The Growing Season

By: Helen Sedgwick

Narrated by: Clare Corbett

Now anyone can have a baby. With FullLife’s safe and affordable healthcare plan, the brave new world is here. Without the pouch, Eva might not have been born. And yet she has sacrificed her career, and maybe even her relationship, campaigning against FullLife’s biotech baby pouches. Despite her efforts, everyone prefers a world where women are liberated from danger and constraint and all can share the joy of childbearing. Perhaps FullLife has helped transform society for the better? But just as Eva decides to accept this, she discovers that something strange is happening at FullLife. Piotr hasn’t seen Eva in years. Not since their life together dissolved in tragedy. But Piotr’s a journalist who has also uncovered something sinister about FullLife. What drove him and Eva apart may just bring them back together, as they search for the truth behind FullLife’s closed doors, and face a truth of their own. A beautiful story about family, loss and what our future might hold, The Growing Season is an original and powerful novel by a rising talent.©2017 Helen Sedgwick (P)2018 Bolinda Publishing

Critic reviews

'Corbett's narration is versatile and deft, moving skillfully between the clear precision of the omniscient narrator and the heartrending sorrow of grieving parents ... a full-bodied, not-to-be-missed listening experience.' (AudioFile Magazine)

'Sedgwick describes her off-kilter world brilliantly and she considers the big ideas in her novel from all sides like a true scientist ... It’s smart and thoughtful writing.' (The Big Issue)

'... an intriguing, eye-opening and potentially worrying glimpse into an alternative societal path.' (Scotland on Sunday)

'... a compelling what-if about the female body, technology and power.' (The Guardian)

Promising, but audio quality is so poor

I started listening to this, but couldn't even make it through the first chapter because the audio quality is so bad. It sounds like it has been put through a high pass filter - in other words, almost all the higher frequencies have been filtered out. Better audio production would have made this listenable, but as it is, trying to listen while doing other things that make any kind of sound is just frustrating. I have hundreds of Audible books and this is the first one I've had this bad an experience with, in terms of audio quality.