Kim

By: Rudyard Kipling

Narrated by: Madhav Sharma

Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Set in the days of the British Raj, Kipling's finest novel is the exciting and touching tale of an Irish orphan-boy who has lived free in the streets of Lahore before setting out, with a Tibetan Lama, on a spiritual quest. Kim later enrolls in the Indian Service and simultaneously embarks on an espionage mission of supreme importance. A thrilling climax in the Himalayas occurs when the two quests become entangled. Kim's search for identity is staged within one of the most magnificent and affectionate portrayals of Indian culture in literature.

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Public Domain (P)2009 Naxos Audiobooks

One of my favorite books!

This is a very good children's book and an even better adult book. Thank you

A wonderful adventure and a true love for India

Kiplinger's novel is truly a love letter to nineteenth century India and all its people. It's also a thrilling spy story about the struggle between Britain and Russia for control of the subcontinent. There is the occasional cringe worthy comment about the Far East, but the Indian characters are portrayed with great affection, while the European characters are mostly dunderheads. Kipling had no love for colonialism. The descriptive passages are well written and evocative.
The narrator is a tad overblown now and then, but has a wonderful command of the various accents. His narration is clear and compelling.

Magical

This has always been my favorite book, ever since I read it as a child, and Sharma's rendition is just as it has always played in my mind, magical and enthralling.

Classic storytelling

Well... people don't write like this any more. This TOC (Turn of the Century, as in "1901") story delves deep into the adventures of an orphan who's father was an Irishman (a soldier fighting for the British) and a Punjab woman. The kid's street wit and positive attitude make him lots of friends who play a hand in getting him educated, and into manhood. So much of the story is when Kim is just a little street rat, but then as he gets older the story jumps and feels loose and inconsistent. Ends kind of abrupt as well. If that's a spolier- get over it, the book is 125 years old! As a writer, I find it necessary to read "classics", as there is always something to learn. It's worth a listen, however, especially if you're a student t of literature.

Fabulous Narrator

After hearing the sample, I bought this performance of Kim by Madhav Sharma, even though I already had another very fine recording. I immediately listened to it, enthralled, every available minute. Sharma masterfully uses vocal timbre, inflection, pacing, and a whole palette of accents to bring Kipling's characters into vivid focus. He's subtle, not heavy-handed, making character voices all distinct, nuanced, and convincing, so the action and tensions in the story become very clear. I've loved this book since childhood, but it's never seemed as real as Sharma makes it. I'll listen to this repeatedly.

Kipling's India comes alive

What did you love best about Kim?

The story is so well-crafted. Kipling really knew how to populate his writing with engaging characters. The reader is drawn right into every event.

Have you listened to any of Madhav Sharma’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is my first experience with Madhav Sharma, but this narrator's skill is such that his name on an audio book will be enough to make me want to listen to whatever he's reading. I don't say that about many narrators and have had to return books because the narration was just too painful to endure!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

There are too many details one wants to savor, so it wasn't a book to be devoured in one gulp.

Any additional comments?

I met Kim repeatedly in other novels(most memorably in The Game, by Laurie R. king) and finally decided I needed to tackle Kipling's book. I am so glad I did.

Plesuraurable listening experience.

Good for book club discuss ion. I enjoyed. the reader "s. voice very much.

A truly beautiful story and masterful narration.

This beautiful novel is one of the few I've ever felt truly saddened to leave, with that doleful sense that it will be years before I find another story, and the philosophy behind it, that can so completely enrapture and engage the soul. Kipling as a writer is matched only by Dickens as a master of the English language. Mr. Sharma's narration is superb, lending both grace and gravitas to Kipling's prose. Of course, I could be simply imagining it, but I felt Sharma's love for the work in his every word and the quality with which he brought each incredible character to life, especially Mahboob Ali, the Lama, and the Sahiba. Kipling these days is often unfairly maligned as a cheerleader for British imperialism, which is unfortunate because, as Kim shows, he was far more complex and thoughtful than his critics give him credit for. That may be because his prose (and his poetry) is complex and full of masterful displays of irony that just go right over the head of readers (or listeners) who aren't paying attention. Beware, if you are looking for an easy story to listen to, this is not the one. If you are looking to soak in the richness of Kipling's prose and the beauty of the English language, with its many subordinate clauses and meanderings, as told by a master narrator, then Kim may be well worth your time.

Magical and thought-provoking

Once I got used to the reader’s accent, I totally enjoyed his reading of this great novel. It combines a great story full of vivid characters and settings with some interesting history and complex ideas about personal identity and the choices we make in life.

My favorite book

This book has meant a lot to me over the years, since I first read it while traveling around Spain alone when I was 19. To me, the book combines the most treasured and sought after aspects of life - adventure and wisdom. Kim and Teshoo Lama are two sides of the purest form of childhood.

There are rare moments in life when you connect with another person in such a way that only worldly exhaustion can allow. Two people, alone, telling each other why they are loved, being each other’s ground on which to rest. This book has rare moments like that, and also rare moments of self-reflection.

This book fits many pieces together wonderfully, and is, I believe, a nearly flawless microcosm of the real world.

I’ve read this book a few times now. This time I came back to it as a form of therapy.