The Shell Seekers (1987) - Rosamunde Pilcher

Written by Rosamunde Pilcher
Read by Hayley Atwell
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release date: September 26, 2017
Duration: 19:26:41

Rosamunde Pilcher’s beloved, modern classic novel (1987) is the captivating story of one family—mothers and daughters, husbands and lovers—and of the passions and heartbreak that have held them together for three generations.

On the heels of a hasty wartime marriage, Penelope Keeling is left to repent at leisure in the English seaside town of Porthkerris, where her artist father and her French mother are spending the duration of World War II. Safe in the embracing arms of that warm household, Penelope forgets her sour husband and takes a lover, and in that relationship, too, she weathers the war’s privations and its hardest blows.

At the end of a long and useful life, Penelope Keeling’s prized possession is The Shell Seekers, painted by her father, and symbolizing her unconventional life, from bohemian childhood to wartime romance. When her grown children learn their grandfather’s work is now worth a fortune, each has an idea as to what Penelope should do.

Nancy, obsessed over status, and sleek Noel, adept at getting the most and giving the least, join in urging their mother to sell The Shell Seekers, a painting that gives her great joy. Only Olivia, a cool and collected magazine editor, refuses to be party to their barely concealed avarice.

But as she recalls the passions, tragedies, and secrets of her life, she knows there is only one answer…and it lies in her heart.

In a beautifully detailed family saga that shifts effortlessly back and forth in time, Pilcher recounts Penelope’s story and that of her three children. When their grandfather’s work suddenly comes into vogue,