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On the Grand Trunk Road
- A Journey into South Asia
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
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Publisher's summary
Available for the first time in audio, Steve Coll's trek across a socially and politically damaged South Asia.
Best-selling author Steve Coll is one of the preeminent journalists of the 21st century. His last two books, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars and New York Times best-seller The Bin Ladens, have been praised for their creative insight and complex yet compelling narratives - and have put him on par with journalists such as the legendary Bob Woodward. Now, for the first time ever, the audio edition of On the Grand Trunk Road is finally available, revised and updated with new material. Focusing on Coll's journeys in conflict-ridden India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Afghanistan as a bureau chief for The Washington Post, On the Grand Trunk Road reveals a little-seen area of the world where violence, corruption, and greed have had devastating effects on South Asians from all walks of life.
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The Long Hangover
- Putin’s New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past
- By: Shaun Walker
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Long Hangover, Shaun Walker provides new insight into contemporary Russia and its search for a new identity, telling the story through the country's troubled relationship with its Soviet past. Walker not only explains Vladimir Putin's goals and the government's official manipulations of history, but also focuses on ordinary Russians and their motivations. He charts how Putin raised victory in World War II to the status of a national founding myth in the search for a unifying force to heal a divided country, and shows how dangerous the ramifications of this have been.
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Fascinating and fair book on Putin's Russia
- By MyPublicName on 02-16-18
By: Shaun Walker
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The Fall of Heaven
- The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran
- By: Andrew Scott Cooper
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen
- Length: 22 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In this remarkably human portrait of one of the 20th century's most complicated personalities, author Andrew Scott Cooper traces Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's life from childhood through his ascension to the throne in 1941. He highlights the turbulence of the postwar era, during which the shah survived assassination attempts and coup plots to build a modern, pro-Western state and launch Iran onto the world stage as one of the world's top five powers.
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Excellent account of a pivotal and sad time
- By Guerin Shea on 09-05-16
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There Was a Country
- A Personal History of Biafra
- By: Chinua Achebe
- Narrated by: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The defining experience of Chinua Achebe's life was the Nigerian civil war, also known as the Biafran War, of 1967-1970. The conflict was infamous for its savage impact on the Biafran people, Chinua Achebe's people, many of whom were starved to death after the Nigerian government blockaded their borders. Immediately after, Achebe took refuge in an academic post in the United States, and for more than 40 years he has maintained a considered silence on the events of those terrible years. Now, decades in the making, comes a towering reckoning with one of modern Africa's most fateful events.
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The Audible Edition Is a Disaster
- By Olu on 11-28-12
By: Chinua Achebe
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The People's Republic of Amnesia
- Tiananmen Revisited
- By: Louisa Lim
- Narrated by: Louisa Lim
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In The People's Republic of Amnesia, NPR correspondent Louisa Lim charts how the events of June 4 changed China, and how China changed the events of June 4 by rewriting its own history. Lim reveals new details about those fateful days, including how one of the country's most senior politicians lost a family member to an army bullet, as well as the inside story of the young soldiers sent to clear Tiananmen Square.
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great book and recording
- By Robert Peters on 06-14-16
By: Louisa Lim
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Fractured Lands
- How the Arab World Came Apart
- By: Scott Anderson
- Narrated by: Scott Anderson
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2011 a series of antigovernment uprisings shook the Middle East and North Africa in what would become known as the Arab Spring. Few could predict that these convulsions, initially hailed in the West as a triumph of democracy, would give way to brutal civil war, the terrors of the Islamic State, and a global refugee crisis. But, as New York Times best-selling author Scott Anderson shows, the seeds of catastrophe had been sown long before. In this gripping account, Anderson examines the myriad complex causes of the region's profound unraveling.
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Timely and a must to listen to!
- By becky robbins on 05-05-17
By: Scott Anderson
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The Devil We Know
- Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower
- By: Robert Baer
- Narrated by: Ted Barker
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the past 30 years, while the United States has turned either a blind or dismissive eye, Iran has emerged as a nation every bit as capable of altering America's destiny as traditional superpowers Russia and China. Indeed, one of this audiobook's central arguments is that, in some ways, Iran's grip on America's future is even tighter.
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Insider's Guide to Middle East Conspiracy Theory
- By Delano on 10-07-08
By: Robert Baer
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Lenin's Tomb
- The Last Days of the Soviet Empire
- By: David Remnick
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 29 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In the tradition of John Reed's classic Ten Days That Shook the World, this best-selling account of the collapse of the Soviet Union combines the global vision of the best historical scholarship with the immediacy of eyewitness journalism.
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The moral complexity of a comic book
- By Tot on 02-22-19
By: David Remnick
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Into the Hands of the Soldiers
- Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East
- By: David D. Kirkpatrick
- Narrated by: David D. Kirkpatrick
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Egypt has long set the paradigm for Arab autocracy. It is the keeper of the peace with Israel and the cornerstone of the American-backed regional order. So when Egyptians rose up to demand democracy in 2011, their 30 months of freedom convulsed the whole region. Now a new strongman, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, is building a dictatorship so severe some call it totalitarian. The economy sputters, an insurgency simmers, Christians suffer, and the Israeli military has been forced to intervene. But some in Washington - including President Trump - applaud Sisi as a crucial ally.
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may get better, but presentation is off putting
- By Fruggs on 08-28-18
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What listeners say about On the Grand Trunk Road
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- AG
- 03-01-16
Another good book ruined by appalling narration
The narrator's unpredictable invention of punctuation where none exists ruins the listener's experience of this book. His giggle-inducing mispronunciation of South Asian names and words makes matters even worse.
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- Tarquin
- 06-27-20
Some of the analysis is weak.
True, the story ends nearly 20 years ago. We cannot comment on the analysis as it applies to4 South Asian countries other than Ceylon (sri lanka). Here are the faults in the books as they apply to Ceylon.
What the author calls the 'Neruvian' model has no relevance in Ceylon for a long time. Unlike all the other countries he mentions, Ceylon was a part of the British Commonwealth until 1972 with H. M. the Queen as its head of state.
Until 1956, Royal Navy was stationed in Trincomalee; the government until then was conservative and its relationship with Neru was distant. In fact, during the so-called Bang Dung (unsure of the spelling) conference in Indonesia, prime ministers of Ceylon and India came to blows! An excellent way of resolving international crises without using any military force which we highly recommend to all the world leaders.
In 1972, the Ceylonese constitution was changed introducing a president to head the country. At the same time, the corrupt government try to become popular by playing a childish version of the nationalist card. It demanded that everybody should call the country by its vernacular name i.e. Shri Lanka; this is like the German government insisting that everybody should call Germany Deutschland! Well, this piece of priceless stupidity has ben accepted by all except a few.
There are three ethnic groups in Ceylong; the Singhalese, Tamils and the so-called Moors who are descended from the Arab spice and gem traders who settled in the country. Majority of the Tamils are Hindoos while the Moors are Mohommadans. Meanwhile, the majority of Singhalese are Buddists, hence their culture is very different from that in India. There is only one very small tribal group i.e., Veddas who are a stone-age ethnic group akin to those who live in Nicobar islands.
One of the fellows the author mentions bandara-naike began what might be called tepid and confused 'sosialisation' of the country. He also made Singhalese the official language which led to ethnic riots between the Singhalese and Tamils. His widow sirimawathie often wrongly called sirimavo was the PM in 1972 when English education was banished from the universities and technical schools. Hence, the monolingual youth. Of course, this did not affect the leaders' broods in anyway.
The author should have investigated the inflammatory speech mrs. gandi made in Fiji which led to the Fijian military taking over political power. He should also have checked on the 'sons of the land' laws in Malasia whose rationale cannot be dismissed lightly. Tamil insurrection was brewing long before 1977 as we know through personal communication, and it began with the Tamils killing their own main stream politicians so that they could claim that they are not represented! Their 'leaders' whose name I cannot spell or pronounce had the giant intellect of one who had successfully completed 5th grade. This is a fact that may be checked.
So, nationalist fervour, near total political incompetence coupled with world class hypocrisy and mendacity are the prime causes of the misery in the region. This can be easily seen in the gandi saga; until late he went in full morning dress in South Africa and became humble in dress when the fellow was old and business as a lawyer not too good. We don't know whether the man ever acknowledged his debt to Henry David of Walden. We doubt it. Perhaps, it would have been helpful if the author recalled what Reginald the Bishop of Calcuttas said more than a century ago, "if you should ask ten Indians the same question, you are sure to get ten different answers."
The reason we did not give 5 points to the reader is that we noticed a few mispronunciations. 'Nourish' was not pronounced as NUt-RISH and 'quixotic wasn't pronounced as QUICK-So-TIC. We would have happily given 4.5, but it seems to be impossible here.
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- PAPPI
- 03-25-18
Politics of Southeast Asia
Excellent
Can learn a lot about south east Asia and how the democracies work there
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- patricia bitker-golan
- 06-09-14
Fascinating but out of date
Unfortunately I didn't realize that this was written in the early 1990's, and though much has not changed since then, it is still very out of date today.
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- Satyarth Kul
- 08-02-21
Good story telling but irritating attempt at imitating Indian accent
I wish the narrator would just read the book and try not to imitate Indian accent. It was a distraction.
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- Osman Siddiqi
- 07-13-20
Narrator does an insulting South Asian accent...
...whenever a South Asian spoke. Publisher of audiobook needs to apologize for this. This was the most ridiculous way to read out an audiobook. Did the publisher think it was okay because the narrator has Iraqi roots (which have virtually nothing to do with South Asia)? What the hell is wrong with you ignorant western decision makers?
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