Mani Sheriar

The Third Man is a beautiful story about adoption, family and love. It is the fourth and final story in the This Can't Be Happening Collection from Audible/Amazon Originals. The collection gathers four tales about people persisting through a life crisis and coming out stronger for it. Mani and her husband David go through the adoption process and bring a little baby boy home with them. But the baby's father files papers to contest the adoption. Mani struggles with fears that she might lose Bodie and faces a whirlwind of emotions about the father who might take the baby away from them.

This story quickly became my favorite of the 4-story collection. Mani tells her story with real emotion and strength. She talks about fertility treatments, the pain of a miscarriage, all the paperwork involved before the adoption, meeting the birth mother and bringing the baby home.....only to face possibly losing him. The scene where she meets the birth father was tense, beautiful and filled with love. Such a sweet story of love and acceptance!

This story is part of a bigger collection of stories told on the Risk! Podcast, produced by Kevin Allison. The podcast gathers intense stories from people's lives that they thought they would never reveal in public. I've added the Podcast to my download list. I loved this collection of four original stories, and I hope the podcast offers more of the same!

Audible/Amazon Originals have proved to be a hit or miss experience for me. Some of the collections I have thoroughly enjoyed....others were a mixed bag....and some I just found to be awful. The This Can't Be Happening Collection is by far the best I have listened to so far. Loved it!

I listened to the audio version of this story. At just under an hour, it's an easy, quick but emotional listening experience. Mani Sheriar narrates her own story. She reads at a nice pace with real emotion. It was a very powerful, enjoyable performance. I have hearing loss, but was easily able to understand and enjoy this audio book.… (més)