
The Pretender
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Pre-order for $22.50
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
John Hollingworth
-
By:
-
Jo Harkin
About this listen
Set in the tumultuous period of the Tudors' ascent, The Pretender brings to life the little-known story of Lambert Simnel. From humble beginnings as a peasant boy, Lambert's life takes an astonishing turn when, at just ten years old, he becomes a claimant to the English throne as one of the last of the Plantagenet line. As Lambert navigates the treacherous waters of royal intrigue and court life, complex themes of identity, power, and destiny unfold, weaving a tapestry of ambition and survival in a world where the stakes couldn't be higher.
“A...transporting feat of imagination and storytelling.”—Maggie Shipstead, New York Times bestselling-author of Great Circle
"Original, vivid, and witty. [The Pretender is] Glorious Exploits meets Wolf Hall—and I completely loved it.”—Joanna Quinn, New York Times bestselling-author of The Whalebone Theatre
In 1480 John Collan’s greatest anxiety is how to circumvent the village’s devil goat on his way to collect water. But the arrival of a well-dressed stranger from London upends his life forever: John is not John Collan, not the son of Will Collan but Lambert Simnel, the son of the long-deceased Duke of Clarence, and has been hidden in the countryside after a brotherly rift over the crown—and because Richard III has a habit of disappearing his nephews.
Removed from his humble origins and sent to Oxford to be educated in a manner befitting the throne’s rightful heir, Lambert is put into play by his masters. He learns the rules of etiquette in Burgundy and the machinations of the court in Ireland, where he encounters the intractable Joan, the delightfully strong-willed and manipulative daughter of his Irish patrons, a girl imbued with both extraordinary political savvy and occasional murderous tendencies. Joan has two paths available to her—marry or become a nun. Lambert’s choices are similarly stark: he will either become king or die in battle. Together they form an alliance that will change the fate of the English monarchy.
Inspired by a footnote to history—the true story of the little-known Simnel, who was a figurehead of the 1487 Yorkist rebellion and ended up working as a spy in the court of King Henry VII—The Pretender is historical fiction at its finest, a gripping, exuberant, rollicking portrait of British monarchy and life within the court, with a cast of unforgettable heroes and villains drawn from fifteenth-century England. A masterful new work from a major new author.
©2025 Jo Harkin (P)2025 Random House AudioCritic reviews
“What Jo Harkin has accomplished in The Pretender left me awestruck on every page. I had no idea that a medieval historical novel could be this wickedly funny, this timely and timeless. A work of genius, a wellspring of laughter and sorrow, a feat of time-travel, and a feast of language.”—Karen Russell, author of The Antidote
“The Pretender is a vivid, transporting feat of imagination and storytelling, so alive I felt Jo Harkin might be a time traveler.”—Maggie Shipstead, author of Great Circle
“A brilliant piece of historical storytelling that’s also gorgeously irreverent, contemporary, and fun. Witty, poignant, wildly engaging, and with a huge heart—I loved it.”—Sarah Waters, author of Fingersmith
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Eights
- By: Joanna Miller
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its one-thousand-year history, Oxford University officially admits female students. Burning with dreams of equality, four young women move into neighboring rooms in Corridor 8. Beatrice, Dora, Marianne, and Otto—collectively known as The Eights—come from all walks of life, each driven by their own motives, each holding tight to their secrets, and are thrown into an unlikely, unshakable friendship.
By: Joanna Miller
-
The Family Recipe
- A Novel
- By: Carolyn Huynh
- Narrated by: Vyvy Nguyen, David Lee Huynh
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Duc Tran, the eccentric founder of the Vietnamese sandwich chain Duc’s Sandwiches, has decided to retire. No one has heard from his wife, Evelyn, in two decades. She abandoned the family without a trace, and clearly doesn’t want anything to do with Duc, the business, or their kids. But the money has to go to someone. With the help of the shady family lawyer, Duc informs his five estranged adult children that to receive their inheritance, his four daughters must revitalize run-down shops in old-school Little Saigon locations across America: Houston, San Jose, New Orleans, and Philadelphia.
By: Carolyn Huynh
-
The Amalfi Curse
- By: Sarah Penner
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Carlotta Brentan, Chris Andrew Ciulla, and others
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Haven Ambrose, a trailblazing nautical archaeologist, has come to the sun-soaked village of Positano to investigate the mysterious shipwrecks along the Amalfi Coast. But Haven is hoping to find more than old artifacts beneath the azure waters; she is secretly on a quest to locate a trove of priceless gemstones her late father spotted on his final dive. Upon Haven’s arrival, strange maelstroms and misfortunes start plaguing the town. Is it nature or something more sinister at work?
By: Sarah Penner
-
The Float Test
- A Novel
- By: Lynn Steger Strong
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Kenner siblings are at odds. Jenn is a harried mom struggling under the weight of family obligations. Fred is a novelist who can’t write, maybe because she’s lost faith in storytelling itself. Jude is a recovering corporate lawyer with her own story to tell, and a grudge against her former favorite sister, Fred. George, the baby, is estranged from his wife and harboring both a secret about his former employer and an ill-advised crush on one of his sisters’ friends. Gathered after a major loss, each sibling needs the others more than ever—if only they could trust each other.
-
The Girls of Good Fortune
- A Novel
- By: Kristina McMorris
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Portland, 1888. Amid the subterranean labyrinth of the notorious Shanghai Tunnels, a woman awakens in an underground cell, drugged and disguised. Celia soon realizes she’s a “Shanghaied” victim on the verge of being shipped off as forced labor, leaving behind those she loves most. Although well-accustomed to adapting for survival—being half-Chinese, passing as white during an era fraught with anti-Chinese sentiment—she fears that far more than her own fate hangs in the balance.
-
Searches
- Selfhood in the Digital Age
- By: Vauhini Vara
- Narrated by: Vauhini Vara, Anastasia Davidson
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When it was released to the public in November 2022, ChatGPT awakened the world to a secretive project: teaching AI-powered machines to write. Its creators had a sweeping ambition—to build machines that could not only communicate, but could do all kinds of other activities, better than humans ever could. But was this goal actually achievable? And if reached, would it lead to our liberation or our subjugation?
By: Vauhini Vara
-
The Eights
- By: Joanna Miller
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its one-thousand-year history, Oxford University officially admits female students. Burning with dreams of equality, four young women move into neighboring rooms in Corridor 8. Beatrice, Dora, Marianne, and Otto—collectively known as The Eights—come from all walks of life, each driven by their own motives, each holding tight to their secrets, and are thrown into an unlikely, unshakable friendship.
By: Joanna Miller
-
The Family Recipe
- A Novel
- By: Carolyn Huynh
- Narrated by: Vyvy Nguyen, David Lee Huynh
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Duc Tran, the eccentric founder of the Vietnamese sandwich chain Duc’s Sandwiches, has decided to retire. No one has heard from his wife, Evelyn, in two decades. She abandoned the family without a trace, and clearly doesn’t want anything to do with Duc, the business, or their kids. But the money has to go to someone. With the help of the shady family lawyer, Duc informs his five estranged adult children that to receive their inheritance, his four daughters must revitalize run-down shops in old-school Little Saigon locations across America: Houston, San Jose, New Orleans, and Philadelphia.
By: Carolyn Huynh
-
The Amalfi Curse
- By: Sarah Penner
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Carlotta Brentan, Chris Andrew Ciulla, and others
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Haven Ambrose, a trailblazing nautical archaeologist, has come to the sun-soaked village of Positano to investigate the mysterious shipwrecks along the Amalfi Coast. But Haven is hoping to find more than old artifacts beneath the azure waters; she is secretly on a quest to locate a trove of priceless gemstones her late father spotted on his final dive. Upon Haven’s arrival, strange maelstroms and misfortunes start plaguing the town. Is it nature or something more sinister at work?
By: Sarah Penner
-
The Float Test
- A Novel
- By: Lynn Steger Strong
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Kenner siblings are at odds. Jenn is a harried mom struggling under the weight of family obligations. Fred is a novelist who can’t write, maybe because she’s lost faith in storytelling itself. Jude is a recovering corporate lawyer with her own story to tell, and a grudge against her former favorite sister, Fred. George, the baby, is estranged from his wife and harboring both a secret about his former employer and an ill-advised crush on one of his sisters’ friends. Gathered after a major loss, each sibling needs the others more than ever—if only they could trust each other.
-
The Girls of Good Fortune
- A Novel
- By: Kristina McMorris
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Portland, 1888. Amid the subterranean labyrinth of the notorious Shanghai Tunnels, a woman awakens in an underground cell, drugged and disguised. Celia soon realizes she’s a “Shanghaied” victim on the verge of being shipped off as forced labor, leaving behind those she loves most. Although well-accustomed to adapting for survival—being half-Chinese, passing as white during an era fraught with anti-Chinese sentiment—she fears that far more than her own fate hangs in the balance.
-
Searches
- Selfhood in the Digital Age
- By: Vauhini Vara
- Narrated by: Vauhini Vara, Anastasia Davidson
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When it was released to the public in November 2022, ChatGPT awakened the world to a secretive project: teaching AI-powered machines to write. Its creators had a sweeping ambition—to build machines that could not only communicate, but could do all kinds of other activities, better than humans ever could. But was this goal actually achievable? And if reached, would it lead to our liberation or our subjugation?
By: Vauhini Vara
-
Big Chief
- By: Jon Hickey
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mitch Caddo, a young law school graduate and aspiring political fixer, is an outsider in the homeland of his Anishinaabe ancestors. But alongside his childhood friend, Tribal President Mack Beck, he runs the government of the Passage Rouge Nation, and with it, the tribe’s Golden Eagle Casino and Hotel. On the eve of Mack’s reelection, their tenuous grip on power is threatened by a nationally known activist and politician, Gloria Hawkins, and her young aide, Layla Beck, none other than Mack’s estranged sister and Mitch’s former love.
By: Jon Hickey
-
Zeal
- A Novel
- By: Morgan Jerkins
- Narrated by: January LaVoy, Shayna Small
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning over a hundred and fifty years, Morgan Jerkins’s extraordinary novel intertwines the stories of these star-crossed lovers and their descendants. As Tirzah's family moves across the country during the Great Migration, they challenge authority with devastating consequences, while of the legacy of heartbreak and loss continues on in the lives of Harrison's progeny.
By: Morgan Jerkins
-
The Bright Years
- By: Sarah Damoff
- Narrated by: Ferdelle Capistrano, Joy Osmanski, Lee Osorio
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Told from three intimate points of view, The Bright Years is a tender, true-to-life novel that explores the impact of each generation in a family torn apart by tragedy but, over time, restored by the power of grace and love.
By: Sarah Damoff
-
Austen at Sea
- A Novel
- By: Natalie Jenner
- Narrated by: Rupert Graves
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Boston, 1865, Charlotte and Henrietta Stevenson, daughters of a Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice, have accomplished as much as women are allowed in those days. Chafing against those restrictions and inspired by the works of Jane Austen, they start a secret correspondence with Sir Francis Austen, her last surviving brother, now in his nineties. He sends them an original letter from his sister and invites them to come visit him in England.
By: Natalie Jenner
-
Julie Chan Is Dead
- A Novel
- By: Liann Zhang
- Narrated by: Yu-Li Alice Shen
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier with nothing to lose, finds herself thrust into the glamorous yet perilous world of her late twin sister, Chloe VanHuusen, a popular influencer. Separated at a young age, the identical twins were polar opposites and rarely spoke, except for one viral video that Chloe initiated (Finding My Long-Lost Twin And Buying Her A House #EMOTIONAL). When Julie discovers Chloe’s lifeless body under mysterious circumstances, she seizes the chance to live the life she’s always envied.
By: Liann Zhang
-
When the Tides Held the Moon
- By: Venessa Vida Kelley
- Narrated by: Lee Osorio, Joel de la Fuente
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Benigno “Benny” Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds everyone, especially the eccentric sideshow proprietor who commissioned it. Benny’s work earns him an invitation to join the show’s eclectic crew of performers—his first welcome in the city—and share in their astonishing secret: the tank Benny built is a cage for their newest exhibit, a living, breathing, in-the-flesh merman stolen from the banks of the East River under a gleaming full moon.
-
The Gatsby Gambit
- A Novel
- By: Claire Anderson Wheeler
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Death has come to West Egg, and with it, a web of scandal, betrayal, and secrets. Turning sleuth isn’t how Greta meant to spend her summer—but what choice does she have, when everyone else seems intent on living in a world of make-believe?
-
Before Dorothy
- By: Hazel Gaynor
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chicago, 1924: Emily and her new husband, Henry, yearn to leave the bustle of Chicago for the promise of their own American dream among the harsh beauty of the prairie. But leaving the city means leaving Emily’s beloved sister, Annie, who was once closer to her than anyone in the world. Kansas, 1932: Emily and Henry have established their new home among the warmth of the farming community in Kansas. Aligned to the fickle fortunes of nature, their lives hold a precarious and hopeful purpose, until tragedy strikes and their orphaned niece, Dorothy, lands on their doorstep.
By: Hazel Gaynor
-
She Who Knows
- She Who Knows, Book 1
- By: Nnedi Okorafor
- Narrated by: Yetide Badaki
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When there is a call, there is often a response. Najeeba knows. She has had The Call. But how can a 13-year-old girl have the Call? Only men and boys experience the annual call to the Salt Roads. What’s just happened to Najeeba has never happened in the history of her village. But it’s not a terrible thing, just strange. So when she leaves with her father and brothers to mine salt at the Dead Lake, there’s neither fanfare nor protest.
-
-
fantastic addition to this story
- By W. Rainier on 08-22-24
By: Nnedi Okorafor
-
The Tapestry of Time
- By: Kate Heartfield
- Narrated by: Frankie Porter
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's a tradition in the Sharp family that some possess the Second Sight. But is it superstition, or true psychic power? Kit Sharp is in Paris, where she is involved in a love affair with the stunning Evelyn Larsen, and working as an archivist, having inherited her historian father's fascination with the Bayeux Tapestry. He believes that parts of the tapestry were made before 1066, and that it was a tool for prediction, not a simple record of events.
By: Kate Heartfield
-
Sister, Sinner
- The Miraculous, Scandalous Story of Aimee Semple McPherson
- By: Claire Hoffman
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a spring day in 1926, Aimee Semple McPherson wandered into the Pacific Ocean and vanished. Weeks later she reappeared in the desert, claiming to have been kidnapped. A national media frenzy and months of investigation ensued. Who was this woman? America’s most famous evangelist, McPherson was a sophisticated marketer who used spectacle, storytelling, and the newest technology—including her own radio station—to bring God’s message to the masses.
By: Claire Hoffman
-
Tough Luck
- A Novel
- By: Sandra Dallas
- Narrated by: Mia Hutchinson-Shaw
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After their mother dies, Haidie Richards and her younger brother, Boots, are put to work in an orphanage. Their father left four years earlier to find a gold mine in Colorado Territory, and since then he’s sent only three letters. Still, Haidie is certain that he is alive, has struck gold, and will soon send for them. But patience is not one of Haidie’s virtues and soon she and her brother make a break for it. Boots and Haidie, disguised as a boy, embark on a dangerous journey deep into Western territory.
By: Sandra Dallas