The World Before Us

Two mysterious disappearances more than a century apart converge here. Jane Standen was 15 years old when the little girl she was babysitting for disappeared into the woods, never to be seen again. Now an adult, Jane continues to live with that loss and guilt. She works as an archivist in a London museum that's about to be closed, which is where she finds information about a girl who disappeared in the same woods more than 100 years earlier. Jane embarks on a journey to explore the mysteries of those woods, which include an old asylum and an estate house. This audiobook requires close attention in order to follow the collective "we" voices that accompany Jane's first-person narrative, especially since the book leaps back and forth in time. Fiona Hardingham does an excellent job of reading the story and alternating the voices enough to fit the different time periods. Elaborate descriptions of the countryside, house interiors, and other visuals help bring the story to life.