People Who Knew Me

Product Information

Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? Episode 1 of People Who Knew Me will be available on first BBC Sounds on 23 May, with episode 2 dropping on the 25 May. New episodes will drop twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the entire series will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from Monday 26 June. In People Who Knew Me, we switch between the two lives of one woman: Emily Morris as a young married woman in New York during the decade leading up to September 11, and fifteen years later in her new identity as Connie Prynne. Though she was passionately in love when she married young, she slowly begins to question her obligations and loyalty to her husband and mother-in-law, who becomes very ill. When resentment builds, she find solace in someone from her past.

Daniella Isaacs (Writer, Director and actor) says: “I was excited by the challenge of bringing new listeners, people that might usually reach for a tv show or a non-fiction podcast, to an audio drama. I wanted to adapt the book into something that played into the inherent confessional quality of the audio medium. There’s something thrilling about being privy to a character’s innermost secrets, their confessions and their selfish desires. I loved making this with such a brilliant team - all of us set on reimagining the traditional radio play… And I hope your ears enjoy it too.” It’s impossible not to wonder what would have been different had Connie stayed – admitting to the affair and everything else. I have goodread friends who enjoyed this book but I'll be the outlier. I don't mind an unlikable character if I find the story itself well-written and compelling. But in this case the protagonist was so selfish I couldn't get past it, maybe because my husband and I are/have been caretakers of elderly parents. What she ultimately decided to do to her husband was unforgivable. Big fan. I started with Catastrophe, then was delighted to find Motherland. And Bad Sisters was phenomenal and delicious. It was Sharon’s genius idea to option Kim Hooper’s novel and adapt it as audio drama. I think Sharon rightly saw that the story is all about lying and if you’re only listening, it almost becomes like eavesdropping.And the fact that Hooper sets this all up around a national tragedy that is still so raw in people's memories is a brave choice. Her retelling of that day hit me hard.

Do you think the failure of Emily and Drew’s marriage is due to innate incompatibilities or life circumstances? Would they have stayed together if Drew’s mother had not fallen ill? It's hard to really hate a character when they're acting in very human ways, and I found myself agreeing and getting angry when Emily began to resent her mother-in-law's dependence on her and her husband as caregivers. But as she starts to use this anger to justify cruel words and actions, I liked her less.With head mics attached to these fetching head-bands, so we could be very free and move around. Our voices sound different in various locations – in cars, across restaurant tables, even in the bath. Technically it’s quite a leap forward from the radio dramas one might have heard growing up. You’re very much in the moment with our characters. If somebody cries, we don’t try to hide sniffles. If somebody’s eating, we hear them slurp ice-cream or bite into an apple. It’s a lot more immediate and immersive. Hooper says in her dedication, "This book is for all those people -- cowardly and courageous -- who dare to imagine leaving it all behind." Also, being in a health profession, I couldn't buy into the situation with her husband's mother. There are so many services available that it didn't ring true to me. Medicaid, for one, exists for people who have illnesses of that magnitude whose financial situations are dire.

Told in two timelines the reader learns about circumstances that led to the drastic choice Emily made and about her current life as Connie. Her daughter Claire has no idea of the changes she has made in her life. understand -- that her choices (readers will be reactivated), were driven in the same way a disease takes over a person- splits them in half?

Book Club

I had my purse under one arm, an overnight bag under the other. To Angel Rivera, I must have looked like a woman committed to her career, flying off to a business meeting in Philadelphia or D.C. or Boston or some other place requiring just an overnight bag. Maybe he resented the tight bun on top of my head, the height of my heels, the obvious expense of my blouse and perfectly fitting skirt—the same blouse and skirt I’d worn the day before those buildings fell. He didn’t want to be there, driving around someone like me. He wanted to be home with the family I pictured him to have—a few kids and a wife who cleaned apartments or waited tables or worked as a nanny for women like me, overnight-bag-carrying women who left their loved ones for big-city meetings. He wanted to hold that family close because we’d all learned a week before that anything could happen. I, myself was surprised to see that this is the author of “No Hiding in Boise” which I listened to on Audible last year-and which made my favorites list!! 💖 But this novel’s obviously about more than that. We’re forced to ponder whether running is always the best option. Is it better to stay and confront our problems? This story got me in from the outset, though I never warmed to Emily/Connie at any point. Despite not liking the main character I wanted to keep reading so that is a sign of good writing, especially when this is a debut novel. Interested to see what else this author writes. Tangentially, yes. I had a boyfriend who was close friends with her, so we hung out a few times. I liked her enormously. She took me to the ballet once. I remember it clearly because ballet had been her life as a young girl and she took it seriously. Going to see dance with Chelsea was fascinating because of her insights.