Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters Free Audiobook Download by Mark Dunn

Narrated by four different actors, Ella Minnow Pea is a collection of letters written between two patients in a psychiatric hospital. While one of the speakers is schizophrenic, the other speaker is autistic. The story tracks both people's lives over time and how they are connected through their correspondence.

"It's a simple story. A girl, Ella Minnow Pea, has a very important job: to feed her family. But what happens when the frozen peas she's collected in the fall thaw out and turn into mush? Will she have enough for all of them? And what about winter?" The audiobook is read by four different narrators and is formatted as an epistolary novel with short letters from multiple characters that are written to Ella.

Ella Minnow Pea is a novel about an unlikely friendship between two people who certainly wouldn't seem to have anything in common. The story starts with the narrator, a woman named Willow who is living on her own and struggling financially. She has been working at a daycare for the last few years. One day, her boss, Keith, asks if she can take care of his daughter while he goes on vacation. At first, this feels like a nightmare but then she meets Ella Minnow Pea and everything changes.

The year is 1871. Just before Christmas, the small village of Ella Minnow Pea on the shores of Lake Erie sends all its children to Cincinnati in hopes that it will lift their fortunes. But when parents and siblings are taken away by the railroad company and a dreary prison farm looms on the horizon, small town life looks bleak indeed.

The audiobook is read by 6 narrators. The narration is rich and engaging, as well as well-paced. By having multiple narrators it creates a sense that there are many voices in this story (and in the minds of the reader) and there's a richness to that.

After the death of their mother and father, seventeen year old Tess is forced to live with her estranged grandmother in New York City. At first, life with Gram is fairly easy, but then Tess meets Madeline who is the new girl in school. What follows is a tangled mess of identity that ultimately leads to betrayal and revenge on both sides.