and apple pie.
-
-
Fantastic story!!
- By Budb on 2023-05-18
Written by: Bonnie Blaylock
-
Tulip Fever
- Written by: Deborah Moggach
- Narrated by: Rula Lenska
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seventeenth-century Amsterdam is a city in the grip of tulip mania, basking in the wealth it has generated. Sophia’s husband Cornelis, an ageing merchant, is among those grown rich from this exotic new flower. To celebrate, he commissions a talented young artist to paint him with his young bride. But as the portrait grows, so does the passion between Sophia and the painter; and as ambitions, desires and dreams breed an intricate deception, their reckless gamble propels their lives towards a thrilling and tragic conclusion.
-
-
Beautiful story
- By Madelyn H. on 2022-12-30
Written by: Deborah Moggach
-
The Lost Letters of Aisling
- A Novel
- Written by: Cynthia Ellingsen
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon, Stephanie Cannon
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rainey’s grandmother makes a startling request: Take me home. To Ireland, the country she fled post-World War II. Though they’re inseparably close, Rainey knows few of her grandmother’s secrets. Until they arrive at Aisling—the majestic estate on the southern coast of Ireland where her grandmother was raised—and Rainey discovers a collection of seventy-year-old letters in a trunk.
Written by: Cynthia Ellingsen
-
The Memory of Lavender and Sage
- Written by: Aimie K. Runyan
- Narrated by: Caroline Hewitt
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Food critic Tempèsta Luddington has always felt like the odd person out in her family, ever since she lost her beloved mother at the tender age of thirteen. When her workaholic father passes fifteen years later, Tempèsta is not surprised that the majority of the considerable family money will pass to her dutiful younger brother, Wal. Still, she is left a modest remembrance from her mother, and for the first time Tempèsta has a world of choices before her.
-
-
Lovely, warm, comforting, hopeful
- By Georgina on 2024-08-20
Written by: Aimie K. Runyan
-
Lost and Found in Paris
- A Novel
- Written by: Lian Dolan
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joan Blakely had an unconventional childhood: the daughter of a globe-trotting supermodel and a world-famous artist. Her artist father died on 9/11, and Joan—an art historian by training—has spent more than a decade maintaining his legacy. Life in the art world is beginning to wear on her—and then one fateful afternoon her husband drops a bombshell: he’s fathered twins with another woman.
-
-
Okay book
- By L. Antoine on 2023-08-16
Written by: Lian Dolan
-
The Last Rose of Shanghai
- A Novel
- Written by: Weina Dai Randel
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg, Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1940. Aiyi Shao is a young heiress and the owner of a formerly popular and glamorous Shanghai nightclub. Ernest Reismann is a penniless Jewish refugee driven out of Germany, an outsider searching for shelter in a city wary of strangers. He loses nearly all hope until he crosses paths with Aiyi. When she hires Ernest to play piano at her club, her defiance of custom causes a sensation. His instant fame makes Aiyi’s club once again the hottest spot in Shanghai. Soon they realize they share more than a passion for jazz - but their differences seem insurmountable....
-
-
Very gripping story from the start to finish!
- By Dr. Chris Nutting on 2022-05-06
Written by: Weina Dai Randel
-
The Five
- The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
- Written by: Hallie Rubenhold
- Narrated by: Louise Brealey
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women. For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that "the Ripper" preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, but it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told.
-
-
A Must Read
- By Amazon Customer on 2021-08-25
Written by: Hallie Rubenhold
-
Never Ask Me
- Written by: Jeff Abbott
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett, Will Collyer, Peter Giles, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Each of us has a question we dread. When the simple community of Lakehaven is shaken by a violent crime, doubts begin to arise among the locals about whom they can trust.
Written by: Jeff Abbott
-
Mary Not Broken
- Written by: Deborah L. King
- Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1930s Mississippi, Mary Johnson hates the oppressive heat, working on her family farm, and having to attend her minister father's church several times a week. But she loves Mason Carter, her musician boyfriend. Both fantasize about living the high life up north in the big city. When William Bevers, a wealthy old preacher, comes to court her, he promises a life of luxury along with money and status for her family. Mary wants nothing to do with him, but her parents decide for her. Determined to avoid a forced marriage, Mary elopes with Mason to the bright lights of Chicago.
-
-
Engrossing story, very well told and performed
- By Nibor on 2024-06-02
Written by: Deborah L. King
-
1st Case
- Written by: James Patterson, Chris Tebbetts
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Angela's graduate school days at MIT come to an abrupt end when she uses her hacking skills on another student's computer. Yet her mentor, Eve Abajian, arranges a new beginning for her - as an intern in FBI's Boston field office. Her new supervisor, Assistant Special Agent in Charge William Keats, one of only two agents in the Northeast to make his rank before the age of 30, sees in Angela a fellow prodigy. But Angela's skills come with a natural curiosity, which is also a dangerous liability.
-
-
about time
- By Anonymous User on 2020-12-11
Written by: James Patterson, and others
-
The End of My Heart
- Written by: Gayle Forman
- Narrated by: Piper Goodeve, Gabriel Vaughan, Elizabeth Evans, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s July 1946, and after a decade of Depression and war, life in America is returning to normal. But for Charlotte and Mary Oswald, one tumultuous summer will unearth all their secrets and upend their world, once again. Charlotte Oswald’s life is dictated by rules. Where she can go. Whom she can speak to. How she can spend her long, dull summer days. It’s a small, closeted existence, but necessary to protect Charlotte, who has suffered from debilitating fits since childhood.
-
-
Gripping
- By Bay on 2020-12-16
Written by: Gayle Forman
-
1st to Die
- The Women's Murder Club
- Written by: James Patterson
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's a killer on the loose in San Francisco, and he's stalking newlyweds. When the usual procedures to stop him don't work, four women, each holding a piece of the puzzle, form a Women's Murder Club to collaborate outside the box and pursue the case. 1st to Die is the start of a new series of crime thrillers from James Patterson.
-
-
terrible attempt at writing from woman's pov
- By amanda kwiatkowski on 2021-08-20
Written by: James Patterson
-
This Is Going to Hurt
- Secret Diaries of a Young Doctor
- Written by: Adam Kay
- Narrated by: Adam Kay
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to 97-hour weeks. Welcome to life and death decisions. Welcome to a constant tsunami of bodily fluids. Welcome to earning less than the hospital parking meter. Wave goodbye to your friends and relationships. Welcome to the life of a first-year doctor. Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights, and missed weekends, comedian and former medical resident Adam Kay’s This Is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the front lines of medicine.
-
-
Must read
- By Amazon Customer on 2022-11-08
Written by: Adam Kay
-
The Murder Rule
- A Novel
- Written by: Dervla McTiernan
- Narrated by: Kate Orsini, Sophie Amoss, Michael Crouch
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For fans of the compulsive psychological suspense of Ruth Ware and Tana French, a mother daughter story—one running from a horrible truth, and the other fighting to reveal it—that twists and turns in shocking ways, from the internationally bestselling author of The Scholar and The Ruin.
-
-
Very good book !
- By Patrick Berard on 2023-07-20
Written by: Dervla McTiernan
-
The Couple in the Cabin
- Written by: Daniel Hurst
- Narrated by: Eilidh Beaton, Matt Bates
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When happily married Grace comes home early one night and catches her husband, Dominic, with another woman in the cabin at the bottom of their garden, she is shocked, angry, and most of all, hell-bent on revenge. That’s why she acts quickly, locking the pair in the cabin while she decides what she wants to do to them.
-
-
First audible
- By Tim olson on 2022-11-15
Written by: Daniel Hurst
What listeners say about Things Past Telling
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- loralou
- 2023-08-07
Storytelling at its best
This is a story about a single woman living many lives. It’s well thought out and more of old woman in a rock ing chair telling rather than a story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tammy M
- 2023-08-28
Loved it
This book was beautifully narrated. It was an incredible journey I recommend 100%. I learned a lot and was touched by the resilience and love of family - in whatever Color and place was visited
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Krista
- 2023-07-02
Incredible
What a beautiful story of resilience, spirit and tragedy. Descriptive prose that allow the reader to visualize places and emotions. Wonderfully narrated.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 2023-06-09
Tragic hopeful heart breaking story
This is a lovely book well written and beautifully read .
The story of slavery is a tragically familiar one but this book gives texture, and love and hope .
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 2023-08-12
A compelling story
I could not stop listening to this story of resilience and passion for life. it was both heartbreaking and inspiring.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Vitriolic
- 2023-06-01
Terrible time in history beautifully told.
A touching story of slavery, class, midwifery, families, relationships and grief. The narrator has the perfect voice and cadence to keep the reader engaged and listening from start to finish.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 2023-04-02
fabulous!
this story was very good, I love hearing about people who persevere slavery injustice
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Wanda
- 2023-07-13
Things Past Telling
This was a lovely written story. Filled with heartache, yet also filled with history love and beauty.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!