Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase
    Unavailable
    Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase
    Unavailable
    Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase
    Audiobook9 hours

    Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase

    Written by Louise Walters

    Narrated by Anna Bentinck and Karen Cass

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A heartbreaking and deeply compelling debut, Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase is a compulsive page-turner about thwarted love, dashed hopes, and family secrets--book-club fiction at its best.

    Roberta, a lonely thirty-four-year-old bibliophile, works at The Old and New Bookshop in England. When she finds a letter inside her centenarian grandmother's battered old suitcase that hints at a dark secret, her understanding of her family's history is completely upturned. Running alongside Roberta's narrative is that of her grandmother, Dorothy, as a forty-year-old childless woman desperate for motherhood during the early years of World War II. After a chance encounter with a Polish war pilot, Dorothy believes she's finally found happiness, but must instead make an unthinkable decision whose consequences forever change the framework of her family.

    The parallel stories of Roberta and Dorothy unravel over the course of eighty years as they both make their own ways through secrets, lies, sacrifices, and love. Utterly absorbing, Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase is a spellbinding tale of two worlds, one shattered by secrets and the other by the truth.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 4, 2015
    ISBN9780698402386
    Unavailable
    Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase

    Related to Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Book Club

      Dec 29, 2021

      by Barbara Taylor Bradford (£16.99, HB, HarperCollins) A prequel to the million-copy bestseller, A Woman of Substance, this captivating read chronicles 13-year-old orphan Blackie O’Neill’s migration from Ireland in 1899, to live and work with his un

      2 min read

    • Article

      Bittersweet

      Nov 11, 2022

      Bittersweet
      3 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Mar 17, 2021

      It’s 1940 when three very different women are recruited to work at Bletchley Park, the top-secret home of the code breakers. Osla, the socialite – once beau of Prince Philip – the ambitious Mab, and smart Beth are friends until an act of betrayal tea

      1 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Nov 2, 2022

      Great Read
      7 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Jun 15, 2023

      Books
      3 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Jul 13, 2022

      Great Read
      7 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Oct 6, 2021

      Thea’s life has taken a turn for the worse. Made redundant from her job, her husband is also leaving her. So, when her great-uncle dies and leaves her his collection of secondhand books and a house in the Scottish Lowlands, she jumps at the chance to

      1 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Jul 13, 2022

      Great Read
      4 min read

    • Article

      Books & co

      Jul 10, 2020

      Novels, histories, biographies… By Louise Fein ‘A German girl. A Jewish boy. A love that changes everything.’ These are the words on the cover of Louise Fein’s debut novel – People Like Us – which is set in 1930s Leipzig, and is a book inspired by ev

      6 min read

    • Article

      Book CLUB

      Jun 29, 2021

      Book CLUB
      1 min read

    • Article

      Tenor Of The Times

      Aug 7, 2022

      Tenor Of The Times
      4 min read

    • Article

      Home Fires Burning

      Sep 4, 2022

      Home Fires Burning
      4 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Ulitskaya, Phillips, Zentner, Savage, and More

      Jul 9, 2019

      Out this week: the journeys of a makeshift family in contemporary Appalachian Ohio, a new Russian epic, and the faux memoirs of a Bieber-ish pop star. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Ulitskaya, Phillips, Zentner, Savage, and More appeared

      8 min read

    • Article

      Science Fiction And Fantasy

      Dec 3, 2020

      John Ironmonger Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2020 Hb, 276pp, £16.99, ISBN 9780297608233 Heloise was born in 1759, when Halley’s comet was in the sky; her father, a French nobleman and astronomer, named her after the god of the Sun. Her family are caught up

      4 min read

    • Article

      Books Of The Month

      Apr 22, 2022

      By Don Winslow This first book in a projected trilogy about warring mobster families is set in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1986. The Italians and the Irish have carved up the city, controlling the trucking industry and the docks. The author makes ov

      2 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Joukhadar, Celan, and van Heemstra

      Nov 24, 2020

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Zeyn Joukhadar, Paul Celan, and Marjolijn van Heemstra—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Joukhadar, Celan, and van Heemstra appeared first on The Millio

      2 min read

    • Article

      SUMMER Reading SPECIAL

      Dec 28, 2022

      In last year’s Booker Prize shortlisted Oh William! we found narrator Lucy Barton reconnecting with her first husband, William, following the death of her second husband. In this sequel COVID has hit New York and William takes control. As a scientist

      10 min read

    • Article

      June’s BOOK CLUB

      Apr 27, 2023

      Mrs Porter Calling by AJ Pearce (£16.99, HB, Picador) Emmy Lake is back in the popular wartime series. In charge of a column at People’s Friend magazine, she’s proud of the part it plays in the war effort. But then entitled socialite Mrs Porter takes

      4 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reads

      Dec 9, 2019

      Summer Reads
      8 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Aug 19, 2019

      Kya is just five when she watches her mother, carrying a packed suitcase and wearing her fake alligator high-heeled shoes, walk out on her alcoholic husband, her four children and the shack they all live in. One by one the remaining children follow s

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Rector’s Daughter

      Dec 15, 2021

      The Rector’s Daughter
      3 min read

    • Article

      Christmas Books Guide

      Nov 30, 2022

      This is Fiona McIntosh’s first novel set entirely in Australia. Her heroine, Fleur, is just eight when she is already helping her adoptive undertaker parents prepare bodies. Mother Mae knows their only daughter is capable of running the Port Adelaide

      10 min read

    • Article

      Best Books

      Jan 11, 2022

      Best Books
      1 min read

    • Article

      Book CLUB

      Nov 23, 2021

      Book CLUB
      1 min read

    Reviews for Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase

    3.5/5

    89 ratings20 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I struggled to get into this book the first time. So this was the second time in a year I tried this one. I liked the young Dorothy character but I struggled a bit more with the contemporary Roberta character. Some of the minor characters felt a bit two-dimensional but otherwise the book would have been epic so it was probably a necessary loss. I enojyed the period nature of the early material which is unusual for me who would usually not pick a non-contemporary novel.

      I do think the writing was great and i would totally read something else by the same author as my "not getting into it" was more my taste than the writing or the style. It was a clear and structured story that I think stands up well. the ending was a little weak for me but it was conclusive.
    • 3/5
      Probably not super-memorable, but an enjoyable read. I liked the two main women, although the story is primarily about Dorothy and there's actually not much substance about her granddaughter--although I sympathized with her too. Guess I'm a sucker for the oft-overlooked, down-to-earth woman.
    • 4/5
      Realistic, individual lives that are as inspiring as they are tragic. This is a real page turner of a book and Ms Walters enviably achieves what every storyteller sets out to do, keep the reader wondering what happens next.
      Past and present intertwine seamlessly. Characters are just ordinary and complex enough to warrant empathy and compassion.
    • 4/5
      Set in England, alternating stories of a contemporary granddaughter and her grandmother real both their lives and the mystery of the family's history during the early years of World War II. Well done, but slightly marred by an ending that is a little too pat....still a good read.
    • 3/5
      (2010) Roberta a single woman working at a new & old book store loves to read and collect the letters left tucked inside the used books of the prior owners. Her father brings her a suitcase filled with some old books from her grandmother (Dorothy) and she finds a letter dated from the war from her grandfather, only, it doesn't make any sense. Background story is set during WWII. 2 Young women come to Lincolnshire to work the farms as the young men are all at war. Dorothy, a middle aged woman opens her home to them as Her husband (Bert) has abandoned her,enlisted and left her after the death of their son at birth. Dorothy is desperate to be a mother and depressed over the loss of her baby, runs to a crashing plane. The towns folk think that she was trying to save the pilot, the Polish squadron leader Jan, arrives to thank her for her heroism. Dorothy and Yan begin a friendship which blossoms into a love affair. Jan's squadron is relocated but they both have vowed their love to each other. Hopes for a wonderful future fill Dorothy's mind until an unlikely event which decisions made will change their future forever. Sweet Lovely story of family secrets, new and old love.
    • 3/5
      Story follows present day Roberta who works in"The Old and New Bookshop". She finds old letters in books she is shelving and finds one written to her 110 year old grandmother.. It's a mystery. The s tory also follows Dorothea in the early years of WWll in her cottage where her husband has gone off and we learn how she has lost babies to miscarrage and the last as a still born. She meets a Polish pilot and they form a sweet, innocent relationship. Meanwhile Roberta in present day really likes her boss and they dance around their relationship, while Roberta tries to talk to her aged grandmother.Both lives are interesting with a common beauty in these characters daily struggles, repressed desires, misunderstandings and secrets.
    • 3/5
      Land girls! Polish pilot! Mysterious letter!
    • 2/5
      Despite its World War II setting, this book felt more like a soap opera than something I cared about. The story has a historic element, focusing on Dorothy Sinclair, her husband Albert, and her lover,a Russian flyer. In the modern portion, the woman is now 109 and her granddaughter is unraveling the story. I listened to the audio book. Different narrators were used for the different time periods. The narrator for the earlier time period read too slowly, making the story drag on far too long. (Upping the speed to 1.5x for a bit helped but it also made it seem a bit choppy.) The modern narrator did a better job of holding the reader's attention. This one was not my cup of tea. I almost stopped listening but decided to stick it out.
    • 4/5
      Sad, happy... sappy? I liked it.
    • 2/5
      Roberta collects the old letters, cards, lists.. whatever she finds in the old books she comes across while working at a second hand bookshop. Her grandmother is ancient and living in a care facility. Roberta has been given some of her belongings including a letter from the grandfather she never knew that was written after he died in the war.

      This book switches back and forth from present day Roberta to her grandmother, Dorothy, during World War II.

      Dorothy is unhappily married. While her husband is away at war she meets, and falls in love with, Squadron Leader Jan Pietrykowski.

      Roberta sets out to find answers to the questions she has about the letter she found.

      I wanted to like this book but it was just blah. I love the concept of the old book store and finding and collecting old letters. But that was it. Roberta's story was flat and boring. I didn't like it after her cat died, to be honest. Dorothy's story wasn't bad until near the end. It just went on and on and on about the damn baby. I didn't like the ending. Some things in the book had me wondering why they were written in, some things went on too long, some things were just too convenient. A forgettable book.

      I won a copy through Goodreads First Reads.
    • 4/5
      Roberta is a clerk at a local bookstore and becomes captivated over her family tree and how she came to be. The mystery crosses generations back to her grandmother who had a loveless marriage in the war years during World War 2. Through a series of flashbacks we learn about an extramarital affair she had with a Polish pilot stationed in England during the war. There are many twists and turns along the way and a very satisfying ending.. Nice new voice in British literature.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this story even with the going back and forth between the past and present. You always knew which time period you were in. There are really two stories going on here and both are well done. Just remember there are lots of secrets throughout both time. Periods. I received an ebook copy of this book from firsttoread for a fair and honest opinion. I loved all the characters.
    • 5/5
      A perfectly lovely book to read---I had tears in my eyes when I reached the end. I thought Walters captured a time in history and presented it in a very believable way and then to contrast it with a current relative made for a double story. The only thing that was a tiny bit hard to take was how "able," really, the grandmother was---at 107 plus???? --NOT that an incredible number of people are now living to 100 and beyond! It fit the story so it was perfectly all right for this book---but just maybe there were some very convenient overlapping events. But, getting them all in the right place is what a good novel is all about and this one succeeds, for me, beautifully.
    • 4/5
      This story is set in two different times. In 2010 Roberta is working in a bookshop, collecting letters and postcards that she finds hidden in books. She finds one such letter, from her grandfather to her grandmother, in a book given to her by her father and it starts her wondering about her grandmother's life.And Dorothy, during WWII, meets a handsome Polish Squadron Leader and falls in love with him, but a turn of events means that the hopes they had cannot be fulfilled.This is a lovely story, and I really enjoyed reading it. I always like books that are linked by two stories in different times and this is no exception. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because for the first half of the book I struggled to feel anything for the characters, but then it suddenly seemed to pick up and I raced through to the end. I liked the beginning of each of Roberta's chapters, which started with the transcript of a letter or card that she had found in a book - this was a nice touch. Overall a pleasurable read, and an easy one too. The story and the secrets within unfolded well over the course of the book and I felt this was an excellent debut from a promising new author.
    • 5/5
      This is the story of Roberta interspersed with the story of Dorothy who is Roberta's Grandmother.Dorothy has been a widow for many years, her husband her Polish serviceman killed in the line of duty. That is the story fed down the generations of Roberta's family.Roberta likes to read, and she loves to see what information she can find in books, items that were former bookmarks. Then one day she is reading a letter that has spent decades in a book that was once owned by her Grandmother and all of a sudden there are questions and curiosities to discover.The letter which had been found in a book, inside a suitcase which had the name label on "Mrs Sinclair" was clearly addressed to her Grandmother by her Grandfather. The date on the letter was after the date in which her Grandfather had been killed in action. Yet who was Mrs Sinclair?Roberta starts to ask her father some questions, without mentioning the letter. He repeats that as far as he knew his father had been killed in the war. Roberta ponders on whether to ask her Grandmother, who by now was resident in a residential establishment. Dorothy sadly has dementia.The letter and is central to the characters in this story, and across the pages, we suddenly on occasions head back to the war years and to the early life of Dorothy. The things that happened and are remembered, those that happen and yet forgotten and those that happened and are twisted to weave a different set of events. A family history and background that is shaped because of actions of several people.This is a great book. Having been in a reading slump for the last six months or so, I have got back to normal and read this book over the space of a few days. The storyline is complex, yet not complicated, the story is told on several levels and for a first novel the author has done remarkably well. This book is a genealogists dream!
    • 4/5
      This is Louise Walters debut novel.The story is told over a dual timeline. We are introduced to present day Roberta who is given a suitcase containing books and letters belonging to her grandmother. We are then taken back in time to Word War Two and the life of Dorothea, Roberta's Grandmother "Babunia".The story begins with a letter to Dorothea from her beloved Jan. We gradually learn the history leading up to why this particular letter was written. This is the letter that Roberta finds on opening her Grandmother's suitcase which poses some big questions about Dorothy's past.As stated above the story is told in dual narrative and in this case it works well. I liked the lyrical writing and the story unfolded beautifully. All the characters were well rounded and drew me into their world. A story of love, loss, tragedy and friendship, even from the most unexpected corner. A great debut novel. I look forward to Ms Walters next book.
    • 4/5
      A great story of bookshops, letters and love. Not normally my cup of tea, but with the great reviews I thought it worth a try and was not disappointed.
    • 4/5
      This is a wonderful story that flips between present day and WWII. Roberta finds a confusing letter in an old battered suitcase of her grandmother. This takes her through the past of her family to unravel the mystery. I loved Roberta and this winding tale of her family’s past. As a reader, you can’t help but be drawn into her life and her grandmother’s secrets This is a heart twisting read with many facets to the story line. That being said…this story is a little confusing in places, but it is well worth the time! I received this novel from Netgalley for a honest review.
    • 4/5
      “I find things hidden in books: dried flowers, locks of hair, tickets, labels, receipt, invoices, photographs, postcards, all manner of cards. I find letters, unpublished works by the ordinary, the anguished, the illiterate. Clumsily written or eloquent, they are love letters, everyday letters, secret letters and mundane letters talking about fruit and babies and tennis matches, from people signing themselves as Majorie or Jean….I can’t bring myself to dispose of these snippets and snapshots of lives that once meant (or still do mean) so much.”Roberta has always been intrigued by the ephemera she discovers trapped between the pages of the books that find their way into the book store where she works so when she discovers a letter in a book once owned by her grandmother, she is thrilled with finding such an unexpected treasure. But the letter, addressed to her grandmother, Dorothea, is puzzling for in it the man Roberta believes was her grandfather, Jan Pietrykowski declares he cannot marry Dorothea a year after she was led to believe he died in combat.Dual timelines explores Roberta’s present and Dorothea’s hidden past, two stories of love, loss, heartbreak and joy.I didn’t find Roberta’s story as interesting as her grandmother’s, in part I think because she is so self contained. Roberta is a reserved woman in her thirties who enjoys her position at the Old and New Bookstore but is otherwise lonely and untethered. She struggles to befriend her colleagues and has drifted into an affair with a man she isn’t sure she even likes. The mystery of the letter Roberta discovers in the suitcase given to her by her father gives her something to focus on, but with her beloved father dying and her 109 year old grandmother near insensible in a nursing home, she is not sure where to turn to for answers.As Dorothea’s past unspools, the secret the letter hints at, kept from her son and granddaughter, is slowly revealed. Dorothea suffered a lonely childhood which she escaped, against her mother’s wishes, by marrying a young farmer, Albert Sinclair, envisioning a happy family with lots of children reared in the wholesome countryside. Sadly their initial happiness waned as it was blighted by repeated miscarriages and a tragic stillbirth until the couple could barely stand to look at each other, overwhelmed by their disappointment. On the eve of World War Two, Albert escaped by enlisting, leaving Dorothea to manage as best she could. To survive she took in laundry, and hosted a pair of ‘land girls’, resigned to a life devoid of love. Then a fighter plane crashes in her back yard bringing Polish Squadron Leader Jan Pietrykowski to her door, and slowly breathes new life into Dorothea’s barren existence. It takes a little time to warm to Dorothea, who like her granddaughter seems aloof and a little odd, but I found her sympathetic and became intrigued by her story. I would have preferred to spend more time with Dorothea in the past than with Roberta in the present.The plot encompasses mystery, romance and tragedy in both the contemporary and historical settings but it is driven by character rather than action. The pace is measured, though the alternate chapters help to provide momentum. I thought the writing lovely, evocative and expressive without being overdone.An impressive debut, Mrs Sinclair’s Suitcase is a poignant novel about secrets, love, sacrifice and happiness.
    • 2/5
      Mrs. Sinclair’s Suitcase by Louise Walters is a strange British novel. Roberta works at Old and New Bookshop. She loves looking in old books and finding old letters and such. She keeps them all. One day her father brings in some old books that belong to his mother (Roberta’s Babunia or grandmother). As she is going through the books she discovers a letter written to Dorothea. It is written by Jan Pietrykowski who is Roberta’s grandfather. The letter was written a year after he was dead (at least when they were told he died). The suitcase has a label inside with Mrs. D. Sinclair written on it. Who is Mrs. Sinclair? Roberta starts looking into her family history to find out the truth.The book goes between the present and past. We get to see what happened to Dorothea and what she endured (takes place during World War II). I like the basic premise of the novel, but not the final book. It is told in the first person with Roberta rambling on (and on and on) with her thoughts. You just wanted to tell her to shut up. I give Mrs. Sinclair’s Suitcase 2 out of 5 stars. I did not enjoy this novel (as you can tell). It was just not a pleasurable novel to read.I received a complimentary copy of Mrs. Sinclair’s Suitcase from First to Read and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.