Beloved

By: Toni Morrison

Narrated by: Toni Morrison

Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A spellbinding novel that transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. With a new afterword by the author.

This "brutally powerful, mesmerizing story” (People) is an unflinchingly look into the abyss of slavery, from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner.

Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

“A masterwork.... Wonderful.... I can’t imagine American literature without it.” —John Leonard, Los Angeles Times

©1987 Toni Morrison (P)1998 Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A masterwork. . . . Wonderful. . . . I can’t imagine American literature without it.” —John Leonard, Los Angeles Times

“A triumph.” —Margaret Atwood, The New York Times Book Review

“Toni Morrison’s finest work. . . . [It] sets her apart [and] displays her prodigious talent.” —Chicago Sun-Times

A gift for you, hearing Beloved read by Toni Morrison

I read Beloved many years ago, before I was a mother, before we arrived at this state of uncivilty. Hearing Toni Morrison read this beautiful, painful, magical story was the best treat I’ve had in a long time. I often was in tears and had to rewind to hear Ms. Morrison read a particular passage again. Beloved is a gift to yourself and to the world.

Good read!

Hard read but well worth it, very moving story of hard truths of this country's past history.

wow.

This book is beautiful. I can't believe it took me so long to get it.

It is a Privilege to Read This Book

I am stunned by Toni Morrison; how can an author capture history so vividly? So authentically? How can she step inside the lives of these people, entering into the deepest details of their emotions, their language, their loves and hates?

Her writing style is so unique—truly, she is one of the greats. It is a privilege to read this book, as painful as the story is. The raw truth of the story of the unforgivable abuse of one group of human beings by another is Devastating.

And yet it doesn’t feel like a story that was written to condemn, but rather, to give us an opportunity to step inside these lives and appreciate the finest details, taking it deeper and deeper into the unfolding details, not in a straight line of storytelling, but in a multi-dimensional unfurling of a spiral that delivers us into the depths of unfathomable suffering and unimaginable love, re-living those stories from multiple perspectives, just as those stories repeat themselves, as we re-live them in our minds.

Morrison dares to talk about the unmentionable, the hard-to-believe interweaving of the worlds of those who have died, with the living. She takes the things that black people have hidden from whites; the secrets that could not be spoken and blurts them out with impunity, seeming to have no fear of judgment from them, nor from the literary critics.

At first I did not like Morrison’s reading style, but it grew on me. It is akin to the chanting rhythmic ways of historians In cultures who had no written word.

I was not surprised to learn that in 1988, this book won the Pulitzer Prize and that in 1996, the author was given the highest honor for achievement in the humanities.

As a child growing up in the 50s, I was led to believe that women could not achieve a status of greatness; that we were intrinsically inferior to men. And this was doubly true for black people,who were closer to apes in their evolution.

Beloved reveals this cruel myth for what it is. Morrison stands among the greats, and makes me feel proud to be a woman.

But beware: this book is not pleasant to read. It is not a form of entertainment.

astoundingly good

phenomenal book! and I love Toni Morrison's voice. she is a literary genius without a doubt

Excellent Book

Love love love Toni Morrison’s voice! The story was pretty intriguing, shows the transition from slavery to newly freed slaves.

Thank you Ms. Morrison

Only Ms. Morrison could've delivered this experience in this way. A gift, more so now.

I now understand why Virginia wants this banned.

This is a truly insightful look at a life lived. It should be accessible to everyone.

Beloved - a poetic masterpiece of historical fiction

This is among the most poetic prose books I’ve ever read (or listened to). Additionally, Morrison’s performance of the story is unmatchable. The story, of course, is difficult, but also so rewarding. I highly recommend this, and I intend to re-read it many times.

Beautifully written!!!!

I loved this book, the narrators sulky voice was intriguing I just loved her voice. Tony Morrison is a great writer as well as a narrator. I will start this book over again.