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Native Speaker
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
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Publisher's summary
The debut novel from critically-acclaimed and New York Times-bestselling author of On Such a Full Sea and My Year Abroad.
In Native Speaker, author Chang-rae Lee introduces listeners to Henry Park. Park has spent his entire life trying to become a true American—a native speaker. But even as the essence of his adopted country continues to elude him, his Korean heritage seems to drift further and further away.
Park's harsh Korean upbringing has taught him to hide his emotions, to remember everything he learns, and most of all to feel an overwhelming sense of alienation. In other words, it has shaped him as a natural spy.
But the very attributes that help him to excel in his profession put a strain on his marriage to his American wife and stand in the way of his coming to terms with his young son's death. When he is assigned to spy on a rising Korean-American politician, his very identity is tested, and he must figure out who he is amid not only the conflicts within himself but also within the ethnic and political tensions of the New York City streets.
Native Speaker is a story of cultural alienation. It is about fathers and sons, about the desire to connect with the world rather than stand apart from it, about loyalty and betrayal, about the alien in all of us and who we finally are.
Critic reviews
"One of the year's most provocative and deeply felt first novels...a searing portrait of the immigrant experience."—Vanity Fair
"With echoes of Ralph Ellison, Chang-rae Lee's extraordinary debut speaks for another kind of invisible man: the Asian immigrant in America...a revelatory work of fiction."—Vogue
"The prose Lee writes is elliptical, riddling, poetic, often beautifully made."—The New Yorker
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great stories but only 5 of 17 are included
- By Terri Kirk on 07-13-12
-
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
- By: Dinaw Mengestu
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 170
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 140
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 140
Ethiopian émigré Dinaw Mengestu is a skilled observer of people who offers a colorful debut work of fiction. Insightful and swiftly paced, this novel evokes past and present in the course of its compelling narrative. It's the `70s, and one D.C. neighborhood is undergoing big changes. In the mix is Ethiopian grocery owner Sepha Stephanos - a man with a complex past who fled his homeland after seeing his father brutalized by themilitary. He hopes for new prospects in D.C.'s gentrification process.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book, wonderful reader
- By Lisbeth on 11-22-11
By: Dinaw Mengestu
-
In the Country
- Stories
- By: Mia Alvar
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu, Don Castro
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 55
These nine globe-trotting, unforgettable stories from Mia Alvar, a remarkable new literary talent, vividly give voice to the women and men of the Filipino diaspora. Here are exiles, emigrants, and wanderers uprooting their families from the Philippines to begin new lives in the Middle East, the United States, and elsewhere - and sometimes turning back again.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
My introduction to Filipino literature and culture
- By Amazon Customer on 03-28-16
By: Mia Alvar
-
The Patriots
- A Novel
- By: Sana Krasikov
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, George Guidall
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 86
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 77
Florence Fein grows up in Brooklyn in the 1930s, in a family that is gaining a foothold in the middle class. At City College she becomes engaged politically with the left-leaning student groups, and eventually, in the midst of the Depression, she takes a job with a trade organization that has a position for her in Moscow. There, she falls in love with another expatriate American and has a son. Soon after, Florence is sent to a work camp and her son to an orphanage.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Point of View of characters, past and present collide
- By Angela Adams on 01-29-19
By: Sana Krasikov
-
The Wife
- A Novel
- By: Meg Wolitzer
- Narrated by: Dawn Harvey
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 639
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 569
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 567
The moment Joan Castleman decides to leave her husband, they are 35,000 feet above the ocean on a flight to Helsinki. Joan's husband, Joseph, is one of America's preeminent novelists, about to receive a prestigious international award, and Joan, who has spent 40 years subjugating her own literary talents to fan the flames of his career, has finally decided to stop.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
A bit of a downer
- By Jody Cox on 08-01-18
By: Meg Wolitzer
-
The UnAmericans
- Stories
- By: Molly Antopol
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 124
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 111
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 111
Again and again, Molly Antopol’s deeply sympathetic characters struggle for footing in an uncertain world, hounded by forces beyond their control. Their voices are intimate and powerful and they resonate with searing beauty. Antopol is a superb young talent, and The UnAmericans will long be remembered for its wit, humanity, and heart.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Sensational stories! Brilliant new author.
- By MidwestGeek on 05-04-14
By: Molly Antopol
-
One Amazing Thing
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Purva Bedi, Soneela Nankani, Neil Shah
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 124
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 99
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 97
Winner of a Pushcart Prize for poetry and an American Book Award for her short stories, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explores themes of women, immigration, and her vibrant Indian culture to great effect. Divakaruni expands on these ideas in One Amazing Thing, a project long in the making and full of electric prose.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
An ok way to kill some time
- By R.Reader on 11-07-12
-
Lifted by the Great Nothing
- By: Karim Dimechkie
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 48
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 46
Max doesn't remember his mother, who was murdered by burglars before they emigrated from Beirut to New Jersey. He lives with his father, Rasheed, who is enamored of his concept of American culture - baseball and barbeques - and tries to shed his Lebanese heritage completely.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent
- By Cheyenne on 06-13-15
By: Karim Dimechkie
-
Bettyville
- By: George Hodgman
- Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 368
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 329
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 329
When George Hodgman leaves Manhattan for his hometown of Paris, Missouri, he finds himself - an unlikely caretaker and near-lethal cook - in a head-on collision with his aging mother, Betty, a woman of wit and will. Will George lure her into assisted living? When hell freezes over. He can't bring himself to force her from the home both treasure - the place where his father's voice lingers, the scene of shared jokes, skirmishes, and, behind the dusty antiques, a rarely acknowledged conflict...
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1 out of 5 stars
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Title Should Be Georgeville-It's All About George
- By Sara on 10-08-15
By: George Hodgman
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The Turner House
- By: Angela Flournoy
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 663
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 593
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 595
The Turners have lived on Yarrow Street for over 50 years. Their house has seen 13 children grown and gone - and some returned; it has seen the arrival of grandchildren, the fall of Detroit's East Side, and the loss of a father. The house still stands despite abandoned lots, an embattled city, and the inevitable shift outward to the suburbs. But now, as ailing matriarch Viola finds herself forced to leave her home and move in with her eldest son, the family discovers that the house is worth just a 10th of its mortgage.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
The narrator's performance made the difference.
- By KT on 06-11-15
By: Angela Flournoy
-
A Nail Through The Heart
- A Poke Rafferty Thriller
- By: Timothy Hallinan
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 520
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 442
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 440
Poke Rafferty was writing offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored when Bangkok stole his heart. Now the American expat is assembling a new family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and Miaow, the tiny, streetwise urchin he wants to adopt. But trouble in the guise of good intentions comes calling just when everything is beginning to work out.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Ever been to Bangkok?
- By Richard Delman on 12-11-11
By: Timothy Hallinan
-
Baltimore Blues
- Tess Monaghan, Book 1
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Deborah Hazlett
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,489
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,191
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,183
Unemployed at 29, Tess Monaghan is willing to take any freelance job to pay the rent—including a bit of unorthodox snooping for her rowing buddy, Darryl "Rock" Paxton. In a city where someone is murdered almost every day, attorney Michael Abramowitz's death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer's notoriety—and his noontime trysts with Rock's fiancée—make the case front page news...and point to Rock as the likely murderer. But trying to prove her friend's innocence could prove costly to Tess.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
I'm on #8 - This series is almost unique
- By connie on 02-19-12
By: Laura Lippman
-
Guapa
- By: Saleem Haddad
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 128
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 116
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 114
Rasa spends his days translating for Western journalists and pining for the nights when he can sneak his lover, Taymour, into his room. One night Rasa's grandmother - the woman who raised him - catches them in bed together. The following day Rasa is consumed by the search for his best friend, Maj, a fiery activist and drag queen star of the underground bar Guapa, who has been arrested by the police.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Guapa
- By Mah Maass on 08-25-16
By: Saleem Haddad
-
After the Parade
- By: Lori Ostlund
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 48
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 43
Sensitive, big-hearted, and achingly self-conscious, 40-year-old Aaron Englund long ago escaped the confines of his Midwestern hometown, but he still feels like an outcast. After 20 years under the Pygmalion-like direction of his older partner, Walter, Aaron at last decides it is time to stop letting life happen to him and to take control of his own fate.
By: Lori Ostlund
-
Dreams from My Father
- A Story of Race and Inheritance
- By: Barack Obama
- Narrated by: Barack Obama
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 526
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 455
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 451
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a Black African father and a White American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a Black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father - a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man - has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey - first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Powerful
- By Gene R. on 10-26-21
By: Barack Obama
-
I'm Supposed to Protect You from All This
- A Memoir
- By: Nadja Spiegelman
- Narrated by: Nadja Spiegelman
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 56
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 53
For a long time, Nadja Spiegelman believed her mother was a fairy. More than her famous father, Maus creator Art Spiegelman, and even more than most mothers, hers - French-born New Yorker art director Françoise Mouly - exerted a force over reality that was both dazzling and daunting. As Nadja's body changed and "began to whisper to the adults around me in a language I did not understand", their relationship grew tense.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Aweful
- By Haley Abreu Kling on 07-05-17
By: Nadja Spiegelman
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 265
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Tiller is an average American college student with a good heart but minimal aspirations. Pong Lou is a larger-than-life, wildly creative Chinese American entrepreneur who sees something intriguing in Tiller beyond his bored exterior and takes him under his wing. When Pong brings him along on a boisterous trip across Asia, Tiller is catapulted from ordinary young man to talented protégé, and pulled into a series of ever more extreme and eye-opening experiences that transform his view of the world, of Pong, and of himself.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Worst narration ever
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Frightening, heartbreaking, and exquisitely calibrated, John le Carré's new novel opens with the gruesome murder of the young and beautiful Tessa Quayle near northern Kenya's Lake Turkana, the birthplace of mankind. Her putative African lover and traveling companion, a doctor with one of the aid agencies, has vanished from the scene of the crime. Tessa's much older husband, Justin, a career diplomat at the British High Commission in Nairobi, sets out on a personal odyssey in pursuit of the killers and their motive.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Greatest love story of the last fifty years
- By Darwin8u on 06-30-13
By: John le Carré
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A Gesture Life
- A Novel
- By: Chang-rae Lee
- Narrated by: Greg Watanabe
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 92
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
A Gesture Life is the story of an upstanding citizen who has come to epitomize the decorous values of his New York suburban town. Courteous, honest, hardworking, and impenetrable, Franklin Hata, a Japanese man of Korean birth, is careful never to overstep his boundaries and to make his neighbors comfortable in his presence. Yet, precipitated by the small events surrounding him, we see his life begin to unravel. Gradually we learn the mystery that has shaped the core of his being: his terrible, forbidden love for a young Korean Comfort Woman when he served as a medic in the Japanese army during World War II.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Superb
- By BooksRLife on 11-19-20
By: Chang-rae Lee
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I, The Divine
- A Novel in First Chapters
- By: Rabih Alameddine
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 18
In 2003, Osama al-Kharrat returns to Beirut after many years in America to stand vigil at his father's deathbed. As the family gathers, stories begin to unfold: Osama's grandfather was a hakawati, or storyteller, and his bewitching tales are interwoven with classic stories of the Middle East. Here are Abraham and Isaac; Ishmael, father of the Arab tribes; the beautiful Fatima; Baybars, the slave prince who vanquished the Crusaders; and a host of mischievous imps.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Excellent if you forgive pronunciation
- By Anne on 06-05-18
By: Rabih Alameddine
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The Flamethrowers
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- By: Rachel Kushner
- Narrated by: Rachel Kushner
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 19
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Story4 out of 5 stars 19
Reno, so-called because of the place of her birth, comes to New York intent on turning her fascination with motorcycles and speed into art. Her arrival coincides with an explosion of activity—artists colonize a deserted and industrial SoHo, stage actions in the East Village, blur the line between life and art. Reno is submitted to a sentimental education of sorts—by dreamers, poseurs, and raconteurs in New York and by radicals in Italy, where she goes with her lover to meet his estranged and formidable family.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Recommended
- By smith on 03-30-23
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Trinity
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- By: Zelda Lockhart
- Narrated by: Lynnette R. Freeman
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2
Lottie Rebecca Lee is spoken into the world in Fayetteville, North Carolina, by a Black nurse who declares, “Lord Jesus, if that ain’t the blackest little baby born this side of heaven.” Later, Lottie will prove that she is the ancestors’ promise to unearth the Mississippi and Ghanaian atrocities that have tormented Benjamin Lee, her grandfather who was born during the Great Depression in Mississippi’s red clay tobacco fields, and Benjamin Junior, his son and Lottie Rebecca’s father, born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where the post Korean War GI Bill promises prosperity.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Powerful Story
- By Marla on 07-11-23
By: Zelda Lockhart
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My Year Abroad
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- By: Chang-rae Lee
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- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 265
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 237
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Tiller is an average American college student with a good heart but minimal aspirations. Pong Lou is a larger-than-life, wildly creative Chinese American entrepreneur who sees something intriguing in Tiller beyond his bored exterior and takes him under his wing. When Pong brings him along on a boisterous trip across Asia, Tiller is catapulted from ordinary young man to talented protégé, and pulled into a series of ever more extreme and eye-opening experiences that transform his view of the world, of Pong, and of himself.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Worst narration ever
- By Unhappy Sirius Camper on 02-07-21
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The Constant Gardener
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 902
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 795
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 791
Frightening, heartbreaking, and exquisitely calibrated, John le Carré's new novel opens with the gruesome murder of the young and beautiful Tessa Quayle near northern Kenya's Lake Turkana, the birthplace of mankind. Her putative African lover and traveling companion, a doctor with one of the aid agencies, has vanished from the scene of the crime. Tessa's much older husband, Justin, a career diplomat at the British High Commission in Nairobi, sets out on a personal odyssey in pursuit of the killers and their motive.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Greatest love story of the last fifty years
- By Darwin8u on 06-30-13
By: John le Carré
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A Gesture Life
- A Novel
- By: Chang-rae Lee
- Narrated by: Greg Watanabe
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 92
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
A Gesture Life is the story of an upstanding citizen who has come to epitomize the decorous values of his New York suburban town. Courteous, honest, hardworking, and impenetrable, Franklin Hata, a Japanese man of Korean birth, is careful never to overstep his boundaries and to make his neighbors comfortable in his presence. Yet, precipitated by the small events surrounding him, we see his life begin to unravel. Gradually we learn the mystery that has shaped the core of his being: his terrible, forbidden love for a young Korean Comfort Woman when he served as a medic in the Japanese army during World War II.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Superb
- By BooksRLife on 11-19-20
By: Chang-rae Lee
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I, The Divine
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- By: Rabih Alameddine
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 18
In 2003, Osama al-Kharrat returns to Beirut after many years in America to stand vigil at his father's deathbed. As the family gathers, stories begin to unfold: Osama's grandfather was a hakawati, or storyteller, and his bewitching tales are interwoven with classic stories of the Middle East. Here are Abraham and Isaac; Ishmael, father of the Arab tribes; the beautiful Fatima; Baybars, the slave prince who vanquished the Crusaders; and a host of mischievous imps.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Excellent if you forgive pronunciation
- By Anne on 06-05-18
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The Flamethrowers
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 19
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Story4 out of 5 stars 19
Reno, so-called because of the place of her birth, comes to New York intent on turning her fascination with motorcycles and speed into art. Her arrival coincides with an explosion of activity—artists colonize a deserted and industrial SoHo, stage actions in the East Village, blur the line between life and art. Reno is submitted to a sentimental education of sorts—by dreamers, poseurs, and raconteurs in New York and by radicals in Italy, where she goes with her lover to meet his estranged and formidable family.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Recommended
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Trinity
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- By: Zelda Lockhart
- Narrated by: Lynnette R. Freeman
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2
Lottie Rebecca Lee is spoken into the world in Fayetteville, North Carolina, by a Black nurse who declares, “Lord Jesus, if that ain’t the blackest little baby born this side of heaven.” Later, Lottie will prove that she is the ancestors’ promise to unearth the Mississippi and Ghanaian atrocities that have tormented Benjamin Lee, her grandfather who was born during the Great Depression in Mississippi’s red clay tobacco fields, and Benjamin Junior, his son and Lottie Rebecca’s father, born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where the post Korean War GI Bill promises prosperity.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Powerful Story
- By Marla on 07-11-23
By: Zelda Lockhart
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Family Life
- A Novel
- By: Akhil Sharma
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 256
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 219
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 223
In his highly anticipated second novel, Family Life, he delivers a story of astonishing intensity and emotional precision. We meet the Mishra family in Delhi in 1978, where eight-year-old Ajay and his older brother Birju play cricket in the streets, waiting for the day when their plane tickets will arrive and they and their mother can fly across the world and join their father in America. America to the Mishras is, indeed, everything they could have imagined and more: When automatic glass doors open before them, they feel that surely they must have been mistaken for somebody important.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Moving Family Drama
- By The Reading Date on 05-31-14
By: Akhil Sharma
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Aloft
- By: Chang-rae Lee
- Narrated by: Don Leslie
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 103
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 29
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 32
Aloft offers a reexamination of the American dream from the inside out. Jerry Battle's favorite diversion is to fly his small plane solo, slipping away for quick flights over his Long Island home or to the coastal towns of New England. Then a family crisis occurs, and Jerry finds he must face his disengagement in his relationships.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Truly Wonderful Listening Experience
- By Michelle on 12-23-04
By: Chang-rae Lee
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Where You Once Belonged
- By: Kent Haruf
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 73
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Story4 out of 5 stars 65
Deftly plotted, defiantly honest, Where You Once Belonged sings the song of a wounded prairie community in a narrative with the earmarks of a modern American classic. In prose as lean and supple as a spring switch, Haruf describes a high school football star who wins the heart of the loveliest girl in the county and the admiration of men twice his age. Fun-loving, independent, Burdette engages in the occasional prank. But when he turns into a man, his high jinks turn into crimes.
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1 out of 5 stars
-
Don’t waste your time or money
- By Bill on 07-09-23
By: Kent Haruf
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The Easy Life in Kamusari
- Forest, Book 1
- By: Shion Miura, Juliet Winters Carpenter - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 151
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 140
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 140
Yuki Hirano is just out of high school when his parents enroll him, against his will, in a forestry training program in the remote mountain village of Kamusari. No phone, no internet, no shopping. Just a small, inviting community where the most common expression is “take it easy.” At first, Yuki is exhausted, fumbles with the tools, asks silly questions, and feels like an outcast. Kamusari is the last place a city boy from Yokohama wants to spend a year of his life. But as resistant as he might be, the scent of the cedars and the staggering beauty of the region have a pull.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I wanted it to be a true story
- By Scott on 05-19-22
By: Shion Miura, and others
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How to Behave in a Crowd
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- By: Camille Bordas
- Narrated by: Adam Alexi-Malle
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
Isidore Mazal is 11 years old, the youngest of six siblings living in a small French town. He doesn't quite fit in. Isidore has never skipped a grade or written a dissertation. But he notices things the others don't, and asks questions they fear to ask. So when tragedy strikes the Mazal family, Isidore is the only one to recognize how everyone is struggling with their grief, and perhaps the only one who can help them - if he doesn't run away from home first.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Charming and Moving
- By David P on 11-21-19
By: Camille Bordas
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The Surrendered
- By: Chang-Rae Lee
- Narrated by: James Yaegashi
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 35
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Story4 out of 5 stars 36
At the end of the Korean War, the lives of orphan June Han and American soldier Hector Brennan collide. Thirty years later, they meet again and are forced to come to terms with the secrets of their devastating past.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
this bibliophile could not finish this book
- By Emily on 05-13-10
By: Chang-Rae Lee
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Caul Baby
- By: Morgan Jerkins
- Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 389
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 347
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 343
Laila desperately wants to become a mother, but each of her previous pregnancies has ended in heartbreak. This time has to be different, so she turns to the Melancons, an old and powerful Harlem family known for their caul, a precious layer of skin that is the secret source of their healing power. When a deal for Laila to acquire a piece of caul falls through, she is heartbroken, but when the child is stillborn, she is overcome with grief and rage. What she doesn't know is that a baby will soon be delivered—by her niece, Amara—and delivered to the Melancons to raise as their own.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Meh
- By Medicmedic on 05-06-21
By: Morgan Jerkins
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White River Red
- A Novel
- By: Becky Marietta
- Narrated by: Gail Shalan
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 20
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 20
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Story5 out of 5 stars 20
In 1906, 15-year-old Forrestina Bradley runs away from her stifling life of ease and joins the circus as a tightrope walker. After a tragedy forces her to leave the circus, she embarks on a life of nomadic adventure, running a carnival rat-game and becoming involved in an illegal dance hall and moonshine business near the banks of the White River in Arkansas during Prohibition.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thoroughly Enjoyable!
- By Anonymous User on 05-25-23
By: Becky Marietta
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Amiable with Big Teeth
- A Novel of the Love Affair Between the Communists and the Poor Black Sheep of Harlem
- By: Claude McKay, Brent Hayes Edwards - editor, Jean-Christophe Cloutier - editor
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 11
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8
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Story4 out of 5 stars 8
The unexpected discovery in 2009 of a completed manuscript of Claude McKay's final novel was celebrated as one of the most significant literary events in recent years. Building on the already extraordinary legacy of McKay's life and work, this colorful, dramatic novel centers on the efforts by Harlem intelligentsia to organize support for the liberation of fascist-controlled Ethiopia, a crucial but largely forgotten event in American history.
By: Claude McKay, and others
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On Such a Full Sea
- A Novel
- By: Chang-rae Lee
- Narrated by: B. D. Wong
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 441
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 382
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Story4 out of 5 stars 382
On Such a Full Sea takes Chang-rae Lee’s elegance of prose, his masterly storytelling, and his long-standing interests in identity, culture, work, and love, and lifts them to a new plane. Stepping from the realistic and historical territories of his previous work, Lee brings us into a world created from scratch. Against a vividly imagined future America, Lee tells a stunning, surprising, and riveting story that will change the way listeners think about the world they live in. In a future, long-declining America, society is strictly stratified by class.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Literary dystopian fiction
- By David on 03-18-17
By: Chang-rae Lee
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Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo
- By: Oscar Zeta Acosta
- Narrated by: Henry Levya
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
Authored with uninhibited candor and manic energy, this audiobook is Acosta's own account of coming of age as a Chicano in the psychedelic '60s, of taking on impossible cases while breaking all tile rules of courtroom conduct, and of scrambling headlong in search of a personal and cultural identity. It is a landmark of contemporary Hispanic American literature, at once ribald, surreal, and unmistakably authentic.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful
- By Nacho macanas on 11-16-20
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Be Brief and Tell Them Everything
- By: Brad Listi
- Narrated by: Brad Listi
- Length: 4 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 15
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 15
A darkly funny meditation on creativity and family, Be Brief and Tell Them Everything tracks the life of a middle-aged author who is struggling to write his next novel while trying to come to grips with his son's disabilities, set against a backdrop of ecological catastrophe and escalating human insanity in contemporary Los Angeles. A beautiful, powerful, concise work of autofiction, Be Brief documents the stops and starts of adulthood and marriage, and the joys and challenges of parenting, while defining what it means to be a good man, and a good writer.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it, lives up to the title
- By Tina on 12-29-23
By: Brad Listi
What listeners say about Native Speaker
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anne Michaud
- 03-19-24
Bad recording quality
The sound was inconsistent throughout making it hard to hear. Not a particularly interesting story either. Meh.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Andy P
- 08-10-22
Great novel. Strange narrator choice.
Really enjoyed the story. And the narrator wasn’t “bad” necessarily. It just felt incredibly strange to have a novel so heavily grounded in Asian and Asian-American identity (among other things) be performed by someone who was neither. I think it would be worthy of an update.
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1 person found this helpful