Showing results by narrator "Natalie Pela" in All Categories

Over several seasons, Kassabova spends time with the people of this magical region. She meets women and men who work in a long lineage of foragers, healers and mystics. She learns about wild plants and the ancient practice of herbalism, and experiences a symbiotic system where nature and culture have blended for thousands of years. Through her captivating encounters we come to feel the devastating weight of the ecological and cultural disinheritance that the people of this valley have suffered. Yet, in her search for elixir, she also finds reasons for hope.

Australian writer Amaryllis Gacioppo has been raised on stories of original homes, on the Palermo of her mother, the Benghazi of her grandmother and the Turin of her great-grandmother. But what does belonging mean when you're not sure of where home is? Is the modern nation state defined by those who flourish there or by those who aren’t welcome? Is visiting the land of one’s ancestors a return, a chance to feel complete, or a fantasy?

Mother-of-three Emelie is in a tough spot in life. Since the father of her children moved out, she has struggled to make ends meet. Budgets are tight, work is boring and she's reluctant to start dating again. She's just not ready. When things seem at their darkest, she receives an unexpected letter - and the content will change her life forever.

This is the story of the greatest funambulist who ever lived. Born into a postwar circus family, our nameless star was unwanted and forgotten, abandoned in the shadows of the big top. Until the bright light of Serendipity Wilson threw her into focus. Now an adult, haunted by an incident in which a child was lost from the circus, our narrator, a tightrope artiste, weaves together her spellbinding tales of circus legends, earthy magic and folklore, all in the hope of finding the child. But will her story be enough to bring the pair together again?

In the summer of 1942, the Rabinowitz family narrowly escaped the Nazi ghetto in their Polish town by fleeing to the forbidding Bialowieza Forest. They miraculously survived two years in the woods—through brutal winters, Typhus outbreaks, and merciless Nazi raids—until they were liberated by the Red Army in 1944. After the war, they trekked across the Alps into Italy, where they settled as refugees before eventually immigrating to the United States.

Anima is an extraordinary portrayal of pastoral life, where humans and animals exist in profound interdependence. Kassabova conjures the spirit of this remarkable place with intimacy and empathy, and helps us imagine how we might all begin to heal our broken relationship with the natural world.

On the island of Sardinön, Easter is fast approaching but Emelie still has some difficult questions on her mind. Should she take the job at the community centre? If her new partner Andreas has a child with a lesbian couple, and he moves in with Emelie – then she’ll have a baby in the house. Does she want that? And her finances are a constant worry, but it seems that the vase she’s been left by Aunt Astrid is worth a bit of money and perhaps that will improve her situation. But when the vase disappears, Emelie is dismayed and doesn’t know what to think.

Cilla is a 22-year-old contract killer, specialising in the dry job: a murder interpreted as death by natural causes. Neither strong, nor beautiful, she isn’t your typical female protagonist. In fact, she is so unremarkable as to render her almost invisible, an advantage in her line of work. Cilla has survived because she is clever, stubborn and lucky. Plus, the weapons training and lessons on poison at the elite Academy 43 have stood her in good stead. But statistically her luck is bound to run out. She must find a way to reinvent herself. Soon.

Ten lucky people have won a place at the most exclusive launch event of the century: the grand opening of the Hotel Artemis, the first hotel on the moon. It's an invitation to die for. As their transport departs for its return to Earth and the doors seal shut behind them, the guests take the next leap for mankind. However, they soon discover that all is not as it seems. The champagne may be flowing, but there is no one to pour it. Room service is available, but there is no one to deliver it. Besides the ten of them, they are completely alone.