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Land of Love and Drowning  By  cover art

Land of Love and Drowning

By: Tiphanie Yanique
Narrated by: Cherise Boothe,Korey Jackson,Rachel Leslie,Myra Lucretia Taylor
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Publisher's summary

A major debut from an award-winning writer - an epic family saga set against the magic and the rhythms of the Virgin Islands.

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, set against the emergence of Saint Thomas into the modern world. Wholly unique, with echoes of Toni Morrison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and the author's own Caribbean family history, the story is told in a language and rhythm that evokes an entire world and way of life and love. Following the Bradshaw family through 60 years of fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, love affairs, curses, magical gifts, loyalties, births, deaths, and triumphs, Land of Love and Drowning is a gorgeous, vibrant debut by an exciting, prize-winning young writer.

©2014 Tiphanie Yanique (P)2014 Recorded Books

What listeners say about Land of Love and Drowning

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

TW: incest

This is a beautifully written book, truly lovely language. Trigger warning: this novel is full of many types and layers of incest, which will naturally be very disturbing and/or triggering for some of us.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Gorgeous

A beautiful story masterfully told & performed. Feels like air blowing off the ocean. Wonderful break from the everyday grind.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

The Girl Done Good

What made the experience of listening to Land of Love and Drowning the most enjoyable?

I loved listening to this novel with the various voices

Who was your favorite character and why?

Annette, she truly found her soulmate.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Great voice quality and patois

If you could take any character from Land of Love and Drowning out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Eonna to hear more of the family's secrets.

Any additional comments?

Great book. It ignited a fire and family memories in me to further explore my Jamaican roots.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

narration was confusing

The narration for the older sister and the "wise women" or third party wasn't clear and was rather pendantic. The voice of the younger sister was excellent. The story is good only if you view it as a panorama of the island and not of individuals.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not a sexy book for how much sex there is

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

There needed to be more story. It reads a bit like a memoir of fictional people whose lives, while interesting aren't terribly inspiring or interesting. The characters were odious (even the likable ones had their horrid moments), and I thought, well maybe the ending is worth it. Spoiler alert: it wasn't.

What could Tiphanie Yanique have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The author could have reduced the amount of revolting sex. I find rape and incest particularly difficult in an audiobook… in a print book, you can scan ahead to see where the rape or incest ends if you want… but that doesn't work for an audiobook in the same way.

Plus, the female characters all seemed to suffer extensively from their experiences, so much mores than the men, which may be historically accurate, but grew tiresome.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

My main reaction is that this is just not a book to read when pregnant. There was too much incest, abusive treatment of children and fetusses, terrible treatment of spouses and loved ones. Its possible that being pregnant made me overly sensitive, but I just had a really hard time getting through the early sections where one character celebrated her ability to lose children. I felt a lot of loathing and disgust for a lot of the characters, and there just weren't many

Any additional comments?

Skip it. I can't fathom why this book received so much praise over the summer.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Worth the Effort

It took me a long time, like 2/3s of the book, to finally be caught up in this story, but it turned out to be a good story. Unfortunately I had read a comparison of this book to those of Garcia Marquez, and that preset my expectations. While it isn't a Garcia Marquez-like novel, it is a good story with many generations and their histories and stories entwined. I liked the pace of the readers, their accents, and the history of the Virgin Islands.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars

Mesmerizing

Mesmerizing and difficult. You fall in love with the characters and hate them all at once. I could not put the book down.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Offensive fake accents

Having been born and raised in the US Virgin Islands, I found the fake accents, the fact that all of the characters did not have the same accents, as well as the mispronounced words, very offensive. I looked forward to listening to this book and to hearing our dialect and was truly disappointed. In spite of that the story was well written. I would not recommend that it be listened to though.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Intrigued at first, but struggled to finish.

Intersting story about Virgin Island perspective I loved the narration, but the story got way too thick with symbolism, and near the end, I just got bogged down by it and lost interest in the storyline.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

wow!

I loved it! I had no idea that this book would be as impactful as it was.We had an actual relationship. I loved it one minute then hated it then loved it again. I missed it when it wasn't around and I'm sad that it's over. So much so that I'm about to listen again!

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