
The Railwayman's Wife
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $18.74
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Fiona Hardingham
-
Steve West
-
By:
-
Ashley Hay
About this listen
Amid the strange, silent aftermath of World War II, a widow, a poet, and a doctor search for lasting peace and fresh beginnings in this internationally acclaimed, award-winning novel.
When Anikka Lachlan's husband, Mac, is killed in a railway accident, she is offered - and accepts - a job at the Railway Institute's library and searches there for some solace in her unexpectedly new life. But in Thirroul in 1948, she's not the only person trying to chase dreams through books. There's Roy McKinnon, who found poetry in the mess of war but who has now lost his words and his hope. There's Frank Draper, trapped by the guilt of those his medical treatment and care failed on their first day of freedom. All three struggle to find their own peace and their own new stories.
But along with the firming of this triangle of friendship and a sense of lives inching toward renewal come other extremities - and misunderstandings. In the end love and freedom can have unexpected ways of expressing themselves.
The Railwayman's Wife explores the power of beginnings and endings and how hard it can sometimes be to tell them apart. Most of all it celebrates love in all its forms and the beauty of discovering that loving someone can be as extraordinary as being loved yourself.
©2013 Ashley Hay (P)2016 Simon & SchusterListeners also enjoyed...
-
A Corner of White (The Colors of Madeleine, Book 1)
- By: Jaclyn Moriarty
- Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Andrew Eiden, Kate Reinders, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a tale of missing persons. Madeleine and her mother have run away from their former life and settled in a rainy corner of Cambridge (in our world). Elliot, on the other hand, is in search of his father, who disappeared on the night his uncle was found dead. As Madeleine and Elliot move closer to unraveling their mysteries, they begin to exchange messages across worlds - through an accidental gap that hasn't appeared in centuries. But even greater mysteries are unfolding on both sides of the gap...
-
-
Exciting, Heart warming and funny!
- By T.H.A.E on 09-30-13
By: Jaclyn Moriarty
-
Midnight at the Electric
- By: Jodi Lynn Anderson
- Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie, Bailey Carr, Fiona Hardingham
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
2065: Adri has been handpicked to live on Mars. But weeks before launch, she discovers the journal of a girl who lived in her house more than a hundred years ago and is immediately drawn into the mystery surrounding her fate. 1934: Amid the fear and uncertainty of the Dust Bowl, Catherine’s family’s situation is growing dire. She must find the courage to sacrifice everything she loves in order to save the one person she loves most.
-
-
Beautiful, Heart-wrenching, and Unbelievably Engaging
- By Brad&Britney on 01-10-18
-
The Light Between Worlds
- By: Laura E. Weymouth
- Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Moira Quirk
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six years ago, sisters Evelyn and Philippa Hapwell were swept away to a strange and beautiful kingdom called the Woodlands, where they lived for years. But they have struggled to adjust ever since they returned to their lives in post-WWII England. Ev desperately wants to return to the Woodlands, and Philippa just wants to move on. When Ev goes missing, Philippa must confront the depth of her sister’s despair and the painful truths from which they’ve been running. As the weeks unfold, Philippa wonders if Ev truly did find a way home or if the weight of their worlds pulled her under.
-
-
you're kidding, right?
- By Nikkie Eve McDonnell on 01-21-20
-
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Joyce
- Narrated by: Jim Broadbent
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does, even down to how he butters his toast. Little differentiates one day from the next. Then one morning the mail arrives, and within the stack of quotidian minutiae is a letter addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl from a woman he hasn’t seen or heard from in twenty years. Queenie Hennessy is in hospice and is writing to say goodbye.
-
-
Wonderful Walkabout
- By FanB14 on 07-01-13
By: Rachel Joyce
-
The Secret Keeper
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, 1959: Laurel Nicolson is 16 years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.
-
-
Kate Morton (and Caroline Lee) does it again!
- By Maria on 10-20-12
By: Kate Morton
-
The Forgotten Garden
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty-eight year old Cassandra is lost, alone, and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident 10 years ago, feels like she has lost everything known and dear to her.
-
-
Enchanting, intriguing, mysterious, and beautiful
- By Joseph on 12-10-08
By: Kate Morton
-
A Corner of White (The Colors of Madeleine, Book 1)
- By: Jaclyn Moriarty
- Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Andrew Eiden, Kate Reinders, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a tale of missing persons. Madeleine and her mother have run away from their former life and settled in a rainy corner of Cambridge (in our world). Elliot, on the other hand, is in search of his father, who disappeared on the night his uncle was found dead. As Madeleine and Elliot move closer to unraveling their mysteries, they begin to exchange messages across worlds - through an accidental gap that hasn't appeared in centuries. But even greater mysteries are unfolding on both sides of the gap...
-
-
Exciting, Heart warming and funny!
- By T.H.A.E on 09-30-13
By: Jaclyn Moriarty
-
Midnight at the Electric
- By: Jodi Lynn Anderson
- Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie, Bailey Carr, Fiona Hardingham
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
2065: Adri has been handpicked to live on Mars. But weeks before launch, she discovers the journal of a girl who lived in her house more than a hundred years ago and is immediately drawn into the mystery surrounding her fate. 1934: Amid the fear and uncertainty of the Dust Bowl, Catherine’s family’s situation is growing dire. She must find the courage to sacrifice everything she loves in order to save the one person she loves most.
-
-
Beautiful, Heart-wrenching, and Unbelievably Engaging
- By Brad&Britney on 01-10-18
-
The Light Between Worlds
- By: Laura E. Weymouth
- Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Moira Quirk
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six years ago, sisters Evelyn and Philippa Hapwell were swept away to a strange and beautiful kingdom called the Woodlands, where they lived for years. But they have struggled to adjust ever since they returned to their lives in post-WWII England. Ev desperately wants to return to the Woodlands, and Philippa just wants to move on. When Ev goes missing, Philippa must confront the depth of her sister’s despair and the painful truths from which they’ve been running. As the weeks unfold, Philippa wonders if Ev truly did find a way home or if the weight of their worlds pulled her under.
-
-
you're kidding, right?
- By Nikkie Eve McDonnell on 01-21-20
-
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Joyce
- Narrated by: Jim Broadbent
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does, even down to how he butters his toast. Little differentiates one day from the next. Then one morning the mail arrives, and within the stack of quotidian minutiae is a letter addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl from a woman he hasn’t seen or heard from in twenty years. Queenie Hennessy is in hospice and is writing to say goodbye.
-
-
Wonderful Walkabout
- By FanB14 on 07-01-13
By: Rachel Joyce
-
The Secret Keeper
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, 1959: Laurel Nicolson is 16 years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.
-
-
Kate Morton (and Caroline Lee) does it again!
- By Maria on 10-20-12
By: Kate Morton
-
The Forgotten Garden
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty-eight year old Cassandra is lost, alone, and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident 10 years ago, feels like she has lost everything known and dear to her.
-
-
Enchanting, intriguing, mysterious, and beautiful
- By Joseph on 12-10-08
By: Kate Morton
-
The Light Between Oceans
- A Novel
- By: M. L. Stedman
- Narrated by: Noah Taylor
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1918, after four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia to take a job as the lighthouse keeper on remote Janus Rock. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes only four times a year and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Three years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel is tending the grave of her newly lost infant when she hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up on shore carrying a dead man and a living baby.
-
-
Wonderful story.....terrible narrator.
- By Sandra on 08-14-12
By: M. L. Stedman
-
The Distant Hours
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 22 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long lost letter arrives one Sunday afternoon with the return address of Milderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on its envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mother’s emotional distance masks an old secret.
-
-
Right Mood At The Right Time
- By Simone on 11-13-12
By: Kate Morton
-
The Witch's Kind
- By: Louisa Morgan
- Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Barrie Anne Blythe and her aunt Charlotte have always known that the other residents of their small coastal community find them peculiar - two women living alone on the outskirts of town. It is the price of concealing their strange and dangerous family secret. But two events threaten to upend their lives forever. The first is the arrival of a mysterious abandoned baby with a hint of power like their own. The second is the sudden reappearance of Barrie Anne's long-lost husband - who is not quite the man she thought she married.
-
-
Weakly entertaining.
- By T Muel on 08-14-19
By: Louisa Morgan
-
The Woman on the Orient Express
- By: Lindsay Jayne Ashford
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hoping to make a clean break from a fractured marriage, Agatha Christie boards the Orient Express in disguise. But unlike her famous detective Hercule Poirot, she can't neatly unravel the mysteries she encounters on this fateful journey. Her cabinmate Katharine Keeling's first marriage ended in tragedy, propelling her toward a second relationship mired in deceit. Nancy Nelson - newly married but carrying another man's child - is desperate to conceal the pregnancy and teeters on the brink of utter despair.
-
-
Biographical fiction
- By RueRue on 11-26-16
-
Stories
- All-New Tales
- By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, Al Sarrantonio - editor, Joe Hill, and others
- Narrated by: Anne Bobby, Jonathan Davis, Katherine Kellgren, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.
-
-
Something for Everyone
- By Nicole on 05-24-17
By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, and others
-
The Wild Hunt
- By: Emma Seckel
- Narrated by: Ruth Urquhart
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leigh Welles has not set foot in on the island in years, but when she finds herself called home from a disappointing life on the Scottish mainland by her father's unexpected death, she is determined to forget the sorrows of the past and start fresh. Fellow islander Iain MacTavish, a RAF veteran with his eyes on the sky and his head in the past, is also in desperate need of a new beginning. A young widower, Iain struggles to return to the normal life he knew before the war. But this October is anything but normal. This October, the sluagh are restless.
-
-
one of my favorite books ever
- By Cait on 11-02-24
By: Emma Seckel
-
Lighthouse Bay
- By: Kimberley Freeman
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This breathtaking novel travels more than a century between two love stories set in the Australian seaside town of Lighthouse Bay. In 1901, a ship sinks off the coast of Lighthouse Bay in Australia. The only survivor is Isabella Winterbourne - escaping her loveless marriage and the devastating loss of her son - who clutches a priceless gift meant for the Australian Parliament. Suddenly, this gift could be her ticket to a new life, free from the bonds of her husband and his overbearing family.
-
-
Excellent story!
- By Kate B. on 11-30-17
-
All the Names They Used for God
- Stories
- By: Anjali Sachdeva
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Zainab Jah, Will Damron, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a secret, subterranean world beneath the prairie of the Old West, a homesteader risks her life in search of a safe haven. A workman in Andrew Carnegie's steel mills is turned into a medical oddity by the brutal power of the furnaces. A young woman created through genetic manipulation is destroyed by the same force that gave her life. With her distinctive blend of magical realism, science, and poetic prose, Anjali Sachdeva demonstrates a preternatural ability to laser in on our fears, our hopes, and our longings in order to point out intrinsic truths about society and humanity.
-
-
Astoundingly fresh and just so GOOD
- By Dana on 07-20-18
By: Anjali Sachdeva
-
The Lost Letters
- By: Sarah Mitchell
- Narrated by: Tara Ward
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Martha’s beloved father dies, he leaves her two things: a mysterious stash of letters to an English woman named "Catkins" and directions to a beach hut in the English seaside town of Wells-Next-the-Sea. Martha is at a painful crossroads in her own life and seizes this chance for a trip to England - to discover more about her family’s past and the identity of her father’s secret correspondent.
-
-
Intriguing story.
- By LJStevie on 03-19-19
By: Sarah Mitchell
-
Love and Ruin
- A Novel
- By: Paula McLain
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1937, 28-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in the devastating conflict. It's the adventure she's been looking for and her chance to prove herself a worthy journalist in a field dominated by men. But she also finds herself unexpectedly - and uncontrollably - falling in love with Hemingway, a man on his way to becoming a legend. In the shadow of the impending Second World War, Martha and Ernest's relationship and their professional careers ignite.
-
-
Over-dramatic lamenting
- By Liz on 08-17-18
By: Paula McLain
-
A Year of Marvellous Ways
- By: Sarah Winman
- Narrated by: Sarah Winman
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Year of Marvellous Ways is the much anticipated and utterly beguiling new novel from Sarah Winman, author of the international bestseller When God Was a Rabbit. Cornwall, 1947. Marvellous Ways is a ninety-year-old woman who's lived alone on a remote creek for nearly all her life. Recently she's taken to spending her days sitting on a mooring stone by the river with a telescope. She's waiting for something--she's not sure what, but she'll know it when she sees it.
-
-
Great story-telling
- By Carol on 07-27-15
By: Sarah Winman
-
The Oceans Between Us
- By: Gill Thompson
- Narrated by: Jane Collingwood
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by extraordinary true events, this remarkable debut novel reveals the enduring power of love and the strength of the human spirit in one woman's quest to find her son, and a little boy's dream to be found.
-
-
so much sadness and tragedy
- By LaLa on 08-25-20
By: Gill Thompson
What listeners say about The Railwayman's Wife
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Suzanne
- 11-14-17
Way Too Sentimental
I thought the sentimentality overwhelming and the story transparent. Sorry I wasted a credit in this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!