Between Audiobook (Free)

***Author has a PhD in British literature from the College or university of Calgary and teaches English and creative writing at the College of the Rockies in Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada ***Author’s initial novel, The Bone Cage, was a finalist in CBC’s Canada Reads competition. Vero and her hubby Shane have shifted from the sugary suite above his parents’ garage area and discovered themselves smack in the center of adulthood?two children, two vehicles, two jobs. They aren’t coping well. In response with their looming about Between local breakdown, Vero and Shane obtain live-in help with their sons?a female from the Philippines named Ligaya (this means happiness); the kids call her LiLi. Vero justifies LiLi’s role in their home by insisting that she actually is section of their family, and she goes to great lengths to be able to ease her conscience. But distinctions persist; Vero grapples with her overextended part as a mother and challenges to keep her marriage passionate, while LiLi silently bears the burden of a secret she left behind in the home. Between gives readers an interesting, searing portrait of two females from two different cultures. At the same time, it satirizes modern love, relationship, and parenthood by revealing the feeling of entitlement and superiority at the heart of upper-middle-class UNITED STATES existence through a ubiquitous presence in it: the international nanny. Angie Abdou comically and tragically tackles the issue of international nannies by providing a windows on motherhood where it really is tangled up with course, career, labor, and desire. ‘Between isn’t a novel that you’ll forget easily with its dark laughter, its lifelike character types, and a tale of many challenging relationships that result in a jaw-dropping bottom line. Pick this book up — you will not have the ability to put it down.’ -Jowita Bydlowska, writer of Drunk Mom ‘In Between, Angie Abdou doesn’t take the predictable road. She deftly steers us in to the deepest of emotional potholes, lands us in the ditch, and then finds a way back out once again. This book can be hilarious and troubling, and an honest look at relationship and parenthood as well as the ways that entitlement and sex can travel wedges between us.’ -Farzana Doctor, writer of Six Metres of Pavement ‘In Between, it is the women who share the greatest burdens, but still find it difficult to connect across lines of class and culture. Abdou has stared fraught subject material in the facial skin and taken care of it with elegance and humour. Her relaxing novel sympathetically unveils females because they are, flaws and everything.’ -Quill and Quire ‘Between asks nuanced queries of and avoids pat answers on a thorny dilemma facing many families today.’ -The Globe and Mail ‘Darkly funny and elegantly written … Abdou is an essential voice in Canadian fiction, and this strong new work will enlarge her already substantial body of dedicated visitors.’ -Vancouver Sun