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The History of Love
- Narrated by: George Guidall, Barbara Caruso, Julia Gibson, Andy Paris
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
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It has been decades since Leo Gursky first surrendered his heart, then wrote a book about it, at the tender age of 10, and he's been in love with the same person ever since. Leo believes his book is lost to time, but what he doesn't know is, not only has it survived 60 years without him, it has also been an inspiration to others. Fourteen-year-old Alma was even named for a character from the book. When she realizes how deeply the story touched her lonely mother, she embarks on a search for answers.
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Critic reviews
"An intriguing books-within-a-book narrative....Venturing into Paul Auster territory in her graceful inquiry into the interplay between life and literature, Krauss is winsome, funny, and affecting." (Booklist)
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Greta Cahill never believed she would leave her village in the west of Ireland until she found herself on a ship bound for New York, along with her sister Johanna and a boy named Michael Ward. Labeled a "softheaded goose" by her family, Greta discovers that in America she can fall in love, raise her own family, and earn a living.
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Irish immigratn story
- By Chrissie on 09-10-13
By: Mary Beth Keane
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The Bonesetter's Daughter
- By: Amy Tan
- Narrated by: Amy Tan, Joan Chen
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in contemporary San Francisco and in a Chinese village where Peking Man is being unearthed, The Bonesetter's Daughter is an excavation of the human spirit: the past, its deepest wounds, its most profound hopes. Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, brilliantly presents "storytelling in its oldest and truest form".
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Exceptionally good
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By: Amy Tan
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Everything Is Illuminated
- By: Jonathan Safran Foer
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man—also named Jonathan Safran Foer—sets out to find the woman who might or might not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war, an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior, and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past.
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If you like the movie, you won’t like the book.
- By Squirrel on 10-14-22
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Boy, Snow, Bird
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In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty - the opposite of the life she' s left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman. A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she' d become, but elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out when the birth of Boy' s daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as light-skinned African Americans passing for white.
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For Literary Lovers
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By: Helen Oyeyemi
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The Vine of Desire
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Anju and Sudha formed an astounding, almost psychic connection during their childhood in India. When Anju invites Sudha, a single mother in Calcutta, to come live with her and her husband, Sunil, in California, Sudha foolishly accepts, knowing full well that Sunil has long desired her. As Sunil's attraction rises to the surface, the trio must struggle to make sense of the freedoms of America - and of the ties that bind them to India and to one another.
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Vine of desire
- By Mz Shantay on 03-27-21
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Love Walked In
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Performance
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Award-winning poet Marisa de los Santos crafts an irresistibly touching debut novel. Love Walked In is a contemporary tale, steeped in nostalgic, cinematic charm, of love in all its forms. Unapologetically idealistic about love, Cornelia Brown appears to catch the break of a lifetime when the dashing Martin Grace, her own personal Cary Grant, comes strolling into her life. But it is Martin's connection to 11-year-old Clare Hobbes that touches Cornelia's heart in ways she never imagined.
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Dreadful audio quality
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The One-in-a-Million Boy
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Story
For years, guitarist Quinn Porter has been on the road, chasing gig after gig, largely absent to his twice-ex-wife Belle and their odd, Guinness records-obsessed son. When the boy dies suddenly, Quinn seeks forgiveness for his paternal shortcomings by completing the requirements for one of his son's unfinished Boy Scout badges. For seven Saturdays Quinn does yard work for Ona Vitkus, the spry 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant the boy had visited weekly.
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Loved it
- By Justin on 10-20-16
By: Monica Wood
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Strong Motion
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Louis Holland arrives in Boston in a spring of ecological upheaval (a rash of earthquakes on the North Shore) and odd luck: the first one kills his grandmother. Louis tries to maintain his independence, but falls in love with a Harvard seismologist whose discoveries about the earthquakes' cause complicate everything.
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Compelling Story, Ridiculous Narrator
- By DianeReads on 02-28-16
By: Jonathan Franzen
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A Fraction of the Whole
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Stewing in an Australian prison, Jasper Dean reflects on his relationship with his dead father and recounts the many zany adventures they shared together.
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A Funny and Thought-provoking Tale of Human Nature
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The Red Address Book
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Overall
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The global fiction sensation - published in 32 countries around the world: Meet Doris, a 96-year-old woman living alone in her Stockholm apartment. She has few visitors, but her weekly Skype calls with Jenny - her American grandniece, and her only relative - give her great joy and remind her of her own youth. In writing down the stories of her colorful past - working as a maid in Sweden, modelling in Paris during the '30s, fleeing to Manhattan at the dawn of the Second World War - she may help Jenny, haunted by a difficult childhood, unlock the secrets of their family....
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narrator was overwrought
- By Janet L. Hamilton on 02-22-19
By: Sofia Lundberg, and others
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On Folly Beach
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Overall
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Folly Beach, South Carolina, has survived despite hurricanes and war. But it's the personal battles of Folly Beach's residents that have left the most scars, and they are why a young widow has been beckoned there to heal her own. To most people, Folly Beach is simply the last barrier island before reaching the great Atlantic. To some, it's a sanctuary for lost souls, which is why Emmy Hamilton's mother encourages her to buy a local bookstore, Folly's Finds, hoping it will distract Emmy from the loss of her husband.
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You won't want to get out of your car
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By: Karen White
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What listeners say about The History of Love
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Jane
- 10-14-08
Like Garcia-Marquez on Anti-Pschyotics
What a surprise, a divine revelation to find this treasure buried among the cast offs in Audible's last sale. How is it possible that the title "A History of Love" is not shouted from the roof-tops, bill-boarded along reader's highways and passed around slyly like a rumor between friends-in-the-know.
Or perhaps it is, and I am just out of the loop, confused by the lack of awards notices on a book that is so far superior to the NY Book Review, Pulitzer, Oprah and Best Seller marks plastered on less-deserving works.
Though mysterious and filled with shadings of poetry, magical realism and literary allusion this book is nonetheless well grounded in the here-and-now, and straight forward in narrative.
Of note, the audio version may be superior to the printed in that the listener is spared the work of guessing when voices change, and who is narrating. Also, because the four actors in this recording give outstanding, lyrical and pitch-perfect performances.
PS: Please save discovery of the narrative for your own pleasure, and avoid pre-reading the plethora of (mostly favorable) reviews about this book. I went through a few after listening, and felt the destructive weight of the spoilers among the praises, even for a book I had already read. Don't let someone else trample through this garden before you've had your joy of it.
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176 people found this helpful
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Overall
- KLJP
- 08-15-05
Beautiful story, beautifully written.
I've been listening to Audiobooks for over a year, and this is the first time I've felt compelled to write a review. I listened to this back in May. The story is still with me. Leo Gursky is a character that will not soon leave you, and the narrator of his voice makes him come alive. Download now -- you won't be disappointed.
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51 people found this helpful
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Performance
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Story
- MMinSouthernCA
- 12-05-15
George Guidall awesome, rest pale
I so wanted to love this book because the character narrated by George Guidall is relatable, lovable, interesting, compelling. BUT the female character is utterly dull, monotonous, like a 4th grader reading their own essay out loud, deliberately pedantic. I am 3/4 through the book, after determined effort, and can't slog it out anymore. The subject matter (post-WWII) intrigued me, a topic I tend to enjoy for its real complexity, but I could not endure anymore. I don't easily put down books I'm >1/2 through, but this was too painful.
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40 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Sarah Broadwell
- 07-19-05
Inventive style, engaging novel
I think the title drew me to the novel, but I wouldn't have expected to enjoy it as much as I have. The voices that the narrators give to the voices that Nicole Krauss created are perfect. Though I found the voice of Alma irritating at times, it is the right voice for the character. Leo Gursky's humor is priceless and his pain is palpable. The manner with which all the novel's characters are connected seems extraordinary and improbable and yet completely plausible at the same time.
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37 people found this helpful
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- Elizabeth
- 06-28-16
Why Did it Take Me So Long to Find This?
I loved this book. It was written in 2005 and spans about 1930 to the new century. Starts in Poland when Nazi's are taking over. Two very young lovers get separated. The girl's father is able to send her to America. The boy survives the atrocities by hiding and living off the earth. Eventually he gets to America, too. Most of the book takes place in present time in NYC. It is about how writing keeps our memory alive, about how war impacts people generations later and, as another reviewer said, how and why we love. It is easy to give up on this book because of the four different voices and the connections aren't always clear. I was confused and thought I was missing things. I wasn't. You have to hang in there and things start to come together. Beautifully written. Perfect voices for audio. Five stars for me. (An aside - the author is married to Jonathan Safran Foer, the author of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" with some similarities. I, also, loved that audiobook.)
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26 people found this helpful
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Overall
- P. Giorgio
- 01-02-06
Wonderful-Yes it was over too soon
In a world of fast paced, too-quickly written fiction, this beautiful work of art is slow and lush. The language is simple and strong. The images evoke a tangible reality. The characters (specifically Leo Gursky) are developed from youth through senility with a careful, respectful hand. "The History" could have been written by an older writer, but Nicole Krauss' youth is filled with promise.
Historical iterary references are beautifully and realistically incorporated into fiction.
But the most amazing aspect of the book (which is a story about a book) is the voice, the language. Leo Gursky, one of the primary narrators, speaks in the first person of his past and present, his fears, longings, regrets. What might be called "digression" in another writer, here is done so naturally that the reader/listener travels with Leo from Poland to New York and back without disruption. Switching between a young narrator and Leo is equally smooth and credible. I longed to finish it, regretting it was over.
I too want to find Alma (all the Almas). I suffered to learn Issac may have (ultimately did) know of his father for a time when his father knew of him. Young Alma, the child in all of us, the seeker, the caretaker, the lover of life sought her father in every way she could.
The end, a little confusing for me. Did it happen this way? Did young Alma fill for Leo the void he carried those many years? Or had he, as he suggested, lost his mind?
And the surprising ascension of *Bird* to secretly help his sister's search, earning himself the title of *lamed vovnik,* added even more depth and parallelism.
I admit I borrowed the book from the library. Between listens, I went back and read from the book to clarify some of the plot that I feared I had missed.
The last 30 minutes (30 pp or so) were satisfying and explanatory and moving and wonderful.
Did I cry? Yes. A bit, at the end, from happiness. Did I laugh? Yes. Many, many times.
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-28-15
Long and slow
This book got great reviews but I didn't really enjoy it. It moves very slowly. At first I didn't like any of the characters but they did grow on me. There are three people with separate stories that don't come together till close to the end. The first is a very old man with a very sad life. The second is an unusual young teenage girl. I didn't like her voice. The third was a narrator. The end is good and I'm glad I stuck with it but I wouldn't suggest it to a friend.
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- Jan
- 08-05-14
History of Love and G. Guidall: The Perfect Match
Not a book to read when you are down, The History of Love explores the ups, the downs, and the challenges of growing old, with a sideshow of serendipity thrown in. I can not say enough about George Guidall. A true master of narration, Guidall brings Krauss's protagonist to life, and stands him in front of us, holding a mirror to our face so we can clearly see what the future holds for all of us... if we are lucky enough to get that far. Read it. On a good day.
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- Kindle Customer
- 01-25-06
Disappointing
I forced myself to hear this book to the end because after all, I had wasted a credit on it. Eccentric characters are all right as accent, but when ALL the characters are eccentric they lose any interest they might have had and simply become annoying. And the list/numbering technique of which the author is so fond should really be reserved for shopping lists. Entire chapters of numbered paragraphs and sentences is tiresome. From reading the reviews before I purchased this book, I was expecting some depth or nuances of feeling, but it was impossible for me to have any involvement with these incredibly boring characters. The interconnections of plot and character were only mildly interesting and not enough to lift this book out of the doldrums. My favorite words were "The End."
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- Wendy
- 05-10-05
Loved It!
Loved the story. Love the characters. Loved the narration.
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