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The Crooked Branch

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The Crooked Branch

By: Jeanine Cummins
Narrated by: Aoife McMahon, Patricia Rodriguez
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About this listen

After the birth of her daughter, Emma, the usually resilient Majella finds herself feeling isolated and exhausted. Then, at her childhood home, Majella discovers the diary of her maternal ancestor Ginny and is shocked to read a story of murder in her family history.

With the famine upon her, Ginny Doyle fled from Ireland to America, but not all of her family made it. What happened during those harrowing years, and why does Ginny call herself a killer? Is Majella genetically fated to be a bad mother, despite the fierce tenderness she feels for her baby?

Determined to uncover the truth of her heritage and her own identity, Majella sets out to explore Ginny's past - and discovers surprising truths about her family and ultimately, herself.

©2013 Jeanine Cummins (P)2020 Macmillan Audio Fiction Historical Fiction

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Critic reviews

"Rich and intricately drawn...luminous prose." (Carolyn Parkhurst)
All stars
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A harrowing story of a family trying to survive during the Irish famine. Alternating chapters describe the author, a modern American woman, finding out this history of her family. She struggles with post natal stress. I found the Irish chapters compelling but the modern chapters not so interesting. I found I cared about the Irish woman but not really much about the modern one.

Strange but gripping.

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Loved the story, two stories about motherhood 200 years apart that couldn’t be more different yet were so intimately connected too. Both narrators were excellent. Told with great empathy, very moving.

Sensitively written

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I loved this book. The struggles of both women so very different, dramatically different. The famine story we Irish know of, of course, but perhaps the rest of the world are not aware of how devastating it was, and that it touched every working and lower class family. The politics behind the famine tragedy is not focused on in this book, and that is a good thing as it allows the personal struggle to be told.
The performances enhanced the experience for me, and thank you for having an actual Irish woman narrate Ginny’s part.....it matters (for an Irish listener anyway).
I am looking forward to listening again some time in the future.

Can’t wait to listen AGAIN.

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I enjoyed the book, but the American narrators voice kinda annoyed me, like the way she said New York now. Can I just say that it’s a hurly stick or a hurl, we would never call it a hurly bat.

Enjoyable

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Really enjoyed listening to the Irish narrator, beautifully read.

Found it difficult to continue listening to the second narrator and at times had to fast forward, the intonation was extremely irritating and every word a dramatic sigh. Pronunciation of Irish names / places of this narrator very poor (considering an Irish person was speaking in the story). Can only recommend the book version for this reason

Interesting story but narration a challenge to listen to

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Cummins has captured the spirit of motherhood during the Irish genocide impeccably. This author is extremely talented. Having read American Dirt and finding it so authentic, I wasn't sure she could capture an entirely different culture in the same way. However I was impressed yet again and I particularly loved the Irish reader.

Another cracker from Cummins

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I bought this audiobook because I had previously read and really liked American Dirt, and these days I'm only listening to books. So I thought I'd try something by an author I'd previously enjoyed.

I found both stories very gripping in different ways. I note that other reviewers disliked the voice of one of the narrators. While I found it unusual at first, it didn't take me long to get used to her voice. I recommend listening to the sample to see if it bothers you. I'm glad it didn't put me off.

I found Majella's story so easy to identify with as a mother of two very young children. For anyone who's had a baby (especially their first baby) relatively recently there is a lot to identify with and chuckle at. And I felt so much sympathy for her struggles that to others, especially contrasted against Ginny's struggle to survive, may have seemed frivolous. But to me the contrast of them just showed two different ways to struggle as a mother no matter what time, place and circumstances you're born into. I'd highly recommend this book.

Loved this audiobook

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I have given this book 3 stars, the book is in two parts historical and modern, the historical part I would give five stars, it is truly brilliant, unfortunately the modern part is far from brilliant, I found myself wanting to skip these chapters to get back to the other story.

Could have been 5 stars

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I nearly didn't listen to this because there were some negative reviews about it, I've loved Jeanine Cummings other books and was worried I'd be disappointed but in the end I thought I'd give this a go. I'm so glad I did as I loved it and thought it all tied in well together. She's such a clever and diverse writer.

loved it

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Felt I wanted to know more about Irish family and how they ALL fared. Two stories ? Enjoyed but not as much as American Dirt or Outsider Boy.

Abrupt end

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