-
Beauty Is a Wound
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
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
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Beauty Is a Wound
Buy for $25.09
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Whale
- By: Cheon Myeong-kwan, Chi-Young Kim - translator
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 15
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 12
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 12
Whale, set in a remote village in South Korea, follows the lives of many linked characters, including Geumbok, an extremely ambitious woman who has been chasing an indescribable thrill ever since she first saw a whale crest in the ocean; her mute daughter, Chunhui, who communicates with elephants; and a one-eyed woman who controls honeybees with a whistle. Brimming with surprises and wicked humor, Whale is an adventure-satire of epic proportions by one of the most original voices in international literature.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Whale
- By Amber Dehner on 07-20-23
By: Cheon Myeong-kwan, and others
-
The Bee Sting
- A Novel
- By: Paul Murray
- Narrated by: Heather O’Sullivan, Barry Fitzgerald, Beau Holland, and others
- Length: 26 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 876
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 828
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 827
The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under—but Dickie is spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife, Imelda, is selling off her jewelry on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attention of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge drink her way through her final exams. As for twelve-year-old PJ, he’s on the brink of running away.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Bone Clocks meets Jonathan Franzen
- By Cranson on 10-26-23
By: Paul Murray
-
Birnam Wood
- A Novel
- By: Eleanor Catton
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 579
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 473
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 472
A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. To occupy the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last. But the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine also has an interest in the place.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Outstanding thriller w/ exceptional character development
- By Bradley T. Collins on 04-21-23
By: Eleanor Catton
-
Western Lane
- By: Chetna Maroo
- Narrated by: Maya Soroya
- Length: 4 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 24
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 22
Eleven-year-old Gopi has been playing squash since she was old enough to hold a racket. When her mother dies, her father enlists her in a quietly brutal training regimen, and the game becomes her world. Slowly, she grows apart from her sisters. Her life is reduced to the sport, guided by its rhythms: the serve, the volley, the drive, the shot and its echo. But on the court, she is not alone. She is with her pa. She is with Ged, a thirteen-year-old boy with his own formidable talent. She is with the players who have come before her. She is in awe.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Quiet story that is really interesting
- By Garth on 06-11-23
By: Chetna Maroo
-
The Bastard of Istanbul
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 417
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 276
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 278
In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country's violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its center is the "bastard" of the title, Asya, a 19-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci family who all live together in an extended household in Istanbul.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A tender gift from far away
- By Barbara on 11-07-07
By: Elif Shafak
-
This Other Eden
- By: Paul Harding
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 81
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 70
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 70
In 1792, formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife, Patience, discover an island where they can make a life together. Over a century later, the Honeys’ descendants and a diverse group of neighbors are desperately poor, isolated, and often hungry, but nevertheless protected from the hostility awaiting them on the mainland.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Painfully overwritten
- By WPH on 02-24-23
By: Paul Harding
-
Whale
- By: Cheon Myeong-kwan, Chi-Young Kim - translator
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 15
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 12
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 12
Whale, set in a remote village in South Korea, follows the lives of many linked characters, including Geumbok, an extremely ambitious woman who has been chasing an indescribable thrill ever since she first saw a whale crest in the ocean; her mute daughter, Chunhui, who communicates with elephants; and a one-eyed woman who controls honeybees with a whistle. Brimming with surprises and wicked humor, Whale is an adventure-satire of epic proportions by one of the most original voices in international literature.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Whale
- By Amber Dehner on 07-20-23
By: Cheon Myeong-kwan, and others
-
The Bee Sting
- A Novel
- By: Paul Murray
- Narrated by: Heather O’Sullivan, Barry Fitzgerald, Beau Holland, and others
- Length: 26 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 876
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 828
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 827
The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under—but Dickie is spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife, Imelda, is selling off her jewelry on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attention of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge drink her way through her final exams. As for twelve-year-old PJ, he’s on the brink of running away.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Bone Clocks meets Jonathan Franzen
- By Cranson on 10-26-23
By: Paul Murray
-
Birnam Wood
- A Novel
- By: Eleanor Catton
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 579
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 473
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 472
A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. To occupy the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last. But the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine also has an interest in the place.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Outstanding thriller w/ exceptional character development
- By Bradley T. Collins on 04-21-23
By: Eleanor Catton
-
Western Lane
- By: Chetna Maroo
- Narrated by: Maya Soroya
- Length: 4 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 24
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 22
Eleven-year-old Gopi has been playing squash since she was old enough to hold a racket. When her mother dies, her father enlists her in a quietly brutal training regimen, and the game becomes her world. Slowly, she grows apart from her sisters. Her life is reduced to the sport, guided by its rhythms: the serve, the volley, the drive, the shot and its echo. But on the court, she is not alone. She is with her pa. She is with Ged, a thirteen-year-old boy with his own formidable talent. She is with the players who have come before her. She is in awe.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Quiet story that is really interesting
- By Garth on 06-11-23
By: Chetna Maroo
-
The Bastard of Istanbul
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 417
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 276
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 278
In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country's violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its center is the "bastard" of the title, Asya, a 19-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci family who all live together in an extended household in Istanbul.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A tender gift from far away
- By Barbara on 11-07-07
By: Elif Shafak
-
This Other Eden
- By: Paul Harding
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 81
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 70
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 70
In 1792, formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife, Patience, discover an island where they can make a life together. Over a century later, the Honeys’ descendants and a diverse group of neighbors are desperately poor, isolated, and often hungry, but nevertheless protected from the hostility awaiting them on the mainland.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Painfully overwritten
- By WPH on 02-24-23
By: Paul Harding
-
The Promise
- By: Damon Galgut
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 603
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 522
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 517
Haunted by an unmet promise, the Swart family loses touch after the death of their matriarch. Adrift, the lives of the three siblings move separately through the uncharted waters of South Africa; Anton, the golden boy who bitterly resents his life’s unfulfilled potential; Astrid, whose beauty is her power; and the youngest, Amor, whose life is shaped by a nebulous feeling of guilt.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent novel
- By ALG on 11-09-21
By: Damon Galgut
-
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
- An Oprah’s Book Club Novel
- By: Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Karen Chilton, Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 29 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,650
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,358
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2,344
The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the problem of race in America, and what he called “Double Consciousness,” a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois’s words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans—the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers—Ailey carries Du Bois’s problem on her shoulders.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Great American Novel is finally inclusive.
- By Margaret on 12-28-21
-
The Door
- By: Magda Szabó, Len Rix - translator
- Narrated by: Siân Thomas
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 341
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 303
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 303
Intense, brilliant and moving, The Door is a compelling story about the relationship between two women of opposing backgrounds and personalities: one, an intellectual and writer; the other, her housekeeper, a mysterious, elderly woman who sets her own rules and abjures religion, education, pretense and any kind of authority. Beneath this hardened exterior of Emerence lies a painful story that must be concealed.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Challenging, but an engrossing, literary work.
- By Earnest on 09-05-17
By: Magda Szabó, and others
-
The Memory Police
- A Novel
- By: Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder - translator
- Narrated by: Traci Kato-Kiriyama
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 839
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 724
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 722
On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses - until things become much more serious. Most of the island's inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten. When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A Calm, Quiet Dystopian
- By Booky Nooky on 12-13-19
By: Yoko Ogawa, and others
-
White Teeth
- A Novel
- By: Zadie Smith
- Narrated by: Lenny Henry, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Ray Panthaki, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 720
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 624
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 617
At the center of this invigorating novel are two unlikely friends, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. Hapless veterans of World War II, Archie and Samad and their families become agents of England’s irrevocable transformation. A second marriage to Clara Bowden, a beautiful, albeit tooth-challenged, Jamaican half his age, quite literally gives Archie a second lease on life, and produces Irie, a knowing child whose personality doesn’t quite match her name (Jamaican for “no problem”). Samad’s late-in-life arranged marriage produces twin sons whose separate paths confound Iqbal’s every effort to direct them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
4.68 stars....a modern classic
- By ibillinsly@gmail on 06-06-18
By: Zadie Smith
-
Sula
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,021
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,653
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,649
Nel and Sula's devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the black community and Sula has become a pariah. But their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal—or does it end? Terrifying, comic, ribald and tragic, Sula is a work that overflows with life.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Good against evil and a riotous story to boot
- By Karen on 04-11-11
By: Toni Morrison
-
The Man Who Died
- By: Antti Tuomainen, David Hackston
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 97
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 85
A successful entrepreneur in the mushroom industry, Jaakko Kaunismaa is a man in his prime. At just 37 years of age, he is shocked when his doctor tells him that he's dying. What is more, the cause is discovered to be prolonged exposure to toxins; in other words, someone has slowly but surely been poisoning him. Determined to find out who wants him dead, Jaakko embarks on a suspenseful roller-coaster journey full of unusual characters, bizarre situations and unexpected twists.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Darkly funny
- By wendybird on 09-27-18
By: Antti Tuomainen, and others
-
She Who Became the Sun
- By: Shelley Parker-Chan
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,362
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,183
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,179
In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Almost great.
- By stacey on 09-13-21
-
The Island of Sea Women
- A Novel
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Jennifer Lim
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,685
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,946
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,924
Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends who come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook’s mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life of excitement and responsibility but also danger. This beautiful, thoughtful novel illuminates a world turned upside down, one where the women are in charge, engaging in dangerous, physical work, and the men take care of the children.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Overly dramatic read
- By mary krause on 03-28-19
By: Lisa See
-
A Rage in Harlem
- A Grave Digger & Coffin Ed Novel
- By: Chester Himes
- Narrated by: Samuel L. Jackson
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,281
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,145
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,137
Academy Award nominee Samuel L. Jackson ( Pulp Fiction, Star Wars films), fresh off the success of his uproarious, Audie-nominated performance of the mock children’s book Go the F**k to Sleep, delivers a swaggering, darkly-humored rendering of Chester Himes’ classic first novel.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Go the f--k to Audible and get this now!
- By Julie W. Capell on 03-22-12
By: Chester Himes
-
The House of the Spirits
- A Novel
- By: Isabel Allende
- Narrated by: Thom Rivera, Marisol Ramirez
- Length: 18 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,668
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,347
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,353
The House of the Spirits brings to life the triumphs and tragedies of three generations of the Trueba family. The patriarch Esteban is a volatile, proud man whose voracious pursuit of political power is tempered only by his love for his delicate wife, Clara, a woman with a mystical connection to the spirit world. When their daughter, Blanca, embarks on a forbidden love affair in defiance of her implacable father, the result is an unexpected gift to Esteban.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Narrators spoil it
- By Cookie on 09-27-16
By: Isabel Allende
-
I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home
- A Novel
- By: Lorrie Moore
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 32
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 26
Lorrie Moore’s first novel since A Gate at the Stairs—a daring, meditative exploration of love and death, passion and grief, and what it means to be haunted by the past, both by history and the human heart. A teacher visiting his dying brother in the Bronx. A mysterious journal from the nineteenth century stolen from a boarding house. A therapy clown and an assassin, both presumed dead, but perhaps not dead at all...
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very Loorie Moore... and yet very not
- By Anonymous User on 06-23-23
By: Lorrie Moore
Publisher's summary
The English language debut of Indonesia's rising star. Compulsively listenable, Beauty Is a Wound combines history, satire, family tragedy, legend, humour, and romance in an astonishing epic title, in which the beautiful Indo prostitute Dewi Ayu and her four daughters are beset by every monstrosity.
Kurniawan's gleefully grotesque hyperbole is a scathing critique of his young nation's troubled past: the rapacious offhand greed of colonialism; the chaotic struggle for independence; the 1965 mass murders, followed by three decades of Suharto's despotic rule.
Drawing on local sources - folktales and the all-night shadow puppet plays, with their bawdy wit - and inspired by Melville and Gogol, Beauty Is a Wound is passionate and ironic, exuberant and confronting. Hailed as ;the next Pramoedya', Eka Kurniawan is an exciting new voice in contemporary literature.
Critic reviews
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
When Heaven and Earth Changed Places
- A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace
- By: Le Ly Hayslip, Jay Wurts
- Narrated by: Nancy Kwan
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 100
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 81
This haunting memoir tells the brutal story of the Vietnam War from the perspective of an innocent victim whose childhood was dominated by violence, devastation, and conflicts between the teachings of her culture and the realities of war. The youngest in a close-knit Buddhist family, Le Ly Hayslip was 12 years old when U.S. helicopters landed in her village. She was raped and "ruined" for marriage by Viet Cong soldiers, imprisoned and tortured by the South Vietnamese, and sentenced to death by the Viet Cong. Ultimately fleeing to the U.S. with her children, she finally found peace, and in 1986, she was reunited with her family in Vietnam. The story of her homecoming, interwoven with her memories of the war years, paints a vivid picture of a noble, optimistic woman and her native country.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Difficult to listen to
- By heatherhg on 07-01-07
By: Le Ly Hayslip, and others
-
Shalimar the Clown
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Aasif Mandvi
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 566
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 236
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 233
When Maximilian Ophuls is murdered outside his daughter's home by his Kashmiri Muslim driver, it appears to be a political killing. Ophuls is the former U.S. ambassador to India and America's leading figure in counter-terrorism. But there is much more to Ophuls and his assassin, a mysterious man calling himself "Shalimar the Clown", than meets the eye. One woman is at the center of their shared history, a history of betrayal and deception.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Incredible
- By Barry on 12-07-05
By: Salman Rushdie
-
The Stories of Eva Luna
- By: Isabel Allende
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Pena
- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 103
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 70
Immerse yourself in a world of love, vengeance, compassion, and irony with the evocative stories of Eva Luna. Author Isabel Allende introduced this well-loved character to audiences in her earlier novel, Eva Luna. Listen to Allende talk about the role of writing in her life in Giving Birth, Finding Form. This program also features Alice Walker and Jean Shinoda Bolen.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Better some Allende than no Allende
- By Perschon on 12-04-14
By: Isabel Allende
-
The Blue Between Sky and Water
- By: Susan Abulhawa
- Narrated by: Jennifer Woodward
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 66
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 66
It is 1947, and Beit Daras, a quiet village in Palestine surrounded by olive groves, is home to the Baraka family. Eldest daughter Nazmiyeh looks after her widowed mother, prone to wandering and strange outbursts, while her brother, Mamdouh, tends to the village bees. Their younger sister, Mariam, with her striking mismatched eyes, spends her days talking to imaginary friends and writing.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Horrible pronunciation
- By Debra Sabah Press on 11-08-18
By: Susan Abulhawa
-
The Darling
- By: Russell Banks
- Narrated by: Mary Beth Hurt
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 378
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 128
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 133
The Darling is Hannah Musgrave's story, told emotionally and convincingly years later by Hannah herself. A political radical and member of the Weather Underground, Hannah has fled America to West Africa, where she and her Liberian husband become friends and colleagues of Charles Taylor, the notorious warlord and now ex-president of Liberia. When Taylor leaves for the United States in an effort to escape embezzlement charges, he's immediately placed in prison.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Complex and compelling
- By Ellen H. Anderson on 02-05-05
By: Russell Banks
-
The Vagrants
- By: Yiyun Li
- Narrated by: Jackie Chung
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 51
Yiyun Li is the winner of the prestigious Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. The Vagrants, set in 1979 China, is the story of those affected by the execution of a 28-year-old counterrevolutionary. Though suffering, Li's characters nevertheless struggle to maintain hope amid cruel circumstance.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Lovely prose, good story, deadly narration
- By Athene on 05-10-13
By: Yiyun Li
-
When Heaven and Earth Changed Places
- A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace
- By: Le Ly Hayslip, Jay Wurts
- Narrated by: Nancy Kwan
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 100
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 81
This haunting memoir tells the brutal story of the Vietnam War from the perspective of an innocent victim whose childhood was dominated by violence, devastation, and conflicts between the teachings of her culture and the realities of war. The youngest in a close-knit Buddhist family, Le Ly Hayslip was 12 years old when U.S. helicopters landed in her village. She was raped and "ruined" for marriage by Viet Cong soldiers, imprisoned and tortured by the South Vietnamese, and sentenced to death by the Viet Cong. Ultimately fleeing to the U.S. with her children, she finally found peace, and in 1986, she was reunited with her family in Vietnam. The story of her homecoming, interwoven with her memories of the war years, paints a vivid picture of a noble, optimistic woman and her native country.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Difficult to listen to
- By heatherhg on 07-01-07
By: Le Ly Hayslip, and others
-
Shalimar the Clown
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Aasif Mandvi
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 566
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 236
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 233
When Maximilian Ophuls is murdered outside his daughter's home by his Kashmiri Muslim driver, it appears to be a political killing. Ophuls is the former U.S. ambassador to India and America's leading figure in counter-terrorism. But there is much more to Ophuls and his assassin, a mysterious man calling himself "Shalimar the Clown", than meets the eye. One woman is at the center of their shared history, a history of betrayal and deception.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Incredible
- By Barry on 12-07-05
By: Salman Rushdie
-
The Stories of Eva Luna
- By: Isabel Allende
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Pena
- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 103
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 70
Immerse yourself in a world of love, vengeance, compassion, and irony with the evocative stories of Eva Luna. Author Isabel Allende introduced this well-loved character to audiences in her earlier novel, Eva Luna. Listen to Allende talk about the role of writing in her life in Giving Birth, Finding Form. This program also features Alice Walker and Jean Shinoda Bolen.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Better some Allende than no Allende
- By Perschon on 12-04-14
By: Isabel Allende
-
The Blue Between Sky and Water
- By: Susan Abulhawa
- Narrated by: Jennifer Woodward
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 66
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 66
It is 1947, and Beit Daras, a quiet village in Palestine surrounded by olive groves, is home to the Baraka family. Eldest daughter Nazmiyeh looks after her widowed mother, prone to wandering and strange outbursts, while her brother, Mamdouh, tends to the village bees. Their younger sister, Mariam, with her striking mismatched eyes, spends her days talking to imaginary friends and writing.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Horrible pronunciation
- By Debra Sabah Press on 11-08-18
By: Susan Abulhawa
-
The Darling
- By: Russell Banks
- Narrated by: Mary Beth Hurt
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 378
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 128
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 133
The Darling is Hannah Musgrave's story, told emotionally and convincingly years later by Hannah herself. A political radical and member of the Weather Underground, Hannah has fled America to West Africa, where she and her Liberian husband become friends and colleagues of Charles Taylor, the notorious warlord and now ex-president of Liberia. When Taylor leaves for the United States in an effort to escape embezzlement charges, he's immediately placed in prison.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Complex and compelling
- By Ellen H. Anderson on 02-05-05
By: Russell Banks
-
The Vagrants
- By: Yiyun Li
- Narrated by: Jackie Chung
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 51
Yiyun Li is the winner of the prestigious Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. The Vagrants, set in 1979 China, is the story of those affected by the execution of a 28-year-old counterrevolutionary. Though suffering, Li's characters nevertheless struggle to maintain hope amid cruel circumstance.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Lovely prose, good story, deadly narration
- By Athene on 05-10-13
By: Yiyun Li
-
Remember Us
- My Journey from the Shtetl Through the Holocaust
- By: Vic Shayne, Martin Small
- Narrated by: Peter Altschuler
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 356
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 322
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 320
Remember Us is a look back at the lost world of the shtetl: a wise Zayde offering prophetic and profound words to his grandson, the rich experience of Shabbos, and the treasure of a loving family. All this is torn apart with the arrival of the Holocaust, beginning a crucible fraught with twists and turns so unpredictable and surprising that they defy any attempt to find reason within them. Through the eyes of 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Martin Small, we learn that these priceless memories that are too painful to remember are also too painful to forget.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Tragic and Rich Life, With Lessons For All
- By still reading on 03-17-16
By: Vic Shayne, and others
-
Tears of the Desert
- A Memoir of Survival in Darfur
- By: Halima Bashir, Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 88
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 68
Halima Bashir was born into the Zaghawa tribe, whose customs have remained unchanged for centuries, in the remote western deserts of Sudan in the region of South Darfur. Halima's father named his daughter after the traditional medicine woman of the village, and she grew up in a happy and close-knit childhood environment. Her father became a wealthy man by his tribe's standards, so he could afford to send Halima to school and university. Halima went on to study medicine, and at 24 she returned to her tribe and began practicing as their first ever qualified doctor.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A story that takes you there
- By Justicepirate on 05-22-17
By: Halima Bashir, and others
-
Secondhand Time
- The Last of the Soviets
- By: Svetlana Alexievich, Bela Shayevich - translator
- Narrated by: Amanda Carlin, Mark Bramhall, Cassandra Campbell, and others
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 760
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 675
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 673
When the Swedish Academy awarded Svetlana Alexievich the Nobel Prize, it cited her for inventing "a new kind of literary genre", describing her work as "a history of emotions - a history of the soul". Alexievich's distinctive documentary style, combining extended individual monologues with a collage of voices, records the stories of ordinary women and men who are rarely given the opportunity to speak, whose experiences are often lost in the official histories of the nation.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Heart, Soul & Iron Fist Of Russia
- By Sara on 02-22-17
By: Svetlana Alexievich, and others
-
Birds Without Wings
- By: Louis de Bernieres
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 23 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 499
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 315
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 313
Birds Without Wings is the story of a small town in Anatolia in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire told in the richly varied voices of the men and women (Armenians, Christians, and Muslims) whose lives are intertwined and rooted there: Iskander, the potter and local fount of wisdom; Philotei, the Christian girl of legendary beauty, courted almost from infancy by Ibrahim the goatherd, a great love that culminates in tragedy and madness; and many more.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Not for the faint of heart
- By a on 01-03-05
-
Green City in the Sun
- By: Barbara Wood
- Narrated by: Edie Tusor
- Length: 27 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 44
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
In 1917 Dr. Grace Treverton arrives in Kenya determined to bring modern medicine to the African natives. Her brother, Sir Valentine Treverton, has his own dream for the British protectorate: to establish an agricultural empire to rival any in England. The aspirations of the wealthy Trevertons collide with those of the Mathenge tribe, an African family that has lived on the land for years. Grace soon finds a deadly rival in Mama Wachera, an African medicine woman who fights to maintain native traditions against the encroaching whites.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautifully written
- By nancy wanty on 12-18-23
By: Barbara Wood
-
Slave
- By: Mende Nazar, Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 184
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 155
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 157
Mende Nazer tells the story of her kidnap, at age 12, from an idyllic life with her family in a village in Sudan, and being sold into slavery. Trafficked to Europe and the London home of a diplomat, Nazer escaped - only to find she had to fight for asylum.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Heartbreaking dose of reality
- By Sarah on 09-02-09
By: Mende Nazar, and others
-
After the Roundup
- Escape and Survival in Hitler’s France
- By: Joseph Weismann
- Narrated by: J. Clark Allison
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 36
On the nights of July 16 and 17, 1942, French police rounded up 11-year-old Joseph Weismann, his family, and 13,000 other Jews. After being held for five days in appalling conditions in the Vélodrome d'Hiver stadium, Joseph and his family were transported by cattle car to the Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp and brutally separated. A thousand children were left behind to wait for a later train. The French guards told the children that they would soon be reunited with their parents, but Joseph and his new friend, Joe Kogan, chose to risk everything in a daring escape attempt.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A “must-listen” book
- By Jonathan R Scupin on 09-25-18
By: Joseph Weismann
-
Shame
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 37
The novel that set the stage for his modern classic, The Satanic Verses, Shame is Salman Rushdie's phantasmagoric epic of an unnamed country that is "not quite Pakistan". In this dazzling tale of an ongoing duel between the families of two men - one a celebrated wager of war, the other a debauched lover of pleasure - Rushdie brilliantly portrays a world caught between honor and humiliation.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Should have quit at chapter 2
- By G. Miller on 06-23-23
By: Salman Rushdie
-
The Women in the Castle
- By: Jessica Shattuck
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 4,091
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,687
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 3,681
Set at the end of World War II, in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once played host to all of German high society, a powerful and propulsive story of three widows whose lives and fates become intertwined - an affecting, shocking, and ultimately redemptive novel from the author of the New York Times notable book The Hazards of Good Breeding.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Skating On The Thin Ice Of Life
- By Sara on 04-29-17
By: Jessica Shattuck
-
Maya's Notebook
- By: Isabel Allende
- Narrated by: Maria Cabezas
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 410
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 359
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 361
Neglected by her parents, 19-year-old Maya Nidal has grown up in Berkeley with her grandparents. Her grandmother Nini is a force of nature, a woman whose formidable strength helped her build a new life after emigrating from Chile in 1973. Popo, Maya's grandfather, is a gentle man whose solid, comforting presence helps calm the turbulence of Maya's adolescence. When Popo dies of cancer, Maya goes completely off the rails, turning to drugs, alcohol, and petty crime in a downward spiral that eventually bottoms out in Las Vegas.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Narrator ruins this book
- By R.J. Mulder on 05-13-14
By: Isabel Allende
-
Golden Earrings
- By: Belinda Alexandra
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 533
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 487
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 483
Catalina, grand-daughter of Spanish refugees, is a disciplined student with the School of the Paris Opera Ballet. Little gets inthe way of her career until the visit of an otherworldly being, who leaves her a mysterious pair of golden earrings. Given a quest, Catalina realises she must explore her own Spanish heritage and makes the connection between the visitor and ‘La Rusa’, a young Andalusian flamenco star. La Rusa died in exile in Paris in 1952, her death ruled as suicide. But as Catalina begins to discover, there were those in the community, who had good reason for wanting La Rusa dead.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fabulous story
- By Paddington on 10-19-12
-
Land of Love and Drowning
- By: Tiphanie Yanique
- Narrated by: Cherise Boothe, Korey Jackson, Rachel Leslie, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 185
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 175
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 170
In the early 1900s an important ship sinks into the Caribbean Sea, just as the Virgin Islands are transferred from Danish to American rule. Orphaned by the sunk vessel are two sisters and their half-brother, now faced with an uncertain identity and future. Each of them is unusually beautiful, and each is in possession of a particular magic that will either sink or save them. Chronicling three generations of an island family from 1916 to the 1970s, Land of Love and Drowning is a novel of love and magic.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
TW: incest
- By Carrissa on 04-12-17
By: Tiphanie Yanique