The Secret Life of Sunflowers
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $25.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kendra Murray
-
Written by:
-
Marta Molnar
-
Dana Marton
About this listen
"This book draws all the emotions out of you. I went from tears to snorting with laughter. It was both lighthearted and heart breaking, yet it inspires me to live my best life! " (Michelle Cox)
When Hollywood auctioneer Emsley Wilson finds her famous grandmother's diary while cleaning out her New York brownstone, the pages are full of surprises. The first surprise is, the diary isn't her grandmother's. It belongs to Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law.
Johanna inherited Vincent van Gogh's paintings. They were all she had, and they weren't worth anything. She was a 28-year-old widow with a baby in the 1800s, without any means of supporting herself, living in Paris where she barely spoke the language. Yet she managed to introduce Vincent's legacy to the world.
The inspiration couldn't come at a better time for Emsley. With her business failing, an unexpected love turning up in her life, and family secrets unraveling, can she find answers in the past?
©2022 Marta E. Dana (P)2023 Marta E. DanaYou may also enjoy...
-
Women We Buried, Women We Burned
- A Memoir
- Written by: Rachel Louise Snyder
- Narrated by: Rachel Louise Snyder
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Snyder was eight years old when her mother died, and her distraught father thrust the family into an evangelical, cult-like existence halfway across the country. Furiously rebellious, she was expelled from school and home at age sixteen. Living out of her car and relying on strangers, Rachel found herself masquerading as an adult, talking her way into college, and eventually traveling the globe.
-
-
Fantastic memoir!
- By C. Babic on 2023-12-13
Written by: Rachel Louise Snyder
-
The Covenant of Water
- Written by: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Stunning Book!
- By Suzanne Flaro on 2023-06-14
Written by: Abraham Verghese
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- Written by: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
Beautifully read, but a slow story to unravel.
- By Denise on 2023-08-29
Written by: Ann Patchett
-
The Storm We Made
- A Novel
- Written by: Vanessa Chan
- Narrated by: Samantha Tan
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara’s family is in terrible danger: her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into service at the comfort stations. Her eldest daughter Jujube, who works at a tea house frequented by drunk Japanese soldiers, becomes angrier by the day.
Written by: Vanessa Chan
-
Mrs Van Gogh
- Written by: Caroline Cauchi
- Narrated by: Catrin Walker-Booth
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1890, Vincent Van Gogh dies penniless, unknown, a man tortured by his own mind. Eleven years later his work is exhibited in Paris and his unparalleled talent finally recognised. The tireless efforts of one woman gave the world one of its greatest creative minds. But twenty-eight year old Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger, Vincent’s sister-in-law and the keeper of his immense collection of paintings, sketches and letters, has, until now, been written out of history. This beautiful, moving novel finally gives this extraordinary woman a voice.
Written by: Caroline Cauchi
-
The Getaway Girls
- Written by: Dee MacDonald
- Narrated by: Jilly Bond
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Connie McColl is finally free to make her own decisions for the first time in decades. And when she meets glamorous Gill and downtrodden Maggie, at a rather dull flower arranging class, it seems that she’s not the only one dreaming of adventure. The three very different women all agree it’s about time they had a holiday to remember. So they make a pact for this summer to be their best yet - and drive off into the sunset together....
-
-
It whisked me away to Europe.
- By Kate on 2023-03-04
Written by: Dee MacDonald
-
Women We Buried, Women We Burned
- A Memoir
- Written by: Rachel Louise Snyder
- Narrated by: Rachel Louise Snyder
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Snyder was eight years old when her mother died, and her distraught father thrust the family into an evangelical, cult-like existence halfway across the country. Furiously rebellious, she was expelled from school and home at age sixteen. Living out of her car and relying on strangers, Rachel found herself masquerading as an adult, talking her way into college, and eventually traveling the globe.
-
-
Fantastic memoir!
- By C. Babic on 2023-12-13
Written by: Rachel Louise Snyder
-
The Covenant of Water
- Written by: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Stunning Book!
- By Suzanne Flaro on 2023-06-14
Written by: Abraham Verghese
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- Written by: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
Beautifully read, but a slow story to unravel.
- By Denise on 2023-08-29
Written by: Ann Patchett
-
The Storm We Made
- A Novel
- Written by: Vanessa Chan
- Narrated by: Samantha Tan
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara’s family is in terrible danger: her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into service at the comfort stations. Her eldest daughter Jujube, who works at a tea house frequented by drunk Japanese soldiers, becomes angrier by the day.
Written by: Vanessa Chan
-
Mrs Van Gogh
- Written by: Caroline Cauchi
- Narrated by: Catrin Walker-Booth
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1890, Vincent Van Gogh dies penniless, unknown, a man tortured by his own mind. Eleven years later his work is exhibited in Paris and his unparalleled talent finally recognised. The tireless efforts of one woman gave the world one of its greatest creative minds. But twenty-eight year old Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger, Vincent’s sister-in-law and the keeper of his immense collection of paintings, sketches and letters, has, until now, been written out of history. This beautiful, moving novel finally gives this extraordinary woman a voice.
Written by: Caroline Cauchi
-
The Getaway Girls
- Written by: Dee MacDonald
- Narrated by: Jilly Bond
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Connie McColl is finally free to make her own decisions for the first time in decades. And when she meets glamorous Gill and downtrodden Maggie, at a rather dull flower arranging class, it seems that she’s not the only one dreaming of adventure. The three very different women all agree it’s about time they had a holiday to remember. So they make a pact for this summer to be their best yet - and drive off into the sunset together....
-
-
It whisked me away to Europe.
- By Kate on 2023-03-04
Written by: Dee MacDonald
-
Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- Written by: Hernan Diaz
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Jonathan Davis, Mozhan Marnò, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.
-
-
Pretentious
- By Anonymous User on 2024-11-17
Written by: Hernan Diaz
-
Letters Across the Sea
- Written by: Genevieve Graham
- Narrated by: Erin Moon, Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by a little-known chapter of World War II history, a young Protestant girl and her Jewish neighbor are caught up in the terrible wave of hate sweeping the globe on the eve of war in this powerful love story that’s perfect for fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
-
-
A Truth Is Told
- By Ksky on 2024-03-18
Written by: Genevieve Graham
-
The Frozen River
- A Novel
- Written by: Ariel Lawhon
- Narrated by: Jane Oppenheimer, Ariel Lawhon
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice.
-
-
My Book of the Year
- By snowpatch100 on 2024-01-28
Written by: Ariel Lawhon
-
The Librarian of Burned Books
- A Novel
- Written by: Brianna Labuskes
- Narrated by: Caroline Hewitt, Eleanor Caudill, Karissa Vacker
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For fans of The Rose Code and The Paris Library, The Librarian of Burned Books is a captivating WWII-era novel about the intertwined fates of three women who believe in the power of books to triumph over the very darkest moments of war.
-
-
Absolutely outstanding
- By Amazon Customer on 2024-05-03
Written by: Brianna Labuskes
-
A Life Without Water
- Life Without Water, Book1
- Written by: Marci Bolden
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Bowman is sick. Very sick. While he still can, he has some amends to make and some promises to fulfill. But to do that, he not only needs his ex-wife's agreement...he needs her. With the past hovering between them like a ghost, Carol and John embark on a decades-overdue road trip. Together they plunge back into a life without water...but which may ultimately set them free.
-
-
Robotic narration, could not finish
- By Chickalicious on 2020-07-31
Written by: Marci Bolden
-
The Glass Ocean
- A Novel
- Written by: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White
- Narrated by: Vanessa Johansson, Saskia Maarleveld, Brittany Pressley
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a captivating historical mystery, infused with romance, that links the lives of three women across a century - two deep in the past, one in the present - to the doomed passenger liner, RMS Lusitania.... Her finances are in dire straits, and best-selling author Sarah Blake is struggling to find a big idea for her next book. Desperate, she breaks the one promise she made to her mother and opens an old chest that belonged to her great-grandfather, who died when the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915. What she discovers there could change history.
-
-
No male voices
- By Rosemary F. on 2022-04-07
Written by: Beatriz Williams, and others
What listeners say about The Secret Life of Sunflowers
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Deirdre Marshall
- 2024-10-20
Loved the setting of the 1880’s and Holland
Wasn’t wild about the contemporary New York storyline but loved the VanGogh brothers and sister in law parts.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 2023-06-30
Great storytelling
Entertaining read and a great twist. Appreciate all of the research and effort. A great story is like a visit from a good friend. Always sorry to come to the end.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 2024-08-02
Inspiring story
The compelling and parallel stories of determined women -both historical and fictional- moved the narrative forward seamlessly. Worth the time to listen. Narration is well done.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Susan Lesy
- 2023-06-08
Great book
Loved the story, character’s descriptions. Love mysteries & would have loved to have known Vi, lived life to the fullest ❤️
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mrs Jodie D Ingraham
- 2024-01-07
Story
First I want to say I’m not a fiction reader so I’m not sure why I bought this book but I really enjoyed it. The strength and perseverance of Johanna and the lifelike of Emslee were a great boost to each other. Definitely worth reading
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 2023-11-15
Enjoyed listening to this book.
I like the historical aspect and learning more about Vincent and Johanna . Made me do some research on the art.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joanne
- 2023-08-05
The Life of Sunflowers 🌻
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I will recommend The Life of Sunflowers to my friends 💛
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Heather Green
- 2024-02-11
Fascinating mixture of reality and fiction
I loved the intertwining of the stories, the historical facts of the Van Gogh family and the fictional modern day story of Emslie’s family. The colors, the feelings and the personalities came to life with the narration. I loved this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sue S.
- 2023-11-12
Great Listen
Read this for book club and thoroughly enjoyed it. Great research on Johanna and Vincent.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Debra B
- 2024-03-16
this was Boringly painful to read.
I cannot believe I stuck it out until the bitter end to listen to. Hated the narration as well.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!