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    Fall on Your Knees
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    Fall on Your Knees
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    Fall on Your Knees
    Audiobook21 hours

    Fall on Your Knees

    Written by Ann-Marie MacDonald

    Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

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    About this audiobook

    Compellingly written, by turns menacingly dark and hilariously funny, this is an epic tale of five generations of sin, guilt, and redemption.

    The Piper family is steeped in secrets, lies, and unspoken truths. At the eye of the storm is one secret that threatens to shake their lives - even destroy them.

    Set on stormy Cape Breton Island off of Nova Scotia, Fall on Your Knees is an internationally acclaimed multigenerational saga that chronicles the lives of four unforgettable sisters. Theirs is a world filled with driving ambition, inescapable family bonds, and forbidden love.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighBridge Audio
    Release dateApr 12, 2016
    ISBN9781681682198
    Author

    Ann-Marie MacDonald

    Novelist and dramatist Ann-Marie MacDonald is the author of the internationally bestselling and award-winning novel Fall on Your Knees. She is also the playwright of Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet, which won the Governor General's Award for Drama. She lives in Toronto.

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    Reviews for Fall on Your Knees

    4/5

    1,408 ratings65 reviews

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    • 3/5
      3.25 starsIt is the early 1900s in Nova Scotia. 13-year old Materia falls for James, so she breaks away from her arranged marriage her parents have made for her and marries James, only to be disowned by her parents. James dotes on their first daughter, Kathleen and though, years later, they have more daughters, their marriage turns sour. The book not only follows them, but follows their daughters during their lives. I was a little disappointed. I really liked The Way the Crow Flies, but for me, this wasn't nearly as interesting. It didn't grab me or hold my interest. I really didn't like any of the characters, which always makes it harder for me to enjoy a book. I wasn't compelled to pick up the book and/or to keep reading. Overall, I thought it was o.k., but nothing special.
    • 2/5
      Disturbing and disgusting tale of a family gone wrong.
    • 4/5
      I found this book very difficult to review because it is so dark and twisted, and the way that things are revealed throughout the book left me wondering-is that really what she means? I persevered with the story though and the secrets are all revealed by the end. This book is about a VERY disfunctional family. All seems so normal at first, and then little revelations would come out, and as I read I knew where each of these revelations was heading. I don't think I've ever met characters like the Piper sisters before. Each one chooses her own coping mechanisms to deal with the stuff that is going on in their house. Some of these coping mechanisms are downright dangerous, and others just serve to isolate them further from their community.So many secrets and so much horror in one family. The time of the book runs from before WWI through the war and the depression, and actually past WWII, although not much mention is made of this last war. The majority of the book is set in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Some of the book is set in New York City. But the book covers everything from wife and child beating, to huge family secrets, to incest and other sexual perversions, to very questionable deaths; and throughout it all and holding the plot together is the music. From the classic music that Kathleen Piper sings to ragtime, to the post WWI jazz and blues so prevalent on the streets of Harlem. The Book is so very dark, but very well written. I must say the book was not at all what I expected. It was like watching a train wreck-you know it's going to be horrible, but you're compelled to watch anyway. I think Francis Piper especially will stay with me for a long time.
    • 3/5
      I had a difficult time with this book. The story of sisters and their dysfunctional upbringing - based in Cape Breton. The family was completely devastated by a tragic event that took place in their family. It spans many years and the characters never quite recover, leading them to cope in very different ways. It is dark and sad and went on for too long. I finished it but struggled to do so.
    • 5/5
      Oh my goodness, what a sprawling tale with all the ups and downs and skeletons in the closet of real lives. I absolutely loved it!
    • 5/5
      A great read!
    • 5/5
      This was an unexpected treasure of a book! I'm not always a follower of Oprah picks...it just aggravates me that she noses in to my book shelves... :[ And, I chose to read "Fall on Your Knees" before she chose it, so there!!This story was absorbing. It was so well written and engaging that I stayed up all night and couldn't bear to get up even to get a refill on my diet coke. Ms. MacDonald brings her characters to life so much that I had to keep reminding myself the book was fiction. It made me believe these people had to have existed somewhere for her to have known them so well. I still believe that....I actually recommend this book to everyone who asks me if I have a good book I can recommend to them. Does that give you an idea of how strongly I feel about "Fall On Your Knees?"Please do yourselves a favor and go read the cover and summary on this book at your local bookstore or online...I'm not giving away any of the details here so you will. You'll love it!
    • 5/5
      Since this book's already been around for nearly fifteen years, was an international bestseller and an Oprah's Book Club selection and won numerous honors, what the hell am I gonna say about it that will matter? I discovered it late, certainly, but wow, this is a powerful story, and will still be a hundred years from now! Any book that is billed as a multi-generational 'family saga' usually puts me off, but this one is marked by a quirky, dark gallows kind of humor, as well as totally unexpected and shocking twists, and grabbed my attention from the very start and held it for over five hundred pages to its bitter end. All of its characters are well realized and rivetingly real as rendered by MacDonald. The twisted and tortured Piper family of Cape Breton Island are unforgettable - James and Materia, as well as the brood of daughters: Kathleen, Mercedes, Frances and Lily. I read the book in just a few days and these people are still showing up as half-recognized ghosts in my dreams. Because so many things happen in this book, and many of these events are unexpected and shocking, I'm not going into any specifics, as I abhor spoilers in reviews - and most specific comments would spoil something. You'll have to take my word for it (and probably the words of hundreds of thousands other readers), this book is simply one hell of a ride. I've made a promise to myself to read MacDonald's other book before too long, and I've noticed that one is over 800 pages long! No matter. This girl can WRITE!
    • 5/5
      I loved this book! It is set on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, beginning in 1890 and spanning over fifty years into the 20th century. The setting and scenery are easily imagined, as MacDonald paints a detailed portrait of the Piper family and of the island. MacDonald is a beautiful writer and gives perfect descriptions of her characters. Though MacDonald deals with intense issues, she does it delicately and with sensitivity. I strongly and wholeheartedly recommend this book!
    • 5/5
      I absolutely love this book.. I stumbled across it in high school and loved it, and I have read it several times since and it still intrigues me. I enjoy the way the narrative is written; the first page you are instantly hooked by the simplicity of the narrator's observations. Detailed, but not to the point of boredom, this by far is my favorite book by Ms. McDonald.If you enjoy books that follow a family over a number of years,(i.e. sagas) you will definitely enjoy this book.
    • 4/5
      MacDonald's novel is intense, gothic, and at times overwhelming in the telling of the lives of the Piper family in the early twentieth century, whose secrets shape the lives of the children in various ways. James sets trouble in motion when he eloped with 13-year-old Materia to the disgust of her family, but soon becomes disgusted with her himself for her childishness and Lebanese heritage. His only consolation is their stunning firstborn Kathleen, with the beauty and operatic voice of an angel. When his love for her threatens to consume him to the point of incest, he takes drastic measures to distract himself, such as enlisting in Word War I, and fathering more children with Materia. The surviving children, Mercedes and Frances, grow up to be different as night and day, but they cling to each other for support throughout their parents' dysfunctional, and often abusive, marriage. As the two grow into adulthood, secrets from their past threaten them from the shadows, devastating mistakes from childhood haunt them in disjointed pieces, and one sister dies as another takes her place. This new sister, Lily, becomes the catalyst through which the surviving Pipers attempt to redeem themselves. The enduring mystery is left hanging over the family until the end: What exactly happened to Kathleen during her trip to NYC while training to become a famous singer that caused her to return ruined, pregnant, and silent?The novel is lengthy, but engrossing enough to keep the reader pushing onward. Each character alternates between sympathetic and unsympathetic, hovering between forgiveness and unforgivable. This aura of purgatory fits in well with the theme of Catholicism and its associated subthemes,sin, baptism, and redemption. This is aided by the perspective changing from character to character without notice; the reader slips in and out of every character's mind in a godlike way.The story takes bizarre turns, and sometimes the reader is left to wonder if certain events really happened, or if they are not being remembered correctly by the characters. Their motives are not always explained, but left to a sort of mysticism as an explanation. This is never more apparent than with the character of Frances, whose devastating mission she feels is for Lily's benefit threatens to tear everyone apart, but somehow becomes redeemed through it. I fear that MacDonald left a lot to be explained after the crescendo of the climax. On the whole, the novel flows with descriptive prose that is very dreamlike. This was effective in all parts except in the few action sequences, which made it difficult to discern time and concrete fact. (Think the shaky-camera effect in films.) I had to go back and reread a few passages to get a firmer idea on what was going on. But the dreamy quality is what makes the novel work, and why some of its most harrowing content can be endured. Like the characters, we tell ourselves that the worst of it is a dream, move on, keep moving on, and hope it doesn't haunt us, like it haunts the Pipers.
    • 5/5
      A novel that spans more than 50 years of the twentieth century, this is a quality read, set mostly in Nova Scotia, with a couple of forays across the border, mainly to New York. It is not really a "family saga" although the action centres around the life of a family across four generations. It is beautifully written. MacDonald shows her skills with language that takes the reader on a journey through haunting darkness, fear and foreboding, poignancy, an occasional step into almost wistful humour, to arrive ultimately at hope. The story moves back and forth in time - a device that in some novels becomes clumsy and makes for a disjointed read. In MacDonald's case, she handles the technique with skill, each step back is short and happens at the right place to engage the reader and enhance their understanding of the here and now. If there is a criticism, it is that with the unpredictablity of the plot, it almost gets lost about half way through - raising fears that maybe MacDonald isn't really sure where to take her story. Fortunately, it regains focus to reach a somewhat poignant but generally satisfying conclusion. Not all the loose ends are tied, and it isn't a cloying happy ending - it's one that is believable for this story. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      This books is crazy and weird, but I couldn't put it down!
    • 4/5
      Tough to get into - tough to put down once I did.
    • 3/5
      I can't deny that I read this book avidly and enjoyed it, but it's really just an oddly combined feast of sensationalism and sentimentality that left me feeling a little sick and bloated when I'd finished it.
    • 4/5
      Although this is a dark book I enjoyed it very much.
    • 4/5
      This was a very interesting story about a very odd family. It was a little disjointed sometimes, mostly because it would jump around in the timeline from time to time, but you could usually pick up what was happening pretty quickly. The description of the characters in the "back of the book" doesn't really do them justice. I found myself rereading parts because something important would happen very quickly, and you wouldn't realize the importance until later.
    • 3/5
      I am giving this 3 stars for the first 300 pages. The first 300 pages were a good read. Between page 300-348, I had it! I no longer cared about the characters, I didn't care what happened, and frankly I was hoping they would start jumping off the cliff.
      It was so depressing. I agree with many of the negative reviews here.
      If I give up on a book, it is usually in the first chapter or 2, not the last 1/4 of the book.
      As others say,there are too many good books to waste my time on this one any further.

      I love multi generational stories too,but this was not one of them.
    • 3/5
      Multigenerational saga taking place in New Foundland. While the characters were interesting and the writing good, this clearly could have been a book and it's sequel.
    • 5/5
      Every once in a while you get a book that knocks the wind out of you and for me, that book was FALL ON YOUR KNEES. In many ways it's typical of some of the angst-ridden stories that come out of the Maritime provinces but regardless it still stands out. Some have said that the mystery/twists were predictable and I partially agree - some I saw coming, some I didn't.
    • 5/5
      Beautifully written.
    • 4/5
      Beautiful writing, difficult to put down, yet difficult to read too. I would definitely recommend it for the style and strong literary ability of the writer. She uses descriptions artfully and the text is full of symbolism that is extremely interesting to try to figure out. She is truly an artist of words. She conceived an amazingly intricate story, yet it is also horribly sad, which I don't think is always necessary for truly good fiction. It is difficult to read epics that span generations and to feel particularly attached to any character when you know you're going to be reading about their death eventually. It is so well-written though, that you find yourself feeling differently about the characters depending on the circumstances in their lives at the time. The characters are multi-faceted and almost flesh. You wish they could have had a better life, even though they are fictional.
    • 4/5
      Fall On Your Knees was an Oprah book club selection and has all the elements of a great book to discuss with friends - wonderfully complex characters, a few unexpected plot twists and those pivotal decision points, where a character's choice determines the fate of the book. Although this audio edition is abridged, at 10 cds, I did not feel that I was missing too many key points, and the narration was well done. If you're looking for some good literary fiction, give this one a try.
    • 3/5
      Generally a pretty good book with some good writing the ending is a little disappointing.
    • 4/5
      Fall On Your Knees is a big, messy car wreck of a novel, and it has a car wreck's macabre pull. The book touches on many nasty subjects, including incest and suicide, yet it held my interest throughout its significant length. The key to its power lies largely in the girls at the centre of the narrative, the four unlucky daughters of James Piper. The characters were each distinctive and well-drawn, carrying between them many moments of heartbreak and dark humour. MacDonald did go over the top with the 'quirkiness' at times, making this a book I would not recommend to others but which I did, despite everything, enjoy.
    • 1/5
      I found this book very disturbing.
    • 3/5
      I listened to this book as a download from my library. I thought I had read this years ago but I really couldn't remember much about it. Now that I've listened to the whole book I think maybe I didn't get past the beginning. There were parts of this book that I really liked but a major plot device really bothered me and I think perhaps I didn't finish reading it because of that.At the most basic this is the story of a family in Nova Scotia. The mother was only 13 years old when she ran away with the father and after she lost her virginity to him her family agreed to the marriage but disowned her. Their first child was beautiful and gifted musically and the father poured his love into her, essentially ignoring his wife. And then when the daughter is about thirteen the father becomes sexually attracted to her. This is the part that really disturbed me. Two more daughters were born because the father tried to subvert his desire for his daughter by resuming sex with his wife. However, incest raises its head again causing irrepairable damage to the family.There is no doubt this is a compelling story but I felt dirty and disturbed after I finished it.
    • 2/5
      Long winded, subjects of incest, characters hard to understand
    • 3/5
      It's quite difficult to review this. From the harrowing descriptions of child abuse in both this and "The Way the Crow Flies" it seems highly likely that Anne Marie MacDonald must have been a victim, or at least a witness, of abuse herself. There were times when I just couldn't bear to contiue reading, although I did manage to finish it. She is a brilliant writer, even if her style is a bit overwrought and purple on occasions. But I would have liked at least something cheerful amid the gloom; James's actions basically ruin the lives of his entire family. It was heartbreaking to discover at the end that his daughter Kathleen, initially a rather unsympathetic character, had started to construct a rich, fulfilled life for herself, only to have it brutally interrupted.Do not read if you are prone to depression!
    • 3/5
      A family history about a Maritime Canadian family of Irish/Scottish & Lebanese descent. We come into the story before the Irish/Scottish father and Lebanese mother meet and watch their lives develop. The narrative viewpoint is from the present but it is fairly subtle and we are fully drawn into the lives of the characters. The story revolves around the father's attraction to his first daughter, the mother's awareness of this, the daughter's singing ability, and what each family member's response is to their relationships. We see their world mostly through the actions/thoughts of the younger daughters, of which there are three. It is not until the end of the book that we see the true shape of the family tree. Very well written.