Freedom at Midnight

By: Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 22 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's Summary

This is the story of the eclipse of the British Raj and the birth of an independent India and Pakistan. The fabled India of the maharajas, with their palaces and harems, their gold-caparisoned elephants and their glittering private armies—the India of Kipling’s legendary army, with its young British officers commanding troops of a dozen races, religions, and castes—the India of tiger hunts and pigsticking, of sadhus and holy men— the India that was the heart and soul of an empire—underwent a violent transformation into the new India of Gandhi and Nehru, precursor of the Third World. At the center of this drama are Nehru, Jinnah, Mountbatten and, of course, Gandhi, the gentle prophet of revolution, who stirred the masses of the most populous area on earth without raising his voice.

©1975 Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre (P)1993 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews

“The song of India...illuminated like scenes in a pageant.” ( Time)

“Thrilling...staggers the imagination.” ( Daily Mail)

“Davidson sounds like a whole cast of characters himself.” ( Kliatt)

Awful - Need for diversity

Audible continues to display the callous disregard for diverse voices. As an Indian I find the delivery an accent of the narrator almost insulting. For a topic that was so fraught with conflicting emotions and events, having a British accent which has overtones of privilege rather than a neutral continental accent seems almost intolerable.

biased retelling of events around independence

narrator doesn't pronounce Hindi words correctly, given that it's an audio book it's appalling.
the story of partition and role of the leaders in it is very engaging

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