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Title details for Sheer Abandon by Penny Vincenzi - Available

Sheer Abandon

by Penny Vincenzi
Susan Duerden
Audiobook
4 of 4 copies available
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4 of 4 copies available
A number-one bestseller from one of Britain’s most popular novelists, Sheer Abandon is an all-consuming story revolving around the consequences of a desperate act.
Martha, Clio, and Jocasta meet by chance at Heathrow airport in 1985 as they are starting off on separate backpacking adventures, and they decide to spend the first few days of their trips together in Thailand. When they go their separate ways, they vow to get together in London the following year. But many years pass before the three cross paths again, and the once-capricious, carefree girls all now have thriving careers. One of them, however, harbors a terrible secret: On her return from her precollege excursion, she abandoned her just-born daughter at Heathrow.
Clio has fulfilled her ambition of becoming a doctor, only to find herself trapped in a marriage to an arrogant surgeon who belittles her and her professional achievements. Martha is a highly paid corporate lawyer, just embarking on a political career. Dedicated to her job, she has had little time for personal relationships and lives a busy, but lonely, life. Jocasta, a tabloid newspaper reporter with an infallible instinct for the big story, is in love with a charming colleague who can’t make the permanent commitment she longs for. The infant abandoned at Heathrow has grown up under the loving care of her adoptive family. Now a beautiful teenager named Kate, she sets out to find her birth mother——a quest that unexpectedly brings the women together and exposes the secret buried so many years before.
Impossible to put down, Sheer Abandon is top-notch women’s fiction.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 8, 2007

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415938782
      • File size: 799020 KB
      • Duration: 27:44:37

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In 1985, three women bond during their backpacking adventures in Thailand. Fifteen years go by before their lives intersect once more. Cleo has become a geriatric doctor, trapped in an emotionally abusive marriage, Jocasta is a journalist for a tabloid newspaper, and Martha is a self-centered lawyer with political aspirations. A fourth character, Katie, abandoned at birth at Heathrow, is the daughter of one of these women. Desperately seeking her mother, she provides the narrative drive for the story. Susan Duerden's sophisticated tones give the characters forthright voices. While she persuades listeners to engage with the mystery of Kate's parentage, her delivery is, at the same time, somewhat distant. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from January 15, 2007
      British bestseller Vincenzi (No Angel
      ) pulls out all the stops in this orchestral saga. In 1985, three young British women meet in a Heathrow departure lounge en route to precollege sojourns. One of them, upon her return to England, secretly gives birth and abandons the baby in a cleaning supplies closet at the airport; "Baby Bianca" captivates the public's sympathies until she is adopted. The mystery of who her mother is serves as the spine of this fat, satisfying novel, and Vincenzi creates multiple intrigues around the three women: Jocasta, a rising tabloid journalist (Vincenzi wrote for Vogue
      and Cosmopolitan
      ); Clio, a physician specializing in geriatrics; and Martha, a corporate lawyer running for Parliament. It's 16 years before they all meet again, and Baby Bianca has matured into a stunning blonde teen, Kate, who is summarily exploited by a ruthless fashion editor as she searches for her mother. The various narrative themes crescendo through several all-hands-on-deck scenes, including a swank party where daughter almost meets mother, and a packed funeral where someone figures out who the father is. Although some of the male characters are too overbearing to be believed (especially Clio's sneering surgeon husband), the women are, without exception, multifaceted, smart and brave, and their happiness is hard won. A U.K. bestseller, the book offers major escape and abandon for summer.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Rosalyn Landor wraps herself in the distinctive personalities of Vincenzi's three heroines. They meet at Heathrow Airport in 1985 on their way to visit Thailand before they go off to college. Upon returning to England, one of the trio secretly gives birth to a baby girl in a cleaning closet, and abandons her in the airport. Years later, the three are reunited when the abandoned baby, now 16, sets out to find her mother. Landor's women play against each other with vigor and honesty, but her men sound implausible. It's really too bad--as this could have been satisfying entertainment. M.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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