-
Cousins
- Narrated by: Tanea Heke
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Cousins
Buy for $17.33
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Once Were Warriors
- By: Alan Duff
- Narrated by: Jay Laga'aia
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 51
Once Were Warriors is Alan Duff's harrowing vision of his country's indigenous people two hundred years after the English conquest. In prose that is both raw and compelling, it tells the story of Beth Heke, a Maori woman struggling to keep her family from falling apart, despite the squalor and violence of the housing projects in which they live.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
4000X better then the movie
- By Amazon Customer on 02-15-18
By: Alan Duff
-
The Postcard
- By: Anne Berest, Tina Kover - translator
- Narrated by: Barrie Kealoha
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 237
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 202
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 202
January, 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest’s maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques—all killed at Auschwitz. Fifteen years after the postcard is delivered, Anne, the heroine of this novel, is moved to discover who sent it and why.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The author’s words deserve a better narrator
- By TK on 05-22-23
By: Anne Berest, and others
-
Piranesi
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,966
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6,918
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,894
Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has. In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating Social Study
- By Henry V on 02-26-21
By: Susanna Clarke
-
Split Tooth
- By: Tanya Tagaq
- Narrated by: Tanya Tagaq
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 177
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 160
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 159
A girl grows up in Nunavut in the 1970s. She knows joy and friendship and parents' love. She knows boredom and listlessness and bullying. She knows the tedium of the everyday world and the raw, amoral power of the ice and sky, the seductive energy of the animal world. She knows the ravages of alcohol and violence at the hands of those she should be able to trust. She sees the spirits that surround her and the immense power that dwarfs all of us. When she becomes pregnant, she must navigate all this.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Confronting, Captivating
- By Rochelle on 09-26-18
By: Tanya Tagaq
-
The Whale Rider
- By: Witi Ihimaera
- Narrated by: Jay Laga'aia
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 235
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 178
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 178
The classic book that inspired the award-winning, internationally released film Whale Rider, winner of Best Film at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and 2004 Academy Awards Best Actress nomination for Keisha Castle-Hughes. Eight-year-old Kahu craves her great-grandfather's love and attention. But he's focused in his duties as Chief, in a tribe that claims decent from the legendary "whale rider".
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Kahu, her great-grandfather, and the whale rider
- By Will on 07-12-05
By: Witi Ihimaera
-
Loop Tracks
- By: Sue Orr
- Narrated by: Vanessa Rhodes
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 6
It’s 1978: the Auckland abortion clinic has been forced to close and sixteen-year-old Charlie has to fly to Sydney, but the plane is delayed on the tarmac. It’s 2019: Charlie’s tightly contained Wellington life with her grandson Tommy is interrupted by the unexpected intrusions of Tommy’s first girlfriend, Jenna, and the father he has never known, Jim. The year turns, and everything changes again.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A moment in time
- By Words For Breakfast on 10-28-22
By: Sue Orr
-
Once Were Warriors
- By: Alan Duff
- Narrated by: Jay Laga'aia
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 51
Once Were Warriors is Alan Duff's harrowing vision of his country's indigenous people two hundred years after the English conquest. In prose that is both raw and compelling, it tells the story of Beth Heke, a Maori woman struggling to keep her family from falling apart, despite the squalor and violence of the housing projects in which they live.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
4000X better then the movie
- By Amazon Customer on 02-15-18
By: Alan Duff
-
The Postcard
- By: Anne Berest, Tina Kover - translator
- Narrated by: Barrie Kealoha
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 237
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 202
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 202
January, 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest’s maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques—all killed at Auschwitz. Fifteen years after the postcard is delivered, Anne, the heroine of this novel, is moved to discover who sent it and why.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The author’s words deserve a better narrator
- By TK on 05-22-23
By: Anne Berest, and others
-
Piranesi
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,966
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6,918
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,894
Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has. In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating Social Study
- By Henry V on 02-26-21
By: Susanna Clarke
-
Split Tooth
- By: Tanya Tagaq
- Narrated by: Tanya Tagaq
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 177
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 160
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 159
A girl grows up in Nunavut in the 1970s. She knows joy and friendship and parents' love. She knows boredom and listlessness and bullying. She knows the tedium of the everyday world and the raw, amoral power of the ice and sky, the seductive energy of the animal world. She knows the ravages of alcohol and violence at the hands of those she should be able to trust. She sees the spirits that surround her and the immense power that dwarfs all of us. When she becomes pregnant, she must navigate all this.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Confronting, Captivating
- By Rochelle on 09-26-18
By: Tanya Tagaq
-
The Whale Rider
- By: Witi Ihimaera
- Narrated by: Jay Laga'aia
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 235
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 178
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 178
The classic book that inspired the award-winning, internationally released film Whale Rider, winner of Best Film at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and 2004 Academy Awards Best Actress nomination for Keisha Castle-Hughes. Eight-year-old Kahu craves her great-grandfather's love and attention. But he's focused in his duties as Chief, in a tribe that claims decent from the legendary "whale rider".
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Kahu, her great-grandfather, and the whale rider
- By Will on 07-12-05
By: Witi Ihimaera
-
Loop Tracks
- By: Sue Orr
- Narrated by: Vanessa Rhodes
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 6
It’s 1978: the Auckland abortion clinic has been forced to close and sixteen-year-old Charlie has to fly to Sydney, but the plane is delayed on the tarmac. It’s 2019: Charlie’s tightly contained Wellington life with her grandson Tommy is interrupted by the unexpected intrusions of Tommy’s first girlfriend, Jenna, and the father he has never known, Jim. The year turns, and everything changes again.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A moment in time
- By Words For Breakfast on 10-28-22
By: Sue Orr
-
A Madness of Sunshine
- By: Nalini Singh
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 648
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 597
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 595
On the rugged West Coast of New Zealand, Golden Cove is more than just a town where people live. The adults are more than neighbors; the children, more than schoolmates. That is until one fateful summer - and several vanished bodies - shatters the trust holding Golden Cove together. All that’s left are whispers behind closed doors, broken friendships, and a silent agreement to not look back. But they can’t run from the past forever. Eight years later, a beautiful young woman disappears without a trace.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very Different
- By K on 12-08-19
By: Nalini Singh
-
The Parihaka Woman
- By: Witi Ihimaera
- Narrated by: Jim Moriarty, Shavaughn Ruakere
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 15
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 15
A wonderfully surprising, inventive and deeply moving riff on fact and fiction, history and imagination from one of New Zealand's finest and most memorable storytellers. There has never been a New Zealand novel quite like The Parihaka Woman. Richly imaginative and original, weaving together fact and fiction, it sets the remarkable story of Erenora against the historical background of the turbulent and compelling events that occurred in Parihaka during the 1870s and 1880s.
By: Witi Ihimaera
-
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
- By: Betty Smith
- Narrated by: Kate Burton
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,977
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6,656
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,619
A moving coming-of-age story set in the 1900s, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn follows the lives of 11-year-old Francie Nolan, her younger brother Neely, and their parents, Irish immigrants who have settled in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Johnny Nolan is as loving and fanciful as they come, but he is also often drunk and out of work, unable to find his place in the land of opportunity.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Book: flawless. SKIP THE RECORDED INTRO!!
- By Wild Wise Woman on 09-04-11
By: Betty Smith
-
Boys Don't Cry
- By: Fíona Scarlett
- Narrated by: Ronan Raftery
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 16
Joe is 17, a gifted artist and a brilliant older brother to 12-year-old Finn. They live with their Ma and Da in a Dublin tower block called Bojaxhiu, or 'the Jax'. It's not an easy place to be a kid, especially when your father, Frank, is the muscle for the notorious gang leader Dessie 'The Badger' Murphy. But whether it's daytrips to the beach or drawing secret sketches, Joe works hard to show Finn life beyond the battered concrete yard below their flat. Joe is determined not to become like his Da. But when Finn falls ill, Joe finds his convictions harder to cling to.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Really well written
- By joan on 12-23-23
By: Fíona Scarlett
-
Angela's Ashes
- By: Frank McCourt, Jeannette Walls - introduction
- Narrated by: Frank McCourt, Jeannette Walls - introduction
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9,736
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 7,771
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,766
Why we think it’s a great listen: There’s no gentle way to put this – Frank McCourt’s performance of Angela’s Ashes is just better than the Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Frank McCourt shares his sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking story of growing up poor, Irish, and Catholic in the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela's Ashes.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A classic book *and* a classic audiobook
- By Karen on 01-30-03
By: Frank McCourt, and others
-
The Island of Missing Trees
- A Novel
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Daphne Kouma, Amira Ghazalla
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,565
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,393
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,388
Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof, and this tree bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings and eventually, to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
WOW! What a great story and narration!
- By Marcy on 12-02-21
By: Elif Shafak
-
Esperanza Rising
- By: Pam Munoz Ryan
- Narrated by: Trini Alvarado
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,647
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,081
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,075
Esperanza Ortega possesses all the treasures a young girl in Aguascalientes, Mexico could want. But a sudden tragedy shatters that dream, forcing Esperanza and Mama to flee to California and settle in a Mexican farm labor camp. There they confront the challenges of hard work, acceptance by their own people, and economic difficulties brought on by the Great Depression. Pam Munoz Ryan eloquently portrays the Mexican workers' plight in this abundant and passionate novel.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
GET THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW
- By Laura on 04-14-16
By: Pam Munoz Ryan
-
Auē
- By: Becky Manawatu
- Narrated by: Scotty Cotter, Ebony Andrew, Niwa Whatuira, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 8
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
Taukiri was born into sorrow. Auē can be heard in the sound of the sea he loves and hates and in the music he draws out of the guitar that was his father’s. It spills out of the gang violence that killed his father and sent his mother into hiding and the shame he feels about abandoning his eight-year-old brother to a violent home. But Taukiri’s brother, Ārama, is braver than he looks, and he has a friend, and his friend has a dog, and the three of them together might just be strong enough to turn back the tide of sadness.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Haunting… Breathtaking
- By Sarah Meredith Morris on 12-17-22
By: Becky Manawatu
-
The Joy Luck Club
- By: Amy Tan
- Narrated by: Gwendoline Yeo
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,059
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,622
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,613
Four Chinese women, drawn together by the shadow of their past, meet in San Francisco to play mah jong, invest in stocks, eat dim sum, and to "say" stories to each other. Nearly 40 years later, one of the women has died, and her daughter arrives to take her place. However, the daughter never expected to learn of her mother's secret lifelong wish - and the tragic way in which it has come true. The revelation creates among the women an urgent need to remember the past.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Joy Luck - abridged
- By Leslie Teicholz on 03-16-04
By: Amy Tan
-
The Rachel Incident
- A Novel
- By: Caroline O'Donoghue
- Narrated by: Tara Flynn
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 323
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 297
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 297
Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Best narration
- By LG on 01-12-24
-
The God of Small Things
- By: Arundhati Roy
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,677
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,385
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 2,381
Likened to the works of Faulkner and Dickens when it was first published 20 years ago, this extraordinarily accomplished debut novel is a brilliantly plotted story of forbidden love and piercing political drama, centered on the tragic decline of an Indian family in the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India. Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, the twins Rahel and Esthappen fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Worthy Booker winner!
- By Saman on 08-10-17
By: Arundhati Roy
-
The Convenient Marriage
- By: Georgette Heyer
- Narrated by: Avita Jay
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 14
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 13
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 12
Horry Winwood doesn't play by the rules. So when her family are near ruin and her sister is about to enter a loveless marriage to a wealthy man to settle the family debts, young and headstrong Horry proposes to marry him instead. As her new husband's attentions fall elsewhere, Horry feels increasingly unhappy. Then she meets the attractive and dangerous Lord Lethbridge, and her days suddenly become more exciting. But there is bad blood between Horry's husband and Lord Lethbridge, and as complications and deceptions mount, the social tangle grows ever trickier to unpick.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A romance with no romance in sight
- By Julie Duval on 03-20-24
By: Georgette Heyer
Publisher's summary
Now a feature film, this is the unforgettable story of three women's intersecting lives.
Makareta is the chosen one—carrying her family's hopes.
Missy is the observer—the one who accepts but has her dreams.
Mata is always waiting—for life to happen as it stealthily passes by.
Moving from the forties to the present, from the country to the protests of the cities, Cousins is the story of these three cousins. Thrown together as children, they have subsequently grown apart, yet they share a connection that can never be broken.
A stunning novel about tradition and change, about whanau and its struggle to survive, about the place of women in a shifting world.
Cousins has been adapted for the screen, the film produced by Miss Conception Films and Whenua Films, directed by Ainsley Gardiner and Briar Grace-Smith, screenplay by Briar Grace-Smith and Patricia Grace.
Critic reviews
"...it is robust and powerful. I simply could not put it down. Lyrical and vibrant, smoothly paced and quietly rhythmic, Grace's language moves easily from one person to the next, as the stories unfold." (Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, NZ Listener)
"Patricia Grace writes with an enviable clarity and power." (Evening Post)
"Cousins is an engrossing story that runs on in the head long after it has finished." (Dominion Sunday Times)
Related to this topic
-
Pearl in a Cage
- Woody Creek, Book 1
- By: Joy Dettman
- Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein
- Length: 20 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
On a balmy midsummer's evening in 1923, a young woman - foreign, dishevelled and heavily pregnant - is found unconscious just off the railway tracks in the tiny logging community of Woody Creek. The town midwife, Gertrude Foote, is roused from her bed when the woman is brought to her door. Try as she might, Gertrude is unable to save her, but the baby lives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Pearl in a Cage
- By Verita on 06-16-17
By: Joy Dettman
-
Owls Do Cry
- By: Janet Frame
- Narrated by: Heather Bolton
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
Owls Do Cry is one of the classics of New Zealand literature, and has remained in print continuously for 50 years. A fiftieth anniversary edition was published in 2007.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
well told but a wee bit depressing.
- By Muzza on 11-03-19
By: Janet Frame
-
Brick Lane
- By: Monica Ali
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Sastre
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 237
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 91
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 94
Nanzeen's inauspicious birth in a Bangladeshi village imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents. Married off to a man old enough to be her father, Nanzeen moves to London and cares for her family. But gradually she begins to question whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny. She discovers both the complexity that comes with free choice and the depth of her attachment to her husband, her daughters and her new world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A truly wonderful book!
- By A M on 11-24-03
By: Monica Ali
-
The Star Side of Bird Hill
- By: Naomi Jackson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 87
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 79
Two sisters, ages 10 and 16, are exiled from Brooklyn to Bird Hill in Barbados, after their mother can no longer care for them. The young Phaedra and her older sister, Dionne, live, for the summer of 1989, with their grandmother, Hyacinth, a midwife and practitioner of the local spiritual practice of obeah. Dionne spends the summer in search of love, testing her grandmother's limits, and wanting to go home. Phaedra explores Bird Hill, where her family has lived for generations.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
My absolute favorite book of all time
- By Eme on 07-16-15
By: Naomi Jackson
-
The Walking People
- By: Mary Beth Keane
- Narrated by: Sile Bermingham
- Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Irish immigratn story
- By Chrissie on 09-10-13
By: Mary Beth Keane
-
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
- A Novel
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 444
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 386
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 385
Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Another Kate Atkinson multi-generational story
- By Satisfied Customer on 11-08-18
By: Kate Atkinson
-
Pearl in a Cage
- Woody Creek, Book 1
- By: Joy Dettman
- Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein
- Length: 20 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
On a balmy midsummer's evening in 1923, a young woman - foreign, dishevelled and heavily pregnant - is found unconscious just off the railway tracks in the tiny logging community of Woody Creek. The town midwife, Gertrude Foote, is roused from her bed when the woman is brought to her door. Try as she might, Gertrude is unable to save her, but the baby lives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Pearl in a Cage
- By Verita on 06-16-17
By: Joy Dettman
-
Owls Do Cry
- By: Janet Frame
- Narrated by: Heather Bolton
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
Owls Do Cry is one of the classics of New Zealand literature, and has remained in print continuously for 50 years. A fiftieth anniversary edition was published in 2007.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
well told but a wee bit depressing.
- By Muzza on 11-03-19
By: Janet Frame
-
Brick Lane
- By: Monica Ali
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Sastre
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 237
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 91
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 94
Nanzeen's inauspicious birth in a Bangladeshi village imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents. Married off to a man old enough to be her father, Nanzeen moves to London and cares for her family. But gradually she begins to question whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny. She discovers both the complexity that comes with free choice and the depth of her attachment to her husband, her daughters and her new world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A truly wonderful book!
- By A M on 11-24-03
By: Monica Ali
-
The Star Side of Bird Hill
- By: Naomi Jackson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 87
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 79
Two sisters, ages 10 and 16, are exiled from Brooklyn to Bird Hill in Barbados, after their mother can no longer care for them. The young Phaedra and her older sister, Dionne, live, for the summer of 1989, with their grandmother, Hyacinth, a midwife and practitioner of the local spiritual practice of obeah. Dionne spends the summer in search of love, testing her grandmother's limits, and wanting to go home. Phaedra explores Bird Hill, where her family has lived for generations.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
My absolute favorite book of all time
- By Eme on 07-16-15
By: Naomi Jackson
-
The Walking People
- By: Mary Beth Keane
- Narrated by: Sile Bermingham
- Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Irish immigratn story
- By Chrissie on 09-10-13
By: Mary Beth Keane
-
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
- A Novel
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 444
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 386
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 385
Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Another Kate Atkinson multi-generational story
- By Satisfied Customer on 11-08-18
By: Kate Atkinson
-
Caramelo
- By: Sandra Cisneros
- Narrated by: Sandra Cisneros
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 64
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
Lala Reyes’ grandmother is descended from a family of renowned rebozo, or shawl-makers. The striped (caramelo) is the most beautiful of all, and the one that makes its way, like the family history it has come to represent, into Lala’s possession. The novel opens with the Reyes’ annual car trip - a caravan overflowing with children, laughter, and quarrels - from Chicago to “the other side”, Mexico City. It is there, each year, that Lala hears her family’s stories, separating the truth from the “healthy lies” that have ricocheted from one generation to the next.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Love, family, history, and fantasy, Caramelo
- By Michele on 08-07-20
By: Sandra Cisneros
-
Pennies for Hitler
- By: Jackie French
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52
It's 1939, and for Georg, son of an English academic living in Germany, life is full of cream cakes and loving parents. It is also a time when his teacher measures the pupils' heads to see which of them have the most 'Aryan'- shaped heads. But when a university graduation ceremony turns into a pro-Nazi demonstration, Georg is smuggled out of Germany to war-torn London and then across enemy seas to Australia where he must forget his past and who he is in order to survive. Hatred is contagious, but Georg finds that kindness can be, too.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
This could be a Bryce Courtenay novel
- By K Cornwinkle on 07-02-14
By: Jackie French
-
Esperanza Rising
- By: Pam Munoz Ryan
- Narrated by: Trini Alvarado
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,647
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,081
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,075
Esperanza Ortega possesses all the treasures a young girl in Aguascalientes, Mexico could want. But a sudden tragedy shatters that dream, forcing Esperanza and Mama to flee to California and settle in a Mexican farm labor camp. There they confront the challenges of hard work, acceptance by their own people, and economic difficulties brought on by the Great Depression. Pam Munoz Ryan eloquently portrays the Mexican workers' plight in this abundant and passionate novel.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
GET THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW
- By Laura on 04-14-16
By: Pam Munoz Ryan
-
Homesick
- My Own Story
- By: Jean Fritz
- Narrated by: Jean Fritz
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 45
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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book!
- By R. SEVERSON on 10-19-18
By: Jean Fritz
-
The Joy Luck Club
- By: Amy Tan
- Narrated by: Gwendoline Yeo
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,059
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,622
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,613
Four Chinese women, drawn together by the shadow of their past, meet in San Francisco to play mah jong, invest in stocks, eat dim sum, and to "say" stories to each other. Nearly 40 years later, one of the women has died, and her daughter arrives to take her place. However, the daughter never expected to learn of her mother's secret lifelong wish - and the tragic way in which it has come true. The revelation creates among the women an urgent need to remember the past.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Joy Luck - abridged
- By Leslie Teicholz on 03-16-04
By: Amy Tan
-
The Other Side of Paradise
- A Memoir
- By: Staceyann Chin
- Narrated by: Staceyann Chin
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 193
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 177
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 174
Stacyann Chin has appeared on television and radio, including The Oprah Winfrey Show , CNN, and PBS, discussing issues of race and sexuality. But it is her extraordinary voice that launched her career as a performer, poet, and activist. Here, she shares her unforgettable story of triumph against all odds in this brave and fiercely candid memoir.
No one knew Staceyann's mother was pregnant until a dangerously small baby was born on the floor of her grandmother's house in Jamaica, on Christmas Day.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Incredible life, incredible performer
- By RyRy on 10-21-19
By: Staceyann Chin
-
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
- By: Betty Smith
- Narrated by: Kate Burton
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,977
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6,656
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,619
A moving coming-of-age story set in the 1900s, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn follows the lives of 11-year-old Francie Nolan, her younger brother Neely, and their parents, Irish immigrants who have settled in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Johnny Nolan is as loving and fanciful as they come, but he is also often drunk and out of work, unable to find his place in the land of opportunity.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Book: flawless. SKIP THE RECORDED INTRO!!
- By Wild Wise Woman on 09-04-11
By: Betty Smith
-
A Golden Age
- A Novel
- By: Tahmima Anam
- Narrated by: Madhur Jaffrey
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 73
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 44
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
As young widow Rehana Haque awakes one March morning, she might be forgiven for feeling happy. Today she will throw a party for her son and daughter. In the garden of the house she has built, her roses are blooming, her children are almost grown, and beyond their doorstep, the city is buzzing with excitement after recent elections. Change is in the air.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
sad, poignant, thought-provoking, beautiful
- By Rio Delta Wild on 06-04-08
By: Tahmima Anam
-
Paradise
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 236
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 202
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 199
In Paradise - her first novel since she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature - Toni Morrison gives us a bravura performance. As the book begins deep in Oklahoma early one morning in 1976, nine men from Ruby (pop. 360), in defense of "the one all-black town worth the pain", assault the nearby Convent and the women in it. From the town's ancestral origins in 1890 to the fateful day of the assault, Paradise tells the story of a people ever mindful of the relationship between their spectacular history and a void.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
MORRISON AT HER MOST COMPLEX
- By Kennedi Hill on 11-07-19
By: Toni Morrison
-
I Couldn't Love You More
- A Novel
- By: Esther Freud
- Narrated by: Niamh Cusack
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 29
A sweeping story of three generations of women, crossing from London to Ireland and back again, and the enduring effort to retrieve the secrets of the past.
By: Esther Freud
-
Rush Home Road
- By: Lori Lansens
- Narrated by: Ruby Dee
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 253
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 192
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 191
When a 70-year-old woman finds a five-year-old girl abandoned on her doorstep, she is thrust into a sorrowful past that can only be conquered with the help of the girl who opened her memory - the very girl she is trying to save. This first novel, according to author Jacquelyn Mitchard, is one of "exquisite power, honesty, and conviction...quite nearly without flaws."
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
filthy language and violent content
- By Anna on 12-16-11
By: Lori Lansens
-
The Teller of Secrets
- A Novel
- By: Bisi Adjapon
- Narrated by: Anniwaa Buachie
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
so explicit and honest
- By ugonna on 03-25-24
By: Bisi Adjapon