• Holy Cow!

  • An Indian Adventure
  • By: Sarah Macdonald
  • Narrated by: Kate Hosking
  • Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (873 ratings)

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Holy Cow!  By  cover art

Holy Cow!

By: Sarah Macdonald
Narrated by: Kate Hosking
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Publisher's summary

After backpacking her way around India, Sarah Macdonald decides she hates the country with a passion. When a beggar at the airport reads her palm and insists she will one day return, and for love, she screams "Never!" and gives the country, and him, the finger.

But 11 years later, the prophecy comes true. When the love of Sarah's life is posted to India, she quits her dream job as a national radio presenter to follow him to the most polluted city on earth, New Delhi. It seems like the ultimate sacrifice for love and it almost kills her, literally.

Often hilarious, sometimes hair-raising, and always entertaining, Holy Cow is a rollercoaster ride through a land of chaos and contradiction, from spiritual retreats and crumbling nirvanas to war zones and New Delhi nightclubs, that only a woman on a mission to save her soul, her love life, and her sanity, can survive.

©2002 Sarah Macdonald (P)2003 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic reviews

"A lively, snappy travelogue." (Booklist)

"[Macdonald] brings a reporter's curiosity, interviewing skills, and eye for detail to everything she encounters, and winningly captures 'the drama, the dharma, the innocent exuberance of the festivals, the intensity of the living, the piety in playfulness, and the embrace of living day by day'." (Publishers Weekly)

"Prepare for a fast-moving and masterful narration by Kate Hosking. Her characterization of the Indian characters is nuanced and fun. The contrast with the distinctive Australian accents of MacDonald and other ex-pats adds to the sense of adventure and excitement and provides a backdrop for spiritual understanding." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about Holy Cow!

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Inspiring and witty

After listening to this book, I have put India at the top of my "places to visit" list. I didn't realize the book would emphasize religion so much, but this had the unexpected side effect of making me feel as if I'd learned something in addition to enjoying Macdonald's hilarious accounts of her attempts to survive in and eventually master Indian culture.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant!

Sarah MacDonald is truly a gifted writer. Holy Cow! is a skillfully structured story of her coming of age in India as she investigates, describes, and beings to embody with (sometimes profound) insight and humor a wide variety of India's religions, saints, and spiritual practices and communities. The book is a vibrant comparative religion text. And the narrator's talent is awesome.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Well Written and Well Read

Having been to India a number of times I found this book insightful, funny and honest. It's well written and well read making for a very enjoyable listen.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

a great listen!

I read this book prior to getting the audio and have to say that the audio made the book light-up like a Christmas tree! All the Hindu words and pronunciations were brought to life by the narrator, as well as doing a fine job on the author's emotional states as well.
I liked the book but loved the audiobook!

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fun and provocative portrait

This audiobook was delightful. The narrator did a terrific job with the variety of accents (Australian, Indian, American), and the pace was lively. I am not religious, but I enjoyed the thoughtful portrayal of the many religions observed in India. I also felt like I had a better understanding of the country and culture. I have met many Indian immigrants through school and work, and this book gave me some perspective on their life back at home. At times the author is a bit narcissistic, but her good humor and continuous pursuit of self knowledge balance it out.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

finding the way

Exceptional audio, wonderful authentic accents. The author's candid descriptions are eloquent, including her own reactions and struggle to understand and practice various disciplines and social norms. I learned much more about today's India and possibly more about myself. Thoroughly enjoyable.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Why didn't I stop sooner?!?

Clearly I was looking for something different than what the other reviewers described. I made it to the middle of the second part. Definitely long enough to feel confident in saying that life is far too short to spend time on this one. I found myself fast forwarding throughout the book to get to the point, and discovered that there was none. Good or bad, we've all had some sort of religious experience at some point in our lives. The sad fact is that they are usually much more interesting to us than they are to the general public. Other people do not necessarily care about them; nor should they.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable but not a five star

I enjoyed this book on the whole but from the reviews expected more. It took a good few hours to get into it... but from then on I really enjoyed it and was sorry when it ended. (It lost a star because it took so long to get into.)

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Wanderlust

I listen to this book when I wish I were travelling but don't have the time or money. The first chapter made me wonder what I had gotten myself into, as she rages about how much she hates India. If you can get past this you'll realize that this is to juxtapose next to the spiritual journey the author later undertakes to better understand where her hate and anger come from. And the author is honest about how her western judgments of India soften and turn inside out the longer she is there and the more she tries to understand. This was a really brave but totally fun effort of a westerner trying to come to terms with her assumptions about a culture wildly different (but in some surprising ways similar) that her own. Her descriptions of holi still colour my dreams!

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Holy Cow

one of the most entertaining ,funny and sensitive book I listen too for a long time. I was laughing and crying through it all.

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5 people found this helpful