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Narrated by Christine Williams
Rosie SultanUnabridged — 7 hours, 27 minutes
Narrated by Christine Williams
Rosie SultanUnabridged — 7 hours, 27 minutes
A captivating novel that explores the little-known romance of a beloved American icon
Helen Keller has long been a towering figure in the pantheon of world heroines, yet the enduring portrait of her in the popular imagination comes from The Miracle Worker, which ends when Helen is seven years old.
Rosie Sultan's debut novel imagines a part of Keller's life she rarely spoke of or wrote about: the man she once loved. When Helen is in her thirties and Annie Sullivan is diagnosed with tuberculosis, a young man steps in as a private secretary. Peter Fagan opens a new world to Helen, and their sensual interaction-signing and lip-reading with hands and fingers-quickly sets in motion a liberating, passionate, and clandestine affair. It's not long before Helen's secret is discovered and met with stern disapproval from her family and Annie. As pressure mounts, the lovers plot to elope, and Helen finds herself caught between the expectations of the people who love her and her most intimate desires.
Richly textured and deeply sympathetic, Sultan's highly inventive telling of a story Keller herself would not tell is both a captivating romance and a rare glimpse into the mind and heart of an inspirational figure.
Helen Keller in Love is involving, passionate, and deeply felt. It tells this little-known, remarkable story with a loving heart, beautiful language, and great commitment to its heroine. Helen Keller was a woman with blood in her veins—this book makes you feel it.”
In this richly imagined and moving novel, Rosie Sultan brings alive the history of Helen Keller—the brilliant miraculous creature who stole the heart and sympathy of the world—while also exploring how she must have felt as a woman: the loneliness, longing, and great vulnerability. The result is a vivid, sensuous portrait full of sound and vision.”
The romance feels secondary to the author’s examination of Helen’s inner life and her feelings of utter dependence and loneliness. Sultan convincingly imagines that this much-admired, if oversimplified, icon wanted nothing more than to be treated like a woman.”
With empathy, imagination, and vivid sensory detail, Rosie Sultan’s Helen Keller in Love gives voice—and scent and touch—to an iconic American heroine during a little-known chapter in her life.”
"Rosie Sultan is adventurous-and brave. She has immersed herself in every available piece of information about Keller and, to an amazing degree, puts herself into her heroine's silent, dark world. Sultan looks within, telling Helen's story in the first person. We are taken into the isolation and limitations that Keller lived with her entire life. . . . Helen Keller in Love is touching and fun to read. . . . Sultan has given the adult Helen Keller a new voice and reminds us of both her brilliance and her humanity."-The Washington Post
"Captivating . . . a riveting story."-Good Housekeeping
"Ambitious. Sultan's sensibility is consistently contemporary, a wise choice given Keller's distinctly modern views. An advocate for women's rights, an unapologetic socialist and fierce opponent to World War I, Keller exposed and challenged oppression and prejudice in all its myriad forms. Her voice in this novel is evocative of any current celebrity's. She feels imprisoned by her reputation and her fans' expectations of her, weary of being the meal ticket for her family, and harassed by the press. As much as she loves and needs Annie, she also chafes at their interdependence. And above all, she is unashamed of her own sexuality, eager to express it, and resentful of her mother and sister's determination to keep her pure and caged within the confines of propriety. . . . Sultan does a fine job of demonstrating how Keller navigates the world with just three senses."-Boston Globe
"Going well beyond Keller's Miracle Worker days . . . Sultan convincingly imagines that this much-admired if oversimplified icon wanted nothing more than to be treated like a woman.Patty Wetli, Booklist
"With empathy, imagination, and vivid sensory detail, Rosie Sultan's Helen Keller in Love gives voice-and scent and touch-to an iconic American heroine during a little known chapter in her life."
Jane Mendelsohn, author of I Was Amelia Earhart
"In this richly imagined and moving novel, Rosie Sultan brings alive the history of Helen Keller-the brilliant miraculous creature who stole the heart and sympathy of the world-while also exploring how she must have felt as a woman: the loneliness, longing,and great vulnerability.-The result is a vivid, sensuous portrait full of sound and vision."
Jill McCorkle, author of Going Away Shoes
"Helen Keller-in Love is involving, passionate, and deeply felt. It tells-this little-known, remarkable story with a loving heart, beautiful language, and great commitment to its heroine. Helen Keller was a woman with blood in her veins-this book makes you feel it."
Martha Southgate, author of The Taste of Salt
"Eye-opening and thoroughly involving . . . This well-written novel will appeal to those who enjoy women's fiction as well as readers of historical and biographical fiction. A thoroughly enjoyable read that should entice many to seek out one of the biographies Sultan recommends in an afterword."-Library Journal
"Debut novelist Rosie Sultan's-Helen Keller in Lovespins a tale of forbidden love, invoking scents, textures and tastes on every page to show how Helen ‘saw' the world. She grounds the story in well-known incidents from Helen's childhood, but draws on later biographies, speeches and letters to show Helen as a woman, intelligent and determined but forced by her handicaps to be dependent on her family and employees. . . . Sultan skillfully expresses Helen's main frustrations: at the public for refusing to take her seriously when she speaks on political issues unrelated to blindness, and at her family and friends for refusing to see her as a grown woman, with a woman's desires.-Helen Keller in Loveholds readers' attention with a fresh depiction of a woman famous for overcoming her physical handicaps, forced to fight for her right to love."-Katie-Noah Gibson, Shelf Awareness
| BN ID: | 2940169861471 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 04/26/2012 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
