Vanessa and Her Sister Audiobook By Priya Parmar cover art

Vanessa and Her Sister

A Novel

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Vanessa and Her Sister

By: Priya Parmar
Narrated by: Various, Emilia Fox, Clare Corbett, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Daniel Pirrie, Anthony Calf
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A New York Times Notable Book • An Entertainment Weekly “Must List” Pick • “Prepare to be dazzled.”—Paula McLain • “Quite simply astonishing.”—Sarah Blake

What if Virginia Woolf’s sister had kept a diary? For fans of The Paris Wife and Loving Frank comes a spellbinding new story of the inseparable bond between Virginia and her sister, the gifted painter Vanessa Bell, and the real-life betrayal that threatened to destroy their family. Hailed by The New York Times Book Review as “an uncanny success” and based on meticulous research, this stunning novel illuminates a little-known episode in the celebrated sisters’ glittering bohemian youth among the legendary Bloomsbury Group.

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London, 1905: The city is alight with change, and the Stephen siblings are at the forefront. Vanessa, Virginia, Thoby, and Adrian are leaving behind their childhood home and taking a house in the leafy heart of avant-garde Bloomsbury. There they bring together a glittering circle of bright, outrageous artistic friends who will grow into legend and come to be known as the Bloomsbury Group. And at the center of this charmed circle are the devoted, gifted sisters: Vanessa, the painter, and Virginia, the writer.

Each member of the group will go on to earn fame and success, but so far Vanessa Bell has never sold a painting. Virginia Woolf’s book review has just been turned down by The Times. Lytton Strachey has not published anything. E. M. Forster has finished his first novel but does not like the title. Leonard Woolf is still a civil servant in Ceylon, and John Maynard Keynes is looking for a job. Together, this sparkling coterie of artists and intellectuals throw away convention and embrace the wild freedom of being young, single bohemians in London.

But the landscape shifts when Vanessa unexpectedly falls in love and her sister feels dangerously abandoned. Eerily possessive, charismatic, manipulative, and brilliant, Virginia has always lived in the shelter of Vanessa’s constant attention and encouragement. Without it, she careens toward self-destruction and madness. As tragedy and betrayal threaten to destroy the family, Vanessa must decide if it is finally time to protect her own happiness above all else.

The work of exciting young newcomer Priya Parmar, Vanessa and Her Sister exquisitely captures the champagne-heady days of prewar London and the extraordinary lives of sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf.

Read by a Full Cast:
“Virginia” read by Clare Corbett
“Vanessa” read by Emilia Fox
“Lytton Strachey” read by Julian Rhind-Tutt
“Leonard Woolf” read by Daniel Pirrie
“Roger Fry” read by Anthony Calf Literary Fiction England Women's Fiction Fiction Biographical Fiction Genre Fiction Biography Inspiring
Beautiful Writing • Fascinating Characters • Well-researched Content • Period-appropriate Feel • Engaging Storyline

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the story was so so but the narrator was good. the characters were also interesting.

unimpressed

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Such complex personalities, the story is clearly laid out and an engagingly performed.
Such a rarified atmosphere!

Captivating

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Very good book. Draws in the reader, immerses the reader in the historical art and literary scene of the day. It was quite interesting to have a glimpse of Virginia Wolfe as a sibling might have viewed her.

Vanessa and her Sister

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A book you never want to end. It's as though the author inhabited Bloomsbury, intimately knowing the characters and values their place and contributions to early 20th century art, literature and culture.

Beautifully written.

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I was always intrigued by the Bloomsbury Group,
but had no actual knowledge about who was in the group. I knew of Virginia Woolf, but not of her sister Vanessa Bell. I'm obsessed now.
As an artist, this was the perfect listen while painting in my studio.

Fascinating!

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