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Africa's Child
- Dancing Soul Trilogy, Book 1
- Narrated by: Aimee K. Bryant
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
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Publisher's Summary
Africa’s Child is the story of a mixed-race girl growing up in the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania, East Africa. Raised in an orphanage with no knowledge of her origins or family, she endured abandonment, hardships, severe illnesses, and bullying. Her experiences as a child and teenager included physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, social stigma, and racial discrimination.
Yet Nhambu tells her inspiring story with warmth and humor. Her questioning mind probes the African tribal realities and multicultural complexities that impacted her life both at the orphanage and schools run by German nuns as well as at an African high school with American nuns.
Nhambu not only survived her childhood, but triumphed. Her faith and resilience, along with a belief in learning and her tenacious pursuit of an education, sustained her through many challenges. Dance, especially African tribal dance, became the way she healed and nourished her spirit.
Through the love and commitment of an American teacher she met in Africa, Nhambu was able to pursue her dream of education and a new life for herself. The first audiobook in her three-part memoir ends as she is leaving Africa for university studies in America on a full scholarship.
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Story
The astounding story of one girl's journey from war victim to UNICEF Special Representative. As a child in a small rural village in Sierra Leone, Mariatu Kamara lived peacefully surrounded by family and friends. Rumors of rebel attacks were no more than a distant worry. But when 12-year-old Mariatu set out for a neighboring village, she never arrived. Heavily armed rebel soldiers attacked and tortured Mariatu. During this brutal act of senseless violence they cut off both of her hands.
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Sweet Story of Survival, but...
- By Jan on 06-28-12
By: Mariatu Kamara, and others
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Homesick
- My Own Story
- By: Jean Fritz
- Narrated by: Jean Fritz
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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This heartwarming fictionalized autobiography tells the story of what it is like for a little girl to be growing up in an unfamiliar place. While other girls her age were enjoying childhood in America, Jean Fritz was in China in the midst of political unrest. During this time, foreigners were becoming more and more unpopular, and evacuation at a moment’s notice was imminent. Although Jean appreciated the beauty of China - the mountains, the countryside, the sea - she knew she belonged in America and longed to make her home there.
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Great book!
- By R. SEVERSON on 10-19-18
By: Jean Fritz
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The Girl from the Train
- By: Irma Joubert
- Narrated by: Sarah Zimmerman
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Six-year-old Gretl Schmidt is on a train bound for Auschwitz. Jakób Kowalski is planting a bomb on the tracks. As World War II draws to a close, Jakób fights with the Polish resistance against the crushing forces of Germany and Russia. They mean to destroy a German troop transport, but Gretl's unscheduled train reaches the bomb first. Gretl is the only survivor.
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Excellent story covering the middle of the 20th C.
- By john on 04-12-16
By: Irma Joubert
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The Teller of Secrets
- A Novel
- By: Bisi Adjapon
- Narrated by: Anniwaa Buachie
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Young Esi Agyekum is the unofficial "secret keeper" of her family, as tight-lipped about her father's adultery as she is about her half-sisters' sex lives. But after she is humiliated and punished for her own sexual exploration, Esi begins to question why women's secrets and men's secrets bear different consequences. It is the beginning of a journey of discovery that will lead her to unexpected places. Against a fraught political climate, Esi fights to carve out her own identity, and learns to manifest her power in surprising and inspiring ways.
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Enjoyed my time
- By Amazon Customer on 03-10-23
By: Bisi Adjapon
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When I Was Puerto Rican
- By: Esmerelda Santiago
- Narrated by: Esmeralda Santiago
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Esmeralda Santiago reminisces about her childhood in Puerto Rico and her early years in Brooklyn as the oldest of seven (soon to be 11) children. Her upbringing is turbulent on account of her parents’ relentless fighting, which only ever seems to stop when they have another baby. When her youngest brother has an accident, her mother decides to move to New York with her children to seek medical treatment. Arriving in the United States, 13-year-old Santiago experiences uprooting and a loss of identity while she tries to adapt to a culture and language that are foreign to her.
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Praise
- By Deborah De Jesus on 04-25-19
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Annie John
- By: Jamaica Kincaid
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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An adored only child, Annie has until recently lived an idyllic life. She is inseparable from her beautiful mother, a powerful presence at the very center of the little girl's existence. Loved and cherished, Annie grows and thrives within her mother's benign shadow. Looking back on her childhood, she reflects, "It was in such a paradise that I lived". When she turns 12, however, Annie's life changes in ways that are often mysterious to her.
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Sweet, Simple & Enjoyable.
- By Kelly on 10-21-18
By: Jamaica Kincaid
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Slave
- By: Mende Nazar, Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Mende Nazer tells the story of her kidnap, at age 12, from an idyllic life with her family in a village in Sudan, and being sold into slavery. Trafficked to Europe and the London home of a diplomat, Nazer escaped - only to find she had to fight for asylum.
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Heartbreaking dose of reality
- By Sarah on 09-02-09
By: Mende Nazar, and others
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Purple Hibiscus
- By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Narrated by: Lisette Lecat
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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In Purple Hibiscus, she recounts the story of a young Nigerian girl searching for freedom. Although her father is greatly respected within their community, 15-year-old Kambili knows a frighteningly strict and abusive side to this man. In many ways, she and her family lead a privileged life, but Kambili and her brother, Jaja, are often punished for failing to meet their father’s expectations. After visiting her aunt and cousins, Kambili dreams of being part of a loving family.
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Could improve sound quality
- By Brisa A. on 03-14-15
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Krik? Krak!
- By: Edwidge Danticat
- Narrated by: Miles & Graham
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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American Book Award-winning author Edwidge Danticat earned a National Book Award nomination for this brilliant collection of stories, which includes the Pushcart Prize-winner "Between the Pool and the Gardenias". A remarkably gifted writer, Danticat examines the brutality of her native Haiti, particularly as it affects women, in tales that soar with raw emotion.
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great, emotional
- By erika on 03-04-15
By: Edwidge Danticat
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Under the Light of the Italian Moon
- By: Jennifer Anton
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Nina Argenta doesn’t want the traditional life of a rural Italian woman. The daughter of a strong-willed midwife, she is determined to define her own destiny. But when her brother emigrates to America, she promises her mother to never leave. When childhood friend Pietro Pante briefly returns to their mountain town, passion between them ignites while Mussolini forces political tensions to rise. Just as their romance deepens, Pietro must leave again for work in the coal mines of America. Nina is torn between joining him and her commitment to Italy and her mother.
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A beautiful story
- By Lisa C. on 04-11-22
By: Jennifer Anton
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Day After Night
- A Novel
- By: Anita Diamant
- Narrated by: Dagmara Dominczyk
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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Just as she gave voice to the silent women of the Old Testament in The Red Tent, Anita Diamant creates a cast of breathtakingly vivid characters - young women who escaped to Israel from Nazi Europe - in this intensely dramatic novel.
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Just Like "The Red Tent"
- By Pamela Harvey on 09-16-09
By: Anita Diamant
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The Book of Emma Reyes
- A Memoir
- By: Emma Reyes, Daniel Alarcón - translator, Daniel Alarcón - introduction
- Narrated by: Marisol Ramirez, Daniel Alarcón
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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This astonishing memoir was hailed as an instant classic when first published in Colombia in 2012, nearly a decade after the death of its author, who was encouraged in her writing by Gabriel García Márquez. Comprised of letters written over the course of 30 years, and translated and introduced by acclaimed writer Daniel Alarcón, it describes in vivid, painterly detail the remarkable courage and limitless imagination of a young girl growing up with nothing.
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ended too soon
- By Karen West on 05-24-21
By: Emma Reyes, and others