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The End of Normal Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Stephanie Madoff Mack (Author, Narrator), Penguin Audio (Publisher)

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An explosive, heartbreaking memoir from the widow of Mark Madoff and daughter-in-law of Bernard Madoff, the first genuine inside story from a family member who has lived through - and survived - both the public crisis and her own deeply personal tragedy.

When the news of Bernard Madoff 's Ponzi scheme broke, Americans were shocked and outraged, perhaps none more so than the unsuspecting members of his own family. After learning that their father's legendarily successful wealth management company was "all just one big lie", Mark and Andrew Madoff turned their father in and cut off all communication with both parents.

Mark and his wife, Stephanie, strove to make a fresh start for the sake of their two young children, but Mark could not overcome his sense of betrayal and shame - he and other family members were sued for $200 million in October of 2009. He hung himself on the two-year anniversary of his father's arrest. Left to raise her children as a single mother, Stephanie wrote this memoir to give them a sense of who their father really was, defend his innocence, and put her personal statement on record once and for all.

In this candid insider account, she talks about her idyllic wedding to Mark on Nantucket, what it was really like to be a part of the Madoff family, the build-up to Bernard's confession, and the media frenzy that followed. It is about the loss of the fairytale life she knew, adjusting to life with a man she hardly recognized anymore, and the tragic and final loss of her husband.

Listening Length

6 hours and 36 minutes
Author

Stephanie Madoff Mack
Narrator

Stephanie Madoff Mack
Audible release date

October 20, 2011
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Audio
ASIN

B005XH2YF4
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	6 hours and 36 minutes
Author	Stephanie Madoff Mack
Narrator	Stephanie Madoff Mack
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	October 20, 2011
Publisher	Penguin Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B005XH2YF4
Best Sellers Rank	#47,532 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #66 in White Collar Crime True Accounts #134 in Grief & Loss (Audible Books & Originals) #270 in Marriage & Long-Term Partnerships

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4.2 out of 5

2,515 global ratings

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elpee

A voice that should be heard.....

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2011

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The financial fall-out from the scam perpetrated by Bernie Madoff claimed many victims and many of their tragic stories have been heard: people's lives turned upside down, crushed and ruined, some with no hope of recovery. Bernie Madoff is in prison, but there is no retribution...no answers for those who have been hurt beyond measure. One victim, silent until now, is Stephanie Mack Madoff, the widow of Mark, Bernie's eldest son who took his own life. And if you scoff at her being a victim, then you must read her story...it's truly heartbreaking. I picked it up out of curiosity and I was blown away.

I've often wondered, (and I'll bet you have too what it must have been like to be a member of the Madoff family...this book brings it home: It is filled with intimate details of Mark and Stephanie's courtship, their marriage (including the rough patches), their daily life, Mark's devotion to his children from his first marriage and their two children together. Stephanie discusses her relationship with both Ruth and Bernie....where credit is due she gives it e.g. both Ruth and Bernie were loving grandparents.) The mind boggles! She comes across as totally sincere, totally honest, and totally devastated by the betrayal and what it did to her husband and her family. Put yourself in her place...there is no training for enduring the nightmare that her life became.

But this is also the story of her husband Mark who, because of the legalities involved, was never able to publicly stand up for himself and deny the accusations of his involvement in the debacle. Again, I urge you to read about him from Stephanie's perspective...her passion for you to know Mark as she knew him is palpable. There is also the description of the children and how they're coping with Mark's death. Anyone who's been there will recognize the gut-wrenching difficulty of keeping oneself together on their behalf.

I think it's important to note that this book doesn't come across as tabloid fodder...there's nothing trashy about it. What it is, is well-written and compelling. You'll want to finish it in one sitting.

There is a spirit in this young woman that is to be admired. She's had a lot on her plate to contend with and she is managing to do so with spunk and grace and hope for the future. I for one wish her the best and hope that future is bright.

43 people found this helpful

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Scott

Quick read & interesting memoir & spoiler ahead

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2023

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I like memoirs in general & this was a good quick read. She explains all the stages of her life with Mark Madoff. Sad at the end but I liked how she was so honest with his family in the end. There is the subject matter of suicide for those that don't know the story that could be hard to read for some. But I applaud her openness & how the family dynamics changed after Bernie Madoff was found guilty of his crimes.

8 people found this helpful

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Josephine March

Riveting Tale of Survival

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2024

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Wow, this book was nothing I expected. Sheer honesty, bravery, and love are written on every page. The harrowing betrayal suffered by the author and her husband was written about and expressed so very well. The author wrote she wanted to give her husband a voice. And that, she did. It must have been excruciating to get her story down. I applaud her courage and think how blessed her beautiful children are to have such a loving mother care for them in the tragic aftermath of losing their doting father, who did his utmost to be a model of moral excellence in all of his dealings with people. I read this book in nearly a single sitting. I hope the author continues to write and hope for the Lord’s peace to be upon her and her darling, precious children.

2 people found this helpful

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Jim H. Ainsworth

When Greed Suspends Common Sense

Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2013

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Yep, that Madoff, as in Bernie’s daughter-in-law. If you have not heard of Bernie Madoff, you probably might not be interested in this memoir. Or maybe you live on another planet. Or you never heard of a Ponzi scheme. As he spends the rest of his life in prison, Madoff’s name will probably loom as infamously large in investing history as Ponzi’s has.

Madoff understood greed and capitalized on it and the ignorance and naivete of his investors. What is amazing is that so many wealthy, otherwise intelligent people fell for a scheme that most inexperienced people would recognize as too good to be true. I have seen and met a lot of people who tried to do what Madoff did, but on a much smaller scale.

I still hear commercials all the time promising fantastic returns with little or no risk. Just can’t happen unless you are doing something illegal.

Madoff’s outstanding performance was so consistent for years, and so above other money managers as to be almost boring with its predictability. Of course, hindsight is 20-20. But even the investors who fell for his line of bull now admit that they should have known it was too good to be true. So why did they do it?

He started in a period when fantastic returns were sort of expected in a high interest rate environment and explosive growth in markets. What he promised seemed not only possible, but expected. When he outperformed others by a couple of percentage points, that was what he was paid to do and expected to do.

Money really flowed in when he began to outperform all markets and money managers for years. High returns that were not astronomical, but very, very healthy and two or three percentage points above others. Believable, until he did it for a decade, during ups and downs and all sorts of markets. Then it was not believable.

But by then, he had a very, very large reputation. So big that he could play the take-away game. People were clamoring to give him their money, to get in on the Madoff magic. He no longer had to sell, no longer even talked too much about performance. People literally begged him to take their money. He would finally acquiesce only after an investor paid the proper homage or got the right introduction.

He took the increasingly naïve new investors’ money and paid it out to the older ones. What’s amazing is that he had to know that the music would eventually stop in this game of musical chairs and he would be found out. It was inevitable. It just takes one or two bad or under-performing years where the money paid out exceeds the money coming in. Then the web begins to unweave. Then it is a veritable landslide.
What was he thinking? What was his staff thinking? His wife and children? Yes, they almost had to know.

This is the story as told by Stephanie Madoff, the wife of Madoff’s son, Mark. It is common knowledge that Mark committed suicide as a result of his father’s infamous scheme and deception. I am not sure whether I came away liking Stephanie, but I do feel sympathy for her.
Her book doesn’t delve as deeply as I would have liked into Madoff’s character and thinking, but I did not really expect to hear the answer as to why he did such a terrible thing for such a long time, knowing that it had to end badly. And he did know that.

8 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Interesting Read

Reviewed in Canada on August 8, 2019

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Great perspective from the family side of the fall out.

Dora Bona

A poignant, engrossing read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 26, 2019

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I read this in one sitting; simply couldn't put it down. It's not just about the unthinkable acts of man who ruined so may lives through unadulterated greed. It's also an heartfelt love story, and a reminder that what goes on in the inner sanctum of family is rarely what is presented on the outside. This book was especially jolting because I happened to be in New York, in front of Mark Madoff's apartment within an hour of his tragic suicide. The street was filled with news vans and police, and at the time, I didn't have any idea of what had happened. ( I actually thought it was filming on a live movie set) It was later in the evening when I switched on the news that the whole horrible scenario played out.
The book is so well written, and tells the story that the media didn't. It's an honest account of the life, and the family of the clever but ruthless Bernie Madoff from a completely different perspective. His actions had the ripple effect of ruining the lives of thousands of his investors, and that's the part we know. But it made me believe wholeheartedly in the innocence of Bernie Madoff's sons and made me cry for the sorrow he put his whole family through.

4 people found this helpful

christie

An interesting read but not as insightful as anticipated

Reviewed in Australia on November 25, 2017

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Stephanie (and her kids) obviously suffered greatly with the loss of Mark...the suicide of a husband and father is tragic and heartbreaking. However, it is difficult to empathize with some of the points she continuously indulges. She states repeatedly that she cannot understand Ruth's choice not to immediately divorce Bernie after his Ponzi scheme was exposed...As if that would have changed anything that followed. Stephanie states that she admired Ruth's long standing marriage to Bernie yet at the first hint of trouble Ruth is expected to turn her back on 50 years of marriage without thought or process? And who the bleep are Mark and Stephanie to demand the divorce of their parents?? Yes, Mark needed his mother's support but he wasn't a 4 year old...He was a grown man. It seems as though Ruth is a bit of a scapegoat...not innocent but certainly not the force of nature that Stephanie details. As she says, Mark was pretty think skinned. Rescilliance isn't something that the ultra rich develop given their armies of lawyers, Publicists and servants who can usually take the bullets for them. People face injustice everyday but manage to survive with far fewer resources. Nonetheless, Stephanie expresses her feelings well and does a good job of honoring her husband's memory. On another note, I am still in the dark as to why the super wealthy have such shallow, vacuous and yet complicated relationships with extended family members. Eg: Not sure how someone sending flowers to someone else on behalf of more than themselves can permanently make them an enemy. Get a grip? Grow Up? Make some new friends? ??

lili

Livre formidable et emouvant et très vivant

Reviewed in France on April 13, 2016

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Livre formidable, très émouvant et bien ecrit...se lit comme un roman en plus on fait l expérience d'une vie à new York.

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Flo

When relationships are built on a house of cards

Reviewed in Canada on March 23, 2022

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I read this book in two sittings...it’s extremely well written.
What it left me with was this; when money, privilege, greed and prestige are the building blocks of relationships, you will be left with nothing. This family put so much stock into their lifestyles and careers that without them, they felt they had nothing. It’s such a sad story all around.
I can say that Daniel seems to be the most sane one of the bunch and family members should be rushing to him for solutions. He just wants everyone to get along. I felt for Ruth in all of this in some ways...It’s all just such a mess.
Forgiveness is the only way forward and I don’t see that happening any time soon. There’s still so much anger.

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