Audio only
Length8h 17m
About this audiobook
Written in radiant prose and with stunning psychological acuity, award-winning author Sarah Cornwell's What I Had Before I Had You is a deeply poignant story that captures the joys and sorrows of growing up and learning to let go.
Olivia Reed was fifteen when she left her hometown of Ocean Vista on the Jersey Shore. Two decades later, divorced and unstrung, she returns with her teenage daughter, Carrie, and nine-year-old son, Daniel, recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Distracted by thoughts of the past, Olivia fails to notice when Daniel disappears from her side. Her frantic search for him sparks memories of the summer of 1987, when she exploded out of the cocoon of her mother's fierce, smothering love and into a sudden, full-throttle adolescence, complete with dangerous new friends, first love, and a rebellion so intense that it utterly recharted the course of her life.
Olivia's mother, Myla, was a practicing psychic whose powers waxed and waned along with her mercurial moods. Myla raised Olivia to be a guarded child, and also to believe in the ever-present infant ghosts of her twin sisters, whom Myla took care of as if they were alive—diapers, baby food, an empty nursery kept like a shrine. At fifteen, Olivia saw her sisters for the first time, not as ghostly infants but as teenagers on the beach. But when Myla denied her vision, Olivia set out to learn the truth—a journey that led to shattering discoveries about herself and her family.
Sarah Cornwell seamlessly weaves together the past and the present in this riveting debut novel, as she examines the relationships between mothers and daughters, and the powerful forces of loss, family history, and magical thinking.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.6 (2.9K)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, Amazon, StoryGraph
GenreFantasy, General Fiction
Length8 hrs 17 mins
Narrated byKaren White
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJan 7, 2014
LanguageEnglish
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Toshikazu Kawaguchi Book SetToshikazu Kawaguchi18h 55m4.5 (1.4K)$40 · $0.00
The Song of AchillesMadeline Miller11h 15m4.3 (2.3M)$29 · $0.00
The Left and the LuckyWilly Vlautin6h 40m4.4 (1.1K)$24 · $0.00
Hunt of the DragonJuliette Cross9h 46m4.4 (736)$20
Deadly GameChristine Feehan13h 20m4.3 (15.8K)$30
THE RETURN OF THE KINGJ.R.R. Tolkien21h 5m4.7 (1.2M)$7 · $0.00
WildfireIlona Andrews12h 45m4.5 (62.9K)$33 · $0.00
Lolth's WarriorR. A. Salvatore13h 20m4.6 (2.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du BoisHonoree Fanonne Jeffers29h 49m4.5 (58K)$8 · $0.00
Treasure Island (Adventure Classic with Illustrations)Robert Louis Stevenson8h 50m4.5 (11.2K)$1.99 · $0.00
Lola in the MirrorTrent Dalton13h 40m4.5 (43.9K)$33 · $0.00
Going PostalTerry Pratchett13h 36m4.5 (163.8K)$33 · $0.00
The Leo Tolstoy CollectionLeo Tolstoy9h 1m4.5 (4.9K)$12 · $0.00
Sword and ShadowMichelle Sagara16h 51m4.5 (2.2K)$40 · $0.00
A Tree Grows in BrooklynBetty Smith14h 55m4.4 (577.6K)$33 · $0.00
Dark GuardianChristine Feehan12h 32m4.5 (26.3K)$33 · $0.00
The Neil Gaiman ReaderNeil Gaiman27h 3m4.5 (3.2K)$53 · $0.00
The HobbitJ. R. R. Tolkien10h 51m4.4 (4.9M)$12 · $0.00
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
Desperate MeasuresBrenda Jackson8h 59m4.7 (670)$28 · $0.00
This Side of Paradise - The Original 1920 Edition (Annotated)F. Scott Fitzgerald11h 30m4.6 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
War LordBernard Cornwell13h 21m4.6 (33.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m4.6 (9.3K)$18 · $0.00
Something Like LoveBeverly Jenkins10h 21m4.6 (2.7K)$29 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$18 · $0.00
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
White HotIlona Andrews13h 18m4.5 (136.9K)$5 · $0.00
The Ghost by the Billabong (The Matilda Saga, #5)Jackie French14h 58m4.6 (773)$33 · $0.00
Cast in BloodMichelle Sagara16h 35m4.6 (607)$33 · $0.00
The Captain Blood Trilogy (Annotated)Rafael Sabatini29h 20m4.6 (1K)$3 · $0.00
Ship of the Line (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith11h 13m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The George Orwell CollectionGeorge Orwell24h 46m4.5 (14.4K)$12 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 38m4.5 (9.2K)$2 · $0.00
Driving ForceElle James4h 58m4.6 (407)$20 · $0.00
When God Calls the HeartBrian Bird, Michelle Cox3h 24m4.6 (439)$10 · $0.00
You may also like
Rabbit CakeAnnie Hartnett7h 8m4.0 (20.2K)$17
A Council of DollsMona Susan Power11h 16m4.2 (8.7K)$8 · $0.00
Big WorldMary Miller4h 21m4.3 (466)$17
The Best American Short Stories 2023Min Jin Lee, Heidi Pitlor14h 59m3.9 (1.3K)$33 · $0.00
HungerRoxane Gay5h 58m4.3 (197.4K)$24 · $0.00
Lovely, Dark, DeepJoyce Carol Oates16h 12m3.7 (2.5K)$33 · $0.00
Family PicturesSue Miller17h 55m3.7 (7.5K)$40 · $0.00
Up from the BlueSusan Henderson8h 25m3.9 (3.7K)$26 · $0.00
Little Altars EverywhereRebecca Wells3h 2m3.8 (37.8K)$18 · $0.00
The Drowning SeasonAlice Hoffman6h 34m3.6 (4.2K)$20
HomeschooledStefan Merrill Block7h 10m3.6 (18.5K)$28 · $0.00
I'm Sorry You Feel That WayRebecca Wait4h 10m4.1 (14.9K)$29 · $0.00
PopsMichael Chabon2h 17m3.9 (3.3K)$16 · $0.00
Irreversible DamageAbigail Shrier9h 2m4.2 (26.6K)$20
The Moves Make the ManBruce Brooks8h 6m3.8 (1.9K)$26 · $0.00
The Shape of FamilyShilpi Somaya Gowda10h 39m3.9 (6.7K)$29 · $0.00
The Naked Lady Who Stood on Her HeadGary Small, Gigi Vorgan9h 47m3.9 (7.8K)$29 · $0.00
To Be a ManNicole Krauss7h 2m3.6 (4.7K)$24 · $0.00
When You Find Out the World is Against YouKelly Oxford8h 7m3.8 (3.2K)$26 · $0.00
The Man Who Loved ChildrenChristina Stead19h 24m3.7 (7.2K)$28