
Alive in the Merciful Country
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Narrated by:
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Emily Joyce
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Carl Prekopp
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By:
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A.L. Kennedy
About this listen
Teaching nine-year-olds on Zoom. A relationship interrupted by enforced distance. A teenaged son who cannot leave the house. Anna McCormick is already struggling to cope with the unwanted twists 2020 has served up. But when an unstamped envelope arrives overnight, her past begins to cast its own long shadow on the present.
With an uncaring government compounding her woes and a hostile threat drawing closer, Anna must dig deep to keep hope alive for herself and those around her.
This is a twisty, heart-racing thriller and viscerally rendered portrayal of abuse of power by the state, by the police and by the villains much closer to home.
©2025 A.L. Kennedy (P)2025 Bolinda PublishingCritic reviews
'It seems everything [Kennedy] touches turns to art ... she continues to impress with her psychological fearlessness and breathtaking affection for language.' (New York Times)
'A testament to the minor miracle of Kennedy's talent ... a talented stylist, her lyrical flights are often musical and rich.' (New York Magazine)
'Kennedy does bleak the way the Russians do epic; unremittingly, awesomely and undershot with redeeming humour.' (Sunday Times)
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