The Pleasing Hour

· Picador · Narrated by Suzanne Toren
Audiobook
8 hr 54 min
Unabridged
Eligible
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About this audiobook

A New York Times Notable Book

The Pleasing Hour, the debut novel by Lily King, is a profoundly moving story of family, betrayal and the naivety of youth.

Young, inexperienced and fleeing a terrible personal loss, Rosie travels to France to become an au pair to the Tivot family. Nicole, the cool, distant and beautifully polished mother of the three children she cares for is impossible to connect with - there is something about the woman that both fascinates and unnerves Rosie.

The same is true of the rest of the Tivot clan. Nicole’s husband, Marc, and their children all seem to be caught in an unending struggle against each other for love and acceptance. Only when Rosie is sent to care for Nicole’s now-elderly guardian – the storyteller of the family’s secrets – does she finally discover the truth. There, Rosie will learn of a past darkened by war, duplicity and a tragedy that still resonates in the Tivot’s lives.

About the author

Lily King is the author of The Pleasing Hour, The English Teacher, Father of the Rain, Euphoria, Writers & Lovers, which was a New York Times bestseller, and the short story collection, Five Tuesdays in Winter. Euphoria won the Kirkus Prize and the New England Book Award for Fiction, was named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, and was also a New York Times bestseller. It was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. King is also the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and has twice won both the Maine Fiction Award and the New England Book Award. She lives in Maine, USA.

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