Broken for You

By: Stephanie Kallos

Narrated by: Anna Fields

When we meet septuagenarian Margaret Hughes, she is living alone in a mansion in Seattle with only a massive collection of valuable antiques for company. Enter Wanda Schultz, a young woman with a broken heart who has come to Seattle to search for her wayward boyfriend. Both women are guarding dark secrets and have spent many years building up protective armor against the outside world. But as the two begin their tentative dance of friendship, the armor begins to fall away, and Margaret opens her house to the younger woman.

This launches a series of remarkable and unanticipated events, leading Margaret to discover a way to redeem her cursed past and Wanda to learn the true purpose of her cross-country journey.

Exuberant, heartbreaking, and alive with a potpourri of eccentric and irresistible characters, Broken for You is a testament to the saving graces of surrogate families and shows how far the tiniest repair jobs can go in righting the world's wrongs.

©2004 Stephanie Kallos (P)2004 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Well-crafted plotting and crackling wit make this debut novel by Seattle author Kallos a delight to read and a memory to savor." (Booklist)
"[A] dreamy, powerful tale of familial warring, secrets, and redemption....This haunting, memorable debut is reminiscent of early Atwood, peopled by lovably imperfect and eccentric characters." (Publishers Weekly)
"A dazzling mosaic of intersecting lives and fates...[A] multi-layered rhapsody....Kallos has a rare, deft way with whimsy, dream sequences and hallucinations. Comparisons to John Irving and Tennesse Williams would not be amiss in this show-stopping debut." (Kirkus Reviews)

Incredible listen, ought to be a movie!

What more can I say, that the other reviewers haven't already said. There must be some movie producer who has bought the option to this wonderful story! It was excellent... I cried, I laughed and I even sent a copy to my mother-in-law! Need I say more?

Couldn't finish it ...

I have listened to a number of books performed by Anna Fields, and I like her style. Her performance is not the issue with Broken For You.

The point is rather that there is no issue at all. There was nothing I hated about Broken For You but nothing I particularly liked either. Everything lukewarm. I just drifted out of it after the first third because I couldn't care for any of the characters, and I couldn't get a feel for the mood of the book. Initially, I liked the idea about the old woman and the dishes and so on but there just didn't happen anything with it.

Basically, this novel offered nothing to anchor me to it. With all the fantastic audiobooks out there, this one can be skipped.

A gentle break

This book is a source of comfort...if you’ve “lost” someone, if you’ve been betrayed, if you’ve had to live with pain. It’s about need and connections and about creating a family that has no biological base.

It’s not a thriller, but it is a loving mystery.

I'll be pondering this book for a long time.

So much to think about in this beautiful story. We are all so beautifully broken and the reassembly is what gives us meaning. Anna Fields narration beautifully captured the characters

Unexpected. I enjoyed it.

A bit slow at first but it shaped up. The narration was good and the story was unique.