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Title: The Final Confession of Mabel Stark

Author: Robert Hough

Narrator: Betty Bobbitt

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-03-05

Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 48 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

This vibrant and moving fictional autobiography begins in 1968. Mabel is turning 80 and is about to lose her job. Faced with the loss of her beloved cats, she looks back on her life, her escapades and tragedies, her love affairs with tigers and men. She confronts her darkest secrets, her guilt at committing "the worst thing one person can do to another". Now, with the end of life in sight, there is one thing above all else she needs to do. Mabel wants to confess.

Exuberant and inventive, The Final Confession of Mabel Stark transports its readers to the carnival world of the Big Top to an age before cinema and television, when circus performers were superstars.

Editorial Reviews:

Within seconds, listeners will realize theres no one more fit to perform this wild and magical biography than veteran narrator Bobby Bobbitt. With her slight twang and raspy authority, Bobby brings to life Robert Houghs fantastical version of Mabel Starks moving story. The Final Confession of Mabel Stark is an inventive and clever combination of fact and fiction, as Houghs Mabel looks back on her life as one of the greatest tiger trainers in history. Full of all the romance, tragedy, and conquests that is associated with the real Mabel Stark, this audiobook is an extraordinary marriage of fact and fiction that will have listeners glued to their headphones.

Critic Reviews:

"Robert Hough pulls together fact and fiction to unfurl a life that invites sheer, slack-jawed fascination." (Time)

"A marvelous debut narrated with delicious humour and warmth. Just about perfect. One of the most entertaining novels in many a year." (Kirkus)

"Listeners are treated to Betty Bobbitt's performance of the indomitable, unconventional Mabel Stark....Bobbitt's raspy voice and full-throated chuckle perfectly draw Mabel's sassy attitude, complete with period diction, circus lore, and Kentucky twang." (AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

Couldn't stop listening

What an incredible idea... to take the known events from the life of an historic figure and, through research, empathy and imagination, create a novel that reads as though it were that figures autobiography. This is what Robert Hough has done with great success in The Final Confession Of Mabel Stark.

Stark, as you may be aware, was a circus superstar back in the 1910s and 1920s. She was a sensation with an act in which she, a tiny blond woman, wrestled a 500 pound tiger.

Working with tigers is a hazardous undertaking. So is setting out on your life adventure as an uneducated orphan. Both left huge scars on Mabel Stark. These scars, emotional and physical, create the theme of the book. With each trauma, Mabel learned more and grew as a person at least the fictional Mabel did and for that reason one has to cheer for her and ultimately empathize with her final heart break.

One also has to cheer for Mr. Hough whose visual metaphors, colorful Kentuckyisms and ear for dialog created such a compelling book. The tale is incredibly plausible and the telling so convincing that you believe it is coming from the mouth of Mabel Stark or that Mr. Hough spent years training big cats with a tent show.

Big applause is also due to Betty Bobbit, the actress whose reading brings Mabel to life so vividly.