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No Friend but the Mountains
- Writing from Manus Prison
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Robertson, Isobelle Carmody, Mathilda Imlah, Omid Tofighian, Richard Flanagan, Sarah Dale, Thomas Keneally, Yumi Stynes, Janet Galbraith, Benjamin Law
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
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Publisher's summary
Winner of the ABIA audiobook of the year 2020
In 2013, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani was illegally detained on Manus Island. This book is the result. Laboriously tapped out on a mobile phone and translated from the Farsi. It is a voice of witness, an act of survival. A lyric firsthand account. A cry of resistance. A vivid portrait through five years of incarceration and exile.
At the time of recording, Behrouz was still being held on Manus Island. Normally the author is given the opportunity to read his own words but because he was not able to participate, a chorus of advocates have come together to speak not so much for Behrouz but with him.
Narrated by Richard Flanagan, Mathilda Imlah, Geoffrey Robertson, Janet Galbraith, Thomas Keneally, Sarah Dale, Yumi Stynes, Isobelle Carmody, Benjamin Law and Omid Tofighian.
Where have I come from? From the land of rivers, the land of waterfalls, the land of ancient chants, the land of mountains....
People would run to the mountains to escape the warplanes and found asylum within their chestnut forests....
Do Kurds have any friends other than the mountains?
Winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Prize for Literature and the Prize for Non-Fiction 2019.
Winner of the NSW Premier's Award 2019.
Winner of the Abia General Fiction Book of the Year 2019.
Winner of the National Biography Award 2019.
Inaugural Winner of the Behrouz Boochani Award for Services to Anthropology.
Finalist for the Terzani Prize 2020.
Longlisted for the Colin Roderick Literary Award 2019.
Critic reviews
"Our government jailed his body, but his soul remained that of a free man." (Richard Flanagan)
"The most important Australian book published in 2018." (Robert Manne)
"A powerful account...made me feel ashamed and outraged. Behrouz's writing is lyrical and poetic, though the horrors he describes are unspeakable." (Sofie Laguna)
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Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- claire tully
- 08-23-20
Narrators
I think this is an amazing book. sad but incredibly eloquent. unfortunately the narrator's killed it for me.
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- Anthony
- 12-29-19
Must read for all Australians
Impressive documentation by Behrouz Boochani of the abusive regime established by the Australian right-wing government to discourage asylum seekers from trying to get to Australia by boat. Boochani smuggled via telephone messages and social media fragments of text documenting the micro-abuses that structured every hour of every day in Australia’s asylum detention system. The cruelty and indignities are carefully described along with commentary about the political purpose behind this inhumane system.
Boochani and Omid Tofighian, the translator, collaborated closely in representing and interpreting this work. Parts of it are extraordinarily powerful, including prose-poems by Boochani.
The audiobook is read by a range of well known human rights activists and journalists and includes an extensive discussion by the translator of how he and Boochani approached the work.
An important book that shames Australia’s policies toward asylum seekers. Most Australians do not approve of this cruel securitised approach to an humanitarian issue.
Australia can do so much better but the community will need to be far more active in demanding change to the abusive system still in place.
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- Eloise
- 08-26-19
First-rate story, third-rate narration
I wanted to love this book. The story is timely and urgent, and ought to be on high school English curriculums and bestseller lists. Unfortunately, the audiobook narration was shared by several different people, who are mostly writers rather than gifted actors or narrators. It was difficult to fully immerse myself in the author's intimate story as every chapter was told by someone else, in wildly unpredictable styles that ranged from amused theatrics to monotone speedreading. This was frustrating, disappointing, and destroyed the story-telling magic for me. I wish the publisher would re-release this audiobook with only one narrator - preferably someone who makes a living from performing, rather than writing, words - so that this moving, unique and hopefully soon-to-be classic, memoir can have the treatment it deserves.
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23 people found this helpful
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- Rodney Wetherell
- 10-16-19
Too many cooks
This is a well-known book in Australia, and the winner of some major awards, even though its author remains trapped on Manus Island, or Manus Prison as he calls it. I was most impressed by the book, though wondered how much I missed or misunderstood, from my total ignorance of Kurdish or Farsi literary traditions. However, I did not appreciate the many readers enlisted to read it. This is very much an autobiographical work, and therefore best heard by a reader doing a good acting job, ie 'becoming' Behrouz Boochani for the listener. To have several readers, as this audio book does, takes away from that possibility. Inevitably some readers are better than others - indeed I found a couple of them quite poor, with voices best kept well away from a microphone. With the 'celebrity' readers, Richard Flanagan, Geoffrey Robertson, Tom Keneally and Ben Law, it was hard to think beyond these well-known voices and personalities.
I could not stand the very frequent use of the invented word 'kyrarchial' - not invented by Boochani, I realize, but used by him often. I thought it was 'hierachical' mispronounced, at first, and indeed that word might have been used most of the time. It is not easy to adjust to such a specialist term like 'kyrarchial', and introduces the impression that this is an academic work. That impression is heightened by the long introduction and afterword by the (no doubt excellent) translator. Both of these seemed to me to urge us to read the book in certain ways, not to form our own impressions of the book unaided.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Hamed Shahnam
- 06-13-20
Incredible, confronting, introspective, provocativ
The writing of this book is a monumental achievement and I’m glad to say the content of the book surpasses expectations. It is a philosophical and introspective book. One that reflects deeply on the experience and treatment of asylum seekers. It provides a perspective rarely provided by mainstream media.
It is a challenging and thought provoking listen. One that conjures an internal conflict between protecting Australian borders and preventing loss of life at sea vs our obligation and duty to look after those who seek refuge in our bountiful country.
At times I felt ashamed and horrified of our governments treatment of asylum seekers in offshore processing And terrible condition these individuals had to endure.
I am grateful to all those including the courage of this author to bring this book into reality.
Whether you are right, centre or left of politics it is worth broadening your horizon by listening to this book.
My only problem with this book is not the content but the production value. I wish as others have highlighted a single professional narrator was used. Don’t let this hold you back it is worth the listen. Just fast forward the first chapter.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Colette Burnell
- 07-23-19
Powerful
Everyone Australian should read this to know just what we are capable of. Our collective shame is on display for the world in this book.
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- Anonymous User
- 07-23-19
Fascinating story.
I just can say WOW. Amazing work and real life story. I was trying to imagine myself in characters described in the book and yet its tough life. We are all behind you guys. One more step to freedom. Keep up the good work.
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- Anonymous User
- 07-10-19
Brilliant & powerful, a must-read
A masterpiece, maybe the most important book I’ve read. Every Australian should read this book and discover the truth about our Government. The narrators were fantastic, they made the story come alive.
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- Christian
- 02-26-21
Average
Some parts of the book were very poetic and beautiful.
There were a lot of unanswered questions— like the refugees line up to use the phone but then this book was written on a mobile phone and sent via WhatsApp messages. Doesn’t go into a lot of detail about his life before he sought refugee status. A bit of slog. Some of the performances were average while others were good.
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- Mary
- 12-26-20
Over-hyped whining
I wanted to empathise & be moved by this account, but instead found myself inclined the other way. It is relentless anger at being denied what was taken for granted; being welcomed with open arms by Australia as an illegal immigrant. Yes, Manus was run with a terrible lack of recreational materials & facilities. A lack of access to the outside world. But how could it be expected that the continuing numbers of illegal immigrants could all be welcomed straight in to Australia? A small acknowledgement of his rescue from drowning by the navy, and of his being fed & sheltered at Manus, would have helped me swallow the rest of his anger. Instead I'm abandoning it mid-way.
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- LESLEY BROOKMAN
- 11-10-20
Good book but needs one single narrator.
I wish I hard read the hard copy of this book, the multiple narrators really ruined it for me to be honest.
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- Maia Davidson
- 07-02-20
Beautifully written, tragic story of survival.
I have never been so moved by the way a book is written. The subject matter is heartbreaking & will remain one of Australians most disgraceful and shameful acts. The poetic narrative is overwhelming and inspiring at the same time.
The audiobook version is exceptionally read & expressed.
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Story
Set in the wake of the Mau Mau rebellion and on the cusp of Kenya's independence from Britain, A Grain of Wheat follows a group of villagers whose lives have been transformed by the 1952-1960 Emergency. At the center of it all is the reticent Mugo, the village's chosen hero and a man haunted by a terrible secret. As we learn of the villagers' tangled histories in a narrative interwoven with myth and peppered with allusions to real-life leaders, including Jomo Kenyatta, a masterly story unfolds in which compromises are forced, friendships are betrayed, and loves are tested.
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One of Kenya's Great
- By Afro History fan on 07-31-19
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The Unbearable Lightness of Being
- A Novel
- By: Milan Kundera, Michael Henry Heim - translator
- Narrated by: Richmond Hoxie
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A young woman is in love with a successful surgeon, a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing. His mistress, a free-spirited artist, lives her life as a series of betrayals—while her other lover, earnest, faithful, and good, stands to lose everything because of his noble qualities. In a world where lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and fortuitous events, and everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence we feel “the unbearable lightness of being."
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Love, Politics, and Strange Bedfellows
- By Mel on 07-01-12
By: Milan Kundera, and others
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Welcome to Night Vale
- A Novel
- By: Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor
- Narrated by: Cecil Baldwin, Dylan Marron, Retta, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Located in a nameless desert somewhere in the great American Southwest, Night Vale is a small town where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are all commonplace parts of everyday life. It is here that the lives of two women, with two mysteries, will converge.
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This is so good, but
- By Christopher on 04-30-16
By: Joseph Fink, and others
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Travels with Herodotus
- By: Ryszard Kapuscinski
- Narrated by: Nicolas Coster
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From renowned journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski comes this intimate account of his years in the field, traveling for the first time beyond the Iron Curtain to India, China, Ethiopia, and other exotic locales.
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The father of journalism
- By James R. Modrall on 06-22-18
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The Railway Man
- By: Eric Lomax
- Narrated by: Bill Paterson
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A naive young man, a railway enthusiast and radio buff, was caught up in the fall of the British Empire at Singapore in 1942. He was put to work on the 'Railway of Death' - the Japanese line from Thailand to Burma. Exhaustively and brutally tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio, Lomax was emotionally ruined by his experiences.
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From hatred to forgiveness
- By 9S on 05-04-12
By: Eric Lomax
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And There Was Light
- The Extraordinary Memoir of a Blind Hero of the French Resistance in World War II
- By: Jacques Lusseyran
- Narrated by: Andre Gregory
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Jacques Lusseyran was an eight-year-old Parisian schoolboy, he was blinded in an accident. He finished his schooling determined to participate in the world around him. In 1941, when he was seventeen, that world was Nazi-occupied France. Lusseyran formed a resistance group with fifty-two boys and used his heightened senses to recruit the best. Eventually, Lusseyran was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in a transport of two thousand resistance fighters.
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One of the three most important books in my life
- By William R. Stevenson on 12-12-15
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A Grain of Wheat
- By: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Set in the wake of the Mau Mau rebellion and on the cusp of Kenya's independence from Britain, A Grain of Wheat follows a group of villagers whose lives have been transformed by the 1952-1960 Emergency. At the center of it all is the reticent Mugo, the village's chosen hero and a man haunted by a terrible secret. As we learn of the villagers' tangled histories in a narrative interwoven with myth and peppered with allusions to real-life leaders, including Jomo Kenyatta, a masterly story unfolds in which compromises are forced, friendships are betrayed, and loves are tested.
-
-
One of Kenya's Great
- By Afro History fan on 07-31-19
-
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
- A Novel
- By: Milan Kundera, Michael Henry Heim - translator
- Narrated by: Richmond Hoxie
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A young woman is in love with a successful surgeon, a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing. His mistress, a free-spirited artist, lives her life as a series of betrayals—while her other lover, earnest, faithful, and good, stands to lose everything because of his noble qualities. In a world where lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and fortuitous events, and everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence we feel “the unbearable lightness of being."
-
-
Love, Politics, and Strange Bedfellows
- By Mel on 07-01-12
By: Milan Kundera, and others
-
Welcome to Night Vale
- A Novel
- By: Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor
- Narrated by: Cecil Baldwin, Dylan Marron, Retta, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Located in a nameless desert somewhere in the great American Southwest, Night Vale is a small town where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are all commonplace parts of everyday life. It is here that the lives of two women, with two mysteries, will converge.
-
-
This is so good, but
- By Christopher on 04-30-16
By: Joseph Fink, and others
-
Travels with Herodotus
- By: Ryszard Kapuscinski
- Narrated by: Nicolas Coster
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From renowned journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski comes this intimate account of his years in the field, traveling for the first time beyond the Iron Curtain to India, China, Ethiopia, and other exotic locales.
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The father of journalism
- By James R. Modrall on 06-22-18
-
The Railway Man
- By: Eric Lomax
- Narrated by: Bill Paterson
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A naive young man, a railway enthusiast and radio buff, was caught up in the fall of the British Empire at Singapore in 1942. He was put to work on the 'Railway of Death' - the Japanese line from Thailand to Burma. Exhaustively and brutally tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio, Lomax was emotionally ruined by his experiences.
-
-
From hatred to forgiveness
- By 9S on 05-04-12
By: Eric Lomax
-
And There Was Light
- The Extraordinary Memoir of a Blind Hero of the French Resistance in World War II
- By: Jacques Lusseyran
- Narrated by: Andre Gregory
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jacques Lusseyran was an eight-year-old Parisian schoolboy, he was blinded in an accident. He finished his schooling determined to participate in the world around him. In 1941, when he was seventeen, that world was Nazi-occupied France. Lusseyran formed a resistance group with fifty-two boys and used his heightened senses to recruit the best. Eventually, Lusseyran was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in a transport of two thousand resistance fighters.
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One of the three most important books in my life
- By William R. Stevenson on 12-12-15
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The Girl with No Name
- By: Marina Chapman
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 1954, in a remote South American village, a four-year-old girl was abducted and then abandoned deep in the Colombian rainforest. So begins the incredible true story of Marina Chapman, who went on to spend several years alone in the jungle, her only family a troop of capuchin monkeys. Using instinct to guide her, she copied everything they did and soon learned to fend for herself. At around 10 years old, a completely feral Marina was returned to civilisation by hunters, who sold her as a slave to a brothel. Beaten daily and groomed to be a prostitute, she escaped - to live the perilous existence of a Colombian city street kid.
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Second time
- By Debbie on 05-21-15
By: Marina Chapman
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Siddhartha
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Harish Bhimani
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Hermann Hesse’s classic novel Siddhartha, takes place in ancient India around the time of the Buddha (6th century BC). Siddhartha and his companion Govinda set out in search of enlightenment. Siddhartha goes through a series of changes and realizations as he attempts to achieve this goal. Siddhartha joins the ascetics, visits Gotama, embraces his earthly desires, and finally communes with nature, all in an attempt to attain Nirvana.
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Sounds rushed
- By Viviane on 10-17-11
By: Hermann Hesse
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The Jack London Collection
- The Call of the Wild, White Fang, To Build a Fire
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: Arthur Rowan
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
This Jack London Collection includes three of Jack London's most notable works: The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and To Build a Fire.
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Classics
- By Judy on 01-27-22
By: Jack London
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1984
- New Classic Edition
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
George Orwell depicts a gray, totalitarian world dominated by Big