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Paradise
- Narrated by: Chukwudi Iwuji
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
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Paradise
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Publisher's summary
From the Nobel Prize winner, a coming-of-age story that illuminates the harshness and beauty of an Africa on the brink of colonization
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award, Paradise was characterized by the Nobel Prize committee as Abdulrazak Gurnah’s “breakthrough” work. It is at once the chronicle of an African boy’s coming-of-age, a tragic love story, and a tale of the corruption of African tradition by European colonialism.
Sold by his father in repayment of a debt, twelve-year-old Yusuf is thrown from his simple rural life into complexities of pre-colonial urban East Africa. Through Yusuf’s eyes, Gurnah depicts communities at war, trading safaris gone awry, and the universal trials of adolescence. The result is what Publishers Weekly calls a “vibrant” and “powerful” work that “evokes the Edenic natural beauty of a continent on the verge of full-scale imperialist takeover.”
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- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 197
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 153
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 149
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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3 out of 5 stars
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Sounds rushed
- By Viviane on 10-17-11
By: Hermann Hesse
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The Book of Longings
- A Novel
- By: Sue Monk Kidd
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò, Sue Monk Kidd
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,817
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,085
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,054
In her mesmerizing fourth work of fiction, Sue Monk Kidd takes an audacious approach to history and brings her acclaimed narrative gifts to imagine the story of a young woman named Ana. Raised in a wealthy family with ties to the ruler of Galilee, she is rebellious and ambitious, with a brilliant mind and a daring spirit. She engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes narratives about neglected and silenced women. Ana is expected to marry an older widower, a prospect that horrifies her. An encounter with 18-year-old Jesus changes everything.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Made me cringe
- By Joan on 05-08-20
By: Sue Monk Kidd
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Shadow of the Moon
- By: M. M. Kaye
- Narrated by: Tara Ochs
- Length: 34 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 342
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 298
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 298
The author of The Far Pavilions returns us once again to the vast, intoxicating romance of India under the British Raj. Shadow of the Moon is the story of Winter de Ballesteros, a beautiful English heiress come home to her beloved India. It is also the tale of Captain Alex Randall, her protector, who aches to possess her. Forged in the fires of a war that threatens to topple an empire, their tale is the saga of a desperate and unforgettable love that consumes all in its thrall.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Has always been a great story.
- By Sian on 06-08-14
By: M. M. Kaye
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The Good Earth
- By: Pearl S. Buck
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6,995
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,542
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,554
This Pulitzer Prize-winning classic tells the poignant tale of a Chinese farmer and his family in old agrarian China. The humble Wang Lung glories in the soil he works, nurturing the land as it nurtures him and his family. Nearby, the nobles of the House of Hwang consider themselves above the land and its workers; but they will soon meet their own downfall. The working people riot, breaking into the homes of the rich and forcing them to flee. When Wang Lung shows mercy to one noble and is rewarded, he begins to rise in the world, even as the House of Hwang falls.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wow
- By Ryan on 05-08-10
By: Pearl S. Buck
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Siddhartha
- By: Herman Hesse, Paul Ansdell - translator
- Narrated by: Paul Ansdell
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 114
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
Siddhartha, the ninth book written by Herman Hesse, is about a young Indian boy who leaves his home in hopes of finding enlightenment with the wise "Goutama", which in this story is the Buddha. After learning what he can from Goutama, he decides to go off into the busy city, and leads a life of greed and lust. When he realizes that the lifestyle is not fulfilling, and he reflects on his life, he goes to a river and contemplates suicide.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful writing and narration.
- By John Kurtz on 06-13-17
By: Herman Hesse, and others
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Siddhartha
- By: Hermann Hesse, Gunther Olesch - translator, Anke Dreher - translator, and others
- Narrated by: David Cross
- Length: 4 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 425
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 371
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 370
In Siddhartha, Herman Hesse conveys a very profound message for all those who seek meaning in their lives. Though set in India, the concerns of Siddhartha are universal, expressing Hesse's general interest in the conflict between mind, body, and spirit. It is a story of a Brahmin boy who follows his heart and ventures out into the world to experience life as a pious Brahmin, a Samana, a rich merchant, a lover, and ordinary ferryman to a father - each life bringing a new awakening, bringing him closer to the truth until he is finally one with Buddha.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Not THAT David Cross
- By OrangeCounty on 02-09-18
By: Hermann Hesse, and others
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The First Man
- By: Albert Camus
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 39
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 39
In The First Man, Albert Camus tells the story of Jacques Cormery, a boy who lived a life much like his own. Camus summons up the sights, sounds, and textures of a childhood circumscribed by poverty and a father's death yet redeemed by the austere beauty of Algeria and the boy's attachment to his nearly deaf-mute mother. The result is a moving journey through the lost landscape of youth that also discloses the wellsprings of Camus's aesthetic powers and moral vision.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great Narration by Jefferson Mays
- By Sean Patrick Stevens on 07-31-21
By: Albert Camus
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One Hundred Years of Solitude
- By: Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa - translator
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 6,127
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,368
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Story4 out of 5 stars 5,370
One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize-winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.
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1 out of 5 stars
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What in the heck happened?????
- By Melinda on 02-05-14
By: Gabriel García Márquez, and others
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The Complete Stories
- By: Clarice Lispector, Katrina Dodson, Benjamin Moser
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 22 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 23
Here, gathered in one volume, are the stories that made Clarice a Brazilian legend. Originally a cloth edition of 86 stories, now we have 89 in all, covering her whole amazing career, from her teenage years to her deathbed. In these pages, we meet teenagers becoming aware of their sexual and artistic powers, humdrum housewives whose lives are shattered by unexpected epiphanies, old people who don't know what to do with themselves - and in their stories, Clarice takes us through their lives - and hers - and ours.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful Collection
- By XX on 04-25-20
By: Clarice Lispector, and others
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Asura
- Tale of the Vanquished: The Story of Ravana and His People
- By: Anand Neelakantan
- Narrated by: Denzil Smith
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 27
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 25
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
The story of the Ramayana had been told innumerable times. The enthralling story of Rama, the incarnation of God, who slew Ravana, the evil demon of darkness, is known to every Indian. And in the pages of history, as always, it is the version told by the victors that lives on. The voice of the vanquished remains lost in silence. But what if Ravana and his people had a different story to tell? The story of the Ravanayana had never been told. Asura is the epic tale of the vanquished Asura people, a story that has been cherished by the oppressed outcastes of India for 3,000 years.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Makes you thinks about everything
- By Anonymous User on 12-04-23
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Exile and the Kingdom
- By: Albert Camus
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 26
From a variety of masterfully rendered perspectives, these six stories depict people at painful odds with the world around them. A wife can only surrender to a desert night by betraying her husband. An artist struggles to honor his own aspirations as well as society's expectations of him. A missionary brutally converted to the worship of a tribal fetish is left with but an echo of his identity. Whether set in North Africa, Paris, or Brazil, the stories in Exile and the Kingdom are probing portraits of spiritual exile, and man's perpetual search for an inner kingdom.
By: Albert Camus
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A Suitable Boy (Dramatised)
- By: Vikram Seth
- Narrated by: Ayesha Dharker, Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal, full cast
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 345
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 282
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 276
A Suitable Boy is Vikram Seth's epic love story set in India. Funny and tragic, with engaging, brilliantly observed characters, it is as close as you can get to Dickens for the twentieth century. The story unfolds through four middle class families: the Mehras, Kappoors, Khans, and Chatterjis. Lata Mehra, a university student, is under pressure from her mother to get married. But not to just anyone she happens to fall in love with.
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2 out of 5 stars
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would prefer unabridged naration
- By Tamshine on 07-07-11
By: Vikram Seth
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Birds Without Wings
- By: Louis de Bernieres
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 23 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 499
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 315
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 313
Birds Without Wings is the story of a small town in Anatolia in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire told in the richly varied voices of the men and women (Armenians, Christians, and Muslims) whose lives are intertwined and rooted there: Iskander, the potter and local fount of wisdom; Philotei, the Christian girl of legendary beauty, courted almost from infancy by Ibrahim the goatherd, a great love that culminates in tragedy and madness; and many more.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Not for the faint of heart
- By a on 01-03-05
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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
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6,807
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6,327
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,319
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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4 out of 5 stars
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This is so good, but
- By Christopher on 04-30-16
By: Joseph Fink, and others
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Cry, the Beloved Country
- By: Alan Paton
- Narrated by: Michael York
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,415
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,896
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,887
This is the most distinguished novel that has come out of South Africa in the 20th century, and it is one of the most important novels of the modern era. Cry, the Beloved Country is in some ways a sad book; it is an indictment of a social system that drives native races into resentment and crime; it is a story of Fate, as inevitable, as relentless, as anything of Thomas Hardy's. Beautifully wrought with high poetic compassion, Cry, the Beloved Country is more than just a story, it is a profound experience of the human spirit.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
A word painting: gripping, breathtaking & moving
- By Jacobus on 10-04-12
By: Alan Paton
-
The Black Rose
- By: Thomas B. Costain
- Narrated by: David Case
- Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 81
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 70
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 72
Walter of Gurnie, bastard son of an English peer, is forced to flee from Oxford for his part in the university riots of 1273. Inspired by Friar Bacon, he determines to travel to China. With his friend Tristam, he fights his way to the heart of the fabulous Mongol Empire and returns famous, to find that he must choose between the first love he thought lost and the exotic flower that he found in the East.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Great Book
- By Jean on 03-09-13
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- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 247
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 220
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When he was just a boy, Ilyas was stolen from his parents on the coast of East Africa by German colonial troops. After years away, fighting against his own people, he returns home to find his parents gone and his sister, Afiya, abandoned into de facto slavery. Hamza, too, returns home from the war, scarred in body and soul and with nothing but the clothes on his back—until he meets the beautiful, undaunted Afiya.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Compelling book in every way
- By Edward Hower on 11-03-22
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By the Sea
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5
On a late November afternoon, Saleh Omar arrives at Gatwick Airport from his native Zanzibar. With him he has a small bag in which lies his most precious possession—a mahogany box containing incense. He used to own a furniture shop, have a house and be a husband and father. Now he is an asylum seeker from paradise, silence his only protection.
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5 out of 5 stars
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beautifully written and read
- By ana teresa blank on 03-30-24
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Desertion
- A Novel
- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1
Writing at the peak of his powers, Abdulrazak Gurnah gives us in Desertion a spellbinding novel of forbidden love and cultural upheaval, with consequences powerfully reverberating through three generations and across continents—from the heyday of the British empire to the aftermath of African independence.
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Gravel Heart
- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 27
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
Salim has always known that his father does not want him. Living with his parents and his adored Uncle Amir in a house full of secrets, he is a bookish child, a dreamer haunted by night terrors. It is the 1970s and Zanzibar is changing. Tourists arrive, the island’s white sands obscuring the memory of recent conflict—the longed-for independence from British colonialism swiftly followed by bloody revolution. When his father moves out, retreating into dishevelled introspection, Salim is confused and ashamed. His mother does not discuss the change.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Don’t tire
- By Sheila S Sheehan on 04-20-23
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Memory of Departure
- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Faaiz Mbelizi
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 4
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 4
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Story4 out of 5 stars 4
Poverty and depravity wreak havoc on Hassan Omar’s family. Amid great hardship he decides to escape. The arrival of independence brings new upheavals as well as the betrayal of the promise of freedom. The new government, fearful of an exodus of its most able men, discourages young people from travelling abroad and refuses to release examination results. Deprived of a scholarship, Hassan travels to Nairobi to stay with a wealthy uncle, in the hope that he will release his mother’s rightful share of the family inheritance.
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3 out of 5 stars
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#readrazakchallenge
- By Jeanette Karimi on 01-16-23
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The Last Gift
- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Ali Zayn
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 12
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 9
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 9
Abbas has never told anyone about his past—before he was a sailor on the high seas, before he met his wife Maryam outside a drugstore in Exeter, before they settled into a quiet life with their children, Jamal and Hanna. Now, at the age of sixty-three, he suffers a collapse that renders him unable to speak about things he thought he would one day have to.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A Depressing Story About Nothing
- By X on 11-09-23
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Afterlives
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- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 247
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 220
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Story4 out of 5 stars 219
When he was just a boy, Ilyas was stolen from his parents on the coast of East Africa by German colonial troops. After years away, fighting against his own people, he returns home to find his parents gone and his sister, Afiya, abandoned into de facto slavery. Hamza, too, returns home from the war, scarred in body and soul and with nothing but the clothes on his back—until he meets the beautiful, undaunted Afiya.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Compelling book in every way
- By Edward Hower on 11-03-22
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By the Sea
- A Novel
- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Connie Mgadzah, Denver Isaac
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5
On a late November afternoon, Saleh Omar arrives at Gatwick Airport from his native Zanzibar. With him he has a small bag in which lies his most precious possession—a mahogany box containing incense. He used to own a furniture shop, have a house and be a husband and father. Now he is an asylum seeker from paradise, silence his only protection.
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5 out of 5 stars
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beautifully written and read
- By ana teresa blank on 03-30-24
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Desertion
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- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1
Writing at the peak of his powers, Abdulrazak Gurnah gives us in Desertion a spellbinding novel of forbidden love and cultural upheaval, with consequences powerfully reverberating through three generations and across continents—from the heyday of the British empire to the aftermath of African independence.
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Gravel Heart
- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 27
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
Salim has always known that his father does not want him. Living with his parents and his adored Uncle Amir in a house full of secrets, he is a bookish child, a dreamer haunted by night terrors. It is the 1970s and Zanzibar is changing. Tourists arrive, the island’s white sands obscuring the memory of recent conflict—the longed-for independence from British colonialism swiftly followed by bloody revolution. When his father moves out, retreating into dishevelled introspection, Salim is confused and ashamed. His mother does not discuss the change.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Don’t tire
- By Sheila S Sheehan on 04-20-23
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Memory of Departure
- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Faaiz Mbelizi
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 4
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 4
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Story4 out of 5 stars 4
Poverty and depravity wreak havoc on Hassan Omar’s family. Amid great hardship he decides to escape. The arrival of independence brings new upheavals as well as the betrayal of the promise of freedom. The new government, fearful of an exodus of its most able men, discourages young people from travelling abroad and refuses to release examination results. Deprived of a scholarship, Hassan travels to Nairobi to stay with a wealthy uncle, in the hope that he will release his mother’s rightful share of the family inheritance.
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3 out of 5 stars
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#readrazakchallenge
- By Jeanette Karimi on 01-16-23
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The Last Gift
- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Ali Zayn
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 12
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 9
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 9
Abbas has never told anyone about his past—before he was a sailor on the high seas, before he met his wife Maryam outside a drugstore in Exeter, before they settled into a quiet life with their children, Jamal and Hanna. Now, at the age of sixty-three, he suffers a collapse that renders him unable to speak about things he thought he would one day have to.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A Depressing Story About Nothing
- By X on 11-09-23
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The Feast of the Goat
- A Novel
- By: Mario Vargas Llosa, Edith Grossman - translator
- Narrated by: Alejandro Vargas-Lugo, Coral Peña, Ian Guerra
- Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 134
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 117
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Story5 out of 5 stars 118
Haunted all her life by feelings of terror and emptiness, 49-year-old Urania Cabral returns to her native Dominican Republic - and finds herself reliving the events of 1961, when the capital was still called Trujillo City and one old man terrorized a nation of three million. Rafael Trujillo, the depraved ailing dictator whom Dominicans call the Goat, controls his inner circle with a combination of violence and blackmail. There is a conspiracy against him, and a Machiavellian revolution already underway.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Enlightening But Challenging
- By Sassafras on 03-03-22
By: Mario Vargas Llosa, and others
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The Years
- By: Annie Ernaux
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 194
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 172
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 173
The Years is a personal narrative of the period of 1941 to 2006 told through the lens of memory, impressions past and present - even projections into the future - photos, books, songs, radio, television, and decades of advertising and headlines, contrasted with intimate conflicts and written notes from six decades of diaries. Local dialect, words of the time, slogans, brands, and names for ever-proliferating objects are given a voice here. The voice we recognize as the author's continually dissolves and re-emerges.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Mixed Feelings
- By Elin VanD on 05-10-20
By: Annie Ernaux
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Red Sorghum
- A Novel of China
- By: Mo Yan, Howard Goldblatt - translator
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 101
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 92
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Story4 out of 5 stars 93
Spanning three generations, this novel of family and myth is told through a series of flashbacks that depict events of staggering horror set against a landscape of gemlike beauty, as the Chinese battle both Japanese invaders and each other in the turbulent 1930s. A legend in China, where it won major literary awards and inspired an Oscar-nominated film directed by Zhang Yimou, Red Sorghum is a book in which fable and history collide to produce fiction that is entirely new—and unforgettable.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best narrator I've ever heard!
- By Ty on 12-12-16
By: Mo Yan, and others
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The Woman Back from Moscow
- By: Ha Jin
- Narrated by: Catherine Ho
- Length: 21 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 7
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 7
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 7
As a promising young actress, Sun Weishi made the critical decision to pursue her studies in Moscow—with the blessing of her influential adoptive father, Zhou Enlai, and Mao himself. The valuable insights she gained there during World War II, most notably the significance of characters' inner lives, would enable her to excel back in China, where she produced works by Chekhov and Gogol, and other socially progressive dramas, such as an adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Her striking career as China's first female director of modern spoken drama (Huaju) would be derailed.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A tragedy that gives deep insight into China under Mao
- By hans sandberg on 01-11-24
By: Ha Jin
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Admiring Silence
- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 13
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 11
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 11
He thinks, as he escapes from Zanzibar, that he will probably never return, and yet the dream of studying in England matters above that. Things do not happen quite as he imagined—the school where he teaches is cramped and violent, he forgets how it feels to belong. But there is Emma, beautiful, rebellious Emma, who turns away from her white, middle-class roots to offer him love and bear him a child. And in return, he spins stories of his home and keeps her a secret from his family. Twenty years later, the barriers come down in Zanzibar and he is able and compelled to go back.
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5 out of 5 stars
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WOW. Fantastic book; perfect narrator
- By MAJ_lawyer on 05-01-23
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Pilgrims Way
- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Ashley Zhangazha
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 3
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 3
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Story4 out of 5 stars 3
Dear Catherine, he began. Here I sit, making a meal out of asking you to dinner. I don’t really know how to do it. To have cultural integrity, I would have to send my aunt to speak, discreetly, to your aunt, who would then speak to your mother, who would speak to my mother, who would speak to my father, who would speak to me and then approach your mother, who would then approach you. Demoralised by small persecutions and the squalor and poverty of his life, Daud takes refuge in his imagination.
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Dottie
- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Isabel Adomakoh Young
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1
Dottie Badoura Fatma Balfour finds solace amidst the squalor of her childhood by spinning warm tales of affection about her beautiful names. But she knows nothing of their origins, and little of her family history—or the abuse her ancestors suffered as they made their home in Britain. At seventeen, she takes on the burden of responsibility for her brother and sister and is obsessed with keeping the family together. However, as Sophie, lumpen yet voluptuous, drifts away, and the confused Hudson is absorbed into the world of crime, Dottie is forced to consider her own needs.
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Flights
- By: Olga Tokarczuk, Jennifer Croft - translator
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 471
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 404
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Story4 out of 5 stars 399
Chopin's heart is carried back to Warsaw in secret by his adoring sister. A woman must return to her native Poland in order to poison her terminally ill high school sweetheart, and a young man slowly descends into madness when his wife and child mysteriously vanish during a vacation and just as suddenly reappear. Through these brilliantly imagined characters and stories, interwoven with haunting, playful, and revelatory meditations, Flights explores what it means to be a traveler, a wanderer, a body in motion not only through space but through time.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Curious and beautifully written
- By Alejandra on 10-24-18
By: Olga Tokarczuk, and others
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Waiting for the Barbarians
- By: J. M. Coetzee
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 157
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 133
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 134
For decades the Magistrate has been a loyal servant of the Empire, running the affairs of a tiny frontier settlement and ignoring the impending war with the barbarians. When interrogation experts arrive, however, he witnesses the Empire's cruel and unjust treatment of prisoners of war. Jolted into sympathy for their victims, he commits a quixotic act of rebellion that brands him an enemy of the state.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An Interesting Read For The Current Times
- By Jen on 04-05-20
By: J. M. Coetzee
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The Books of Jacob
- A Novel
- By: Olga Tokarczuk, Jennifer Croft - translator
- Narrated by: Allen Lewis Rickman, Gilli Messer
- Length: 35 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 237
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 197
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 198
In the mid-18th century, as new ideas—and a new unrest—begin to sweep the Continent, a young Jew of mysterious origins arrives in a village in Poland. Before long, he has changed not only his name but his persona; visited by what seem to be ecstatic experiences, Jacob Frank casts a charismatic spell that attracts an increasingly fervent following.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Dense & Difficult But Rewarding
- By Nick O. on 02-28-22
By: Olga Tokarczuk, and others
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A Woman's Story
- By: Annie Ernaux, Tanya Leslie
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 1 hr and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
Upon her mother’s death from Alzheimer’s, Annie Ernaux embarks on a daunting journey back through time, as she seeks to “capture the real woman, the one who existed independently from me, born on the outskirts of a small Normandy town, and who died in the geriatric ward of a hospital in the suburbs of Paris.” She explores the bond between mother and daughter, tenuous and unshakable at once, the alienating worlds that separate them, and the inescapable truth that we must lose the ones we love.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A stiff and uninteresting story
- By Ellen on 11-19-23
By: Annie Ernaux, and others
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Yellow Crocus
- Yellow Crocus, Book 1
- By: Laila Ibrahim
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 12,396
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 11,041
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 11,002
Moments after Lisbeth is born, she’s taken from her mother and handed over to an enslaved wet nurse, Mattie, a young mother separated from her own infant son in order to care for her tiny charge. Thus begins an intense relationship that will shape both of their lives for decades to come. Though Lisbeth leads a life of privilege, she finds nothing but loneliness in the company of her overwhelmed mother and her distant, slave-owning father.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A rare find, a 5 star book!
- By Kathy in CA on 02-22-15
By: Laila Ibrahim
What listeners say about Paradise
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- albita
- 11-15-23
Interesting
I’m part of a book club and this book was suggested to me. I really like it. The detail story takes you all the way to Tanzania and let you explore and live there showing you that culture and history. Excellent sound and voice.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Pamela J Blair
- 03-22-24
Beautiful book
Gurnah’s writing is superb. His description of the caravan and where it went was so realistic I felt I was on the journey. The end was sad and hopeful at the same time.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nzingha
- 03-08-24
East African pre-colonual history from the inside out
Several European countries plus Greek, Indian & Arabs traders all plot to steal the riches of the country that becomes Tranzania. Gurnah is a skillful writer who when he describes a terrible oder, you smell it. When he describes a beautiful scenic settings, you can see it. Paradise is both paradise and hell simultaneously. This is one beautiful and distribing read, will worth your time and effort.
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