The Letter in the Bottle

By: Karen Liebreich

Narrated by: Karen Liebreich

Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

On a winter's day in 2002, a bottle shaped like a tear washed up on the English coast. It contained a letter written in French, a lock of hair, and a mystery. Only one thing could be known for certain – that the writer of the letter was a mother, grieving for her lost child, Maurice. Moved by the woman’s heartache, Karen Liebreich sets out on an epic journey to piece together the mother’s tale. Her book is the amazing true story of one woman’s search for another, and a poignant reflection on love, loss and motherhood. When this book was first published in 2006, the quest remained unresolved, but when The Letter in the Bottle was translated into French a few years later the unbelievable happened – the mother picked up the book and recognised her letter…

After seven years of searching by the author, all questions would at last be answered and the mystery finally resolved. Liebreich concludes her epic quest, meeting the woman who sent the bottle years ago and coming to understand the loss that was at the heart of one mother’s impulse to communicate with the unknown. This audiobook tells the complete story.

©2010 Karen Liebreich (P)2012 Karen Liebreich

Critic reviews

"It sounds like a Hollywood movie. A Cambridge graduate finds an undated, unsigned message in a bottle from a mother mourning her 13-year old son. Seven years later the women meet… But this story is true… Anyone know a director?” (Daily Mail)

"Her search is exhaustive and veers from the forensic to the esoteric…. There is the allure of a mystery in need of a solution. Even at an apparent low, Liebreich’s search for the real-life writer is engrossing. The pace and vigour of her pursuit is hugely admirable." (Scotland on Sunday)

"‘This is a curious book about curiosity… It is also a disturbing book in many ways, not just for the ‘supercharged expressiveness’ of the mother’s anguish, but for the questions it provokes about our own refusal to confront mortality.… as haunting as it is elegantly written." (Sunday Telegraph)

the story kept wanting me to hear more

Would you listen to The Letter in the Bottle again? Why?

for me personally I do not watch movies a second time and I don't read books a second time

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

the fact that there was one person in the world that cared so much for another that they would set out on a relentless quest

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes

very captivating book.

Very good account. Glad I got it. Listened to it this Christmas day and finished it the day after.