The Wild Girl

Name: The Wild Girl
Brand: Blackstone Audiobooks
Availability: InStock
Author: Kate Forsyth
ISBN: 9781481515849

Author: Kate Forsyth

Narrator: Kate Reading

Unabridged: 17 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Published: 07/07/2015

Categories: Fiction, Historical Fiction

Synopsis

One of six sisters, Dortchen Wild lives in the small German kingdom of Hesse-Cassel in the early nineteenth century. She finds herself irresistibly drawn to the boy next door, the handsome but very poor fairy-tale scholar Wilhelm Grimm. It is a time of tyranny and terror. Napoleon Bonaparte wants to conquer all Europe, and Hesse-Cassel is one of the first kingdoms to fall. Forced to live under oppressive French rule, Wilhelm and his brothers quietly rebel by preserving old, half-forgotten tales that had once been told by firesides of houses grand and small all over the land.As Dortchen tells Wilhelm some of the most powerful and compelling stories in what will one day become his and Jacob's famous fairy-tale collection, their love blossoms. But Dortchen's father will not give his consent for them to marry, and war, death, and poverty also conspire to keep the lovers apart. Yet Dortchen is determined to find a way.Evocative and richly detailed, Kate Forsyth's The Wild Girl masterfully captures one young woman's enduring faith in love and the power of storytelling.

About Kate Forsyth

Kate Forsyth is an Australian writer and prizewinning author of more than thirty books, including novels for adults and children. She won five Aurealis Awards in a single year for her Chain of Charms series.

About Kate Reading

Kate Reading, named an AudioFile Golden Voice, has recorded hundreds of audiobooks across many genres, over a thirty–year plus career and won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration. Among other awards, she has been recognized as an AudioFile Magazine Voice of the Century, Narrator of the Year, Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy, and winner of an Publisher’s Weekly’s Listen-Up Award. She records at her home studio, Madison Productions, Inc., in Maryland.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Karen on April 02, 2013

I’ve taken a bit of time between reading and reviewing this book, partly because I wanted to absorb the dark beauty of this stark, moving and occasionally horrifying tale, and partly because I’d no choice. I was rendered not just speechless by this marvellous novel but, for a time, wordless too as I......more

Goodreads review by Kim on March 16, 2013

History is no backdrop in this richly imagined tale of the girl who gave the Grimm brothers some of their best stories. Rather, history is very much part of the viscerally felt foreground, as the napoleonic wars rage around and through the small kingdom of Hessen-Kassel. This is no "lite" romance wi......more

Goodreads review by Keertana on March 20, 2014

More often than not, I finish a book and settle down to write a review in order to organize my thoughts, make sense of the work I've just read, and waste a few more precious seconds lingering in a fictional world before waking up to reality. From time to time, however, review-writing is a cathartic......more

Goodreads review by Jenny on July 16, 2015

Giveaway @ Let Them Read Books! I'd been waiting for so long to read this book, and it hooked me from page one. In fact, the prologue had me itching to turn to the last page to see how it ended, but I resisted! The story has an enchanting fairy-tale quality from the very beginning as we meet young Do......more

Goodreads review by Shelleyrae on March 19, 2013

The Wild Girl is a stunning tale of passion, love and war where history and imagination intertwine to create a wonderfully rich portrait of a woman whose contribution to the legend of the Grimm Brothers is finally acknowledged. Dortchen Wild lives in the small kingdom of Hessen-Cassel in Germany in t......more

Quotes

“The book is interspersed with familiar fairy tales that listeners will recognize and appreciate. Kate Reading is the perfect narrator for this saga, giving the heroine a sympathetic voice without making her seem weak…Strongly recommended for fans of historical fiction.” Library Journal (audio review)

“Forsyth tells the true story of Dortchen Wild, source of many of the most beloved fairy tales compiled by the famous Grimm brothers…a beautiful and often heartbreaking love story that is sure to move and captivate.” Booklist (starred review)

“[A] richly imagined tale of the girl who gave the Grimm brothers some of their best stories…Ultimately, this novel inhabits the ground between Philippa Gregory and Hilary Mantel. It is both entertaining and serious-minded, but it has about it too that little touch of magic that makes Kate Forsyth’s voice so distinctive, so uniquely Kate. An absolute pleasure to read.” Kim Wilkins, author of Angel of Ruin

“Against an intricately crafted tapestry of early nineteenth-century German daily life and tumultuous, tragic historical events, the story of star-crossed lovers Dortchen Wild and Wilhelm Grimm unfolds with a kind of dreamy, haunting precision.” Sophie Masson, author of Moonlight and Ashes

“In the bleak pages of history, Forsyth finds a story of enduring love and artistic integrity—her retelling is a fairy tale in itself.” Kirkus Reviews