Other editions of book The Whispering Road

A moving and powerful story about brother and sister, Joe and Annie, who flee from a pitiful existence as servants. They embark on a tough and perilous journey to Manchester in search of their mother who was forced to leave them at the workhouse when they were very young. Their future is tainted by the horrors of their past and as Annie is increasingly troubled by spirits, Joe is forced to make a tough decision. Driven by the lust for freedom, he sells Annie to a fair owner who plans to use her as a medium, and sets about creating a new identity for himself on the streets of Manchester. But the voices of the past won't leave Joe alone and ultimately he finds himself gravitating back to Annie and their original quest to discover the whereabouts of their mother.

For Joe and Annie, the choice is escape or die. Manchester. That’s where Joe’s mom went after leaving him and his little sister at the workhouse. That’s where you can have adventures and live life on your own terms—free from abusive Masters. Along the way Joe and Annie meet some kind strangers who offer help, but they also meet swindlers who want to control or even sell them. And no matter how hard he tries, Joe can’t hide the fact that Annie is different in a way that makes people want to manipulate her for their own gain. When Annie is embraced by the traveling fair as if she’s family, Joe is resentful. So resentful that he leaves her behind. He loves running with the gang he joins, but evading the codgers who rule the street is dangerous. Joe might not make it long enough to get Annie back and find out what happened to their mother. In true Victorian fashion, The Little Princess meets Oliver in this epic novel that is sure to grip readers from the first page.

Joe and his little sister Annie escape from a farm where they are treated like slaves to make their way to Manchester in hopes of reuniting with their mother. They get help from a kind stranger and a mysterious dog-woman before finding a place with a traveling fair. Trouble is, Annie fits in with the fair—especially once they learn she can speak to the dead—but Joe doesn’t. He leaves her behind to join a street gang, but living rough is more dangerous than he thought, and he ends up being taken in by a rich man as a social experiment on educating the poor. The food and housing aren’t enough to contain Joe, though, and he flees to the employ of a reformist newspaperman, vowing to find Annie again. In true Victorian fashion, this epic novel is sure to grip readers from the first page.