-
Territory of Light
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Rina Takasaki
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime member exclusive: pick 2 free titles with trial.
Territory of Light
Buy for $14.99
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Strange Weather in Tokyo
- A Novel
- By: Hiromi Kawakami, Allison Markin Powell - translator
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 185
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 153
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 152
Tsukiko, 38, works in an office and lives alone. One night, she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, "Sensei", in a local bar. Tsukiko had only ever called him "Sensei" ("Teacher"). He is 30 years her senior, retired, and presumably a widower. Their relationship develops from a perfunctory acknowledgment of each other as they eat and drink alone at the bar, to a hesitant intimacy, which tilts awkwardly and poignantly into love.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Cozy Love Story and Leisure Time in Japan
- By mz on 01-02-19
By: Hiromi Kawakami, and others
-
No Longer Human
- By: Osamu Dazai
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,142
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 957
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 954
Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life, even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo's attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Reassuring in its bare-boned humanity
- By Michael - Audible Editor on 07-19-17
By: Osamu Dazai
-
The Setting Sun
- New Directions Book
- By: Osamu Dazai
- Narrated by: June Angela
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
Set in the early postwar years, it probes the destructive effects of war and the transition from a feudal Japan to an industrial society. Ozamu Dazai died, a suicide, in 1948. But the influence of his book has made "people of the setting sun" a permanent part of the Japanese language, and his heroine, Kazuko, a young aristocrat who deliberately abandons her class, a symbol of the anomie which pervades so much of the modern world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Better tragedy than Shakespeare
- By Gokuss5 on 05-29-22
By: Osamu Dazai
-
Breasts and Eggs
- By: Mieko Kawakami
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Jeena Yi
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 421
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 362
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 363
Breasts & Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own. It tells the story of three women: the 30-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Masterful Writing and Performance
- By Noelle on 03-01-21
By: Mieko Kawakami
-
Small Things Like These
- By: Claire Keegan
- Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
- Length: 1 hr and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 805
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 712
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 710
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man, faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery that forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Charming and Inspiring
- By David P on 09-05-22
By: Claire Keegan
-
To the Lighthouse
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Nicole Kidman
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,087
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 973
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 967
To the Lighthouse is Virginia Woolf’s arresting analysis of domestic family life, centering on the Ramseys and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland in the early 1900s. Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge, Eyes Wide Shut), who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Woolf in the film adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel
The Hours, brings the impressionistic prose of this classic to vibrant life.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A book that will challenge you to think.
- By Kelly on 04-23-17
By: Virginia Woolf
-
Strange Weather in Tokyo
- A Novel
- By: Hiromi Kawakami, Allison Markin Powell - translator
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 185
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 153
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 152
Tsukiko, 38, works in an office and lives alone. One night, she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, "Sensei", in a local bar. Tsukiko had only ever called him "Sensei" ("Teacher"). He is 30 years her senior, retired, and presumably a widower. Their relationship develops from a perfunctory acknowledgment of each other as they eat and drink alone at the bar, to a hesitant intimacy, which tilts awkwardly and poignantly into love.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Cozy Love Story and Leisure Time in Japan
- By mz on 01-02-19
By: Hiromi Kawakami, and others
-
No Longer Human
- By: Osamu Dazai
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,142
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 957
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 954
Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life, even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo's attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Reassuring in its bare-boned humanity
- By Michael - Audible Editor on 07-19-17
By: Osamu Dazai
-
The Setting Sun
- New Directions Book
- By: Osamu Dazai
- Narrated by: June Angela
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
Set in the early postwar years, it probes the destructive effects of war and the transition from a feudal Japan to an industrial society. Ozamu Dazai died, a suicide, in 1948. But the influence of his book has made "people of the setting sun" a permanent part of the Japanese language, and his heroine, Kazuko, a young aristocrat who deliberately abandons her class, a symbol of the anomie which pervades so much of the modern world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Better tragedy than Shakespeare
- By Gokuss5 on 05-29-22
By: Osamu Dazai
-
Breasts and Eggs
- By: Mieko Kawakami
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Jeena Yi
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 421
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 362
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 363
Breasts & Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own. It tells the story of three women: the 30-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Masterful Writing and Performance
- By Noelle on 03-01-21
By: Mieko Kawakami
-
Small Things Like These
- By: Claire Keegan
- Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
- Length: 1 hr and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 805
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 712
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 710
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man, faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery that forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Charming and Inspiring
- By David P on 09-05-22
By: Claire Keegan
-
To the Lighthouse
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Nicole Kidman
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,087
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 973
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 967
To the Lighthouse is Virginia Woolf’s arresting analysis of domestic family life, centering on the Ramseys and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland in the early 1900s. Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge, Eyes Wide Shut), who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Woolf in the film adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel
The Hours, brings the impressionistic prose of this classic to vibrant life.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A book that will challenge you to think.
- By Kelly on 04-23-17
By: Virginia Woolf
-
My Phantoms
- By: Gwendoline Riley
- Narrated by: Hannah Curtis
- Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 11
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 9
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9
Helen Grant is a mystery to her daughter. An extrovert with few friends who has sought intimacy in the wrong places, a twice-divorced mother of two now living alone surrounded by her memories, Helen (known to her acquaintances as “Hen”) has always haunted Bridget. Now, Bridget is an academic in her forties. She sees Helen once a year, and considers the problem to be contained. As she looks back on their tumultuous relationship—the performances and small deceptions—she tries to reckon with the cruelties inflicted on both sides.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brilliant Fiction
- By CB on 08-22-23
By: Gwendoline Riley
-
There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job
- By: Kikuko Tsumura, Polly Barton - translator
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 106
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 94
A young woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that has the following traits: It’s close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing, and, ideally, very little thinking. Her first gig - watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods - turns out to be inconvenient. Her next gives way to the supernatural: announcing advertisements for shops that mysteriously disappear. As she moves from job to job, it becomes increasingly apparent that she's not searching for the easiest job at all but something altogether more meaningful.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I LOVED it
- By Rose on 09-29-21
By: Kikuko Tsumura, and others
-
Ancillary Justice
- By: Ann Leckie
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,512
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,216
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,209
On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest. Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy. Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Has some redeeming value, but is deeply flawed
- By Matthew J. Mimnaugh on 08-07-19
By: Ann Leckie
-
Infinite Jest
- By: David Foster Wallace
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 56 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,642
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,199
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 3,207
A gargantuan, mind-altering comedy about the Pursuit of Happiness in America set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other people; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Removing Endnotes Does NOT Equal Unabridged!
- By Darwin8u on 04-11-12
-
Detransition, Baby
- A Novel
- By: Torrey Peters
- Narrated by: Renata Friedman
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,268
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,077
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,083
Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Emotional Torture
- By Teh Micha on 04-27-21
By: Torrey Peters
-
The Memory Police
- A Novel
- By: Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder - translator
- Narrated by: Traci Kato-Kiriyama
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 796
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 689
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 687
On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses - until things become much more serious. Most of the island's inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten. When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A Calm, Quiet Dystopian
- By Booky Nooky on 12-13-19
By: Yoko Ogawa, and others
-
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
- A Novel
- By: Haruki Murakami
- Narrated by: Rupert Degas
- Length: 26 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,249
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,679
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,677
In a Tokyo suburb, a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife’s missing cat—and then for his wife as well—in a netherworld beneath the city’s placid surface. As these searches intersect, he encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists. Gripping, prophetic, and suffused with comedy and menace, this is one of Haruki Murakami’s most acclaimed and beloved novels.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Wonderful book, flawed narration.
- By REBECCA on 02-08-14
By: Haruki Murakami
-
Kitchen
- By: Banana Yoshimoto
- Narrated by: Emily Zeller
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 215
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 183
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 183
Mikage is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away. Grieving, Mikage is taken in by her friend, Yoichi, and his mother (who is really his cross-dressing father), Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale with the kitchen and the comforts of home at its heart.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
First Time is the Charm
- By just asking for some common sense on 08-22-19
By: Banana Yoshimoto
-
Kokoro
- By: Natsume Soseki
- Narrated by: Matt Shea
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 458
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 401
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 401
The subject of Kokoro, which can be translated as 'the heart of things' or as 'feeling,' is the delicate matter of the contrast between the meanings the various parties of a relationship attach to it. In the course of this exploration, Soseki brilliantly describes different levels of friendship, family relationships, and the devices by which men attempt to escape from their fundamental loneliness. The novel sustains throughout its length something approaching poetry, and it is rich in understanding and insight.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Heart Of Things, Relationships & Feelings
- By Sara on 04-27-15
By: Natsume Soseki
-
The Apartment
- By: K. L. Slater
- Narrated by: Tuppence Middleton, John Chancer
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 5,581
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,053
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 5,037
When Freya Miller is struck by tragedy, losing her husband and her home within a short time, she is burdened with many worries. The main one being where she and her five-year old daughter, Skye, are going to live. A chance meeting with the charismatic Dr Marsden changes all that. He offers the young mother the most amazing opportunity: an apartment at one of London’s most exclusive addresses for a fraction of the market rental cost. It’s an offer Freya simply can’t refuse.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Very lightweight little psychological thriller!
- By Wayne on 09-01-19
By: K. L. Slater
-
A Keeper
- A Novel
- By: Graham Norton
- Narrated by: Graham Norton
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,650
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,277
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,272
When Elizabeth Keane returns to Ireland after her mother’s death, she’s focused only on saying goodbye to that dark and dismal part of her life. Her childhood home is packed solid with useless junk, her mother’s presence already fading. But within this mess, she discovers a small stash of letters — and ultimately, the truth. Forty years earlier, a young woman stumbles from a remote stone house, the night quiet except for the constant wind that encircles her as she hurries deeper into the darkness away from the cliffs and the sea.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Satisfying twists & compelling cadence
- By Sarah.Quinn on 08-19-19
By: Graham Norton
-
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
- A Novel
- By: Cho Nam-Joo, Jamie Chang - translator
- Narrated by: Kathleen Choe
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 375
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 310
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 312
In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A 30-something-year-old “millennial everywoman”, she has recently left her white-collar desk job - in order to care for her newborn daughter full-time - as so many Korean women are expected to do. But she quickly begins to exhibit strange symptoms that alarm her husband, parents, and in-laws: Jiyoung impersonates the voices of other women - alive and even dead, both known and unknown to her.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
This is not a novel.
- By Anonymous User on 02-17-21
By: Cho Nam-Joo, and others
Publisher's summary
From one of the most significant contemporary Japanese writers, a haunting, dazzling audiobook of loss and rebirth.
“Yuko Tsushima is one of the most important Japanese writers of her generation.” (Foumiko Kometani, The New York Times)
I was puzzled by how I had changed. But I could no longer go back....
It is spring. A young woman, left by her husband, starts a new life in a Tokyo apartment. Territory of Light follows her over the course of a year as she struggles to bring up her two-year-old daughter alone. Her new home is filled with light streaming through the windows, so bright she has to squint, but she finds herself plummeting deeper into darkness, becoming unstable, untethered. As the months come and go and the seasons turn, she must confront what she has lost and what she will become.
At once tender and lacerating, luminous and unsettling, Yuko Tsushima’s Territory of Light is an audiobook of abandonment, desire, and transformation. It was originally published in 12 parts in the Japanese literary monthly Gunzo between 1978 and 1979, each chapter marking the months in real time. It won the inaugural Noma Literary Prize.
Critic reviews
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year - 2019
Hudson Booksellers Best of the Year - 2019
2019 Kirkus Prize Finalist Shortlisted
More from the same
Author
Narrator
What listeners say about Territory of Light
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 10-21-19
A poetic metaphor
The beauty and the creative telling of a year of growth and separation was spellbinding. I read this novel in one day. I could not put it down
I look forward to reading more novels by Yuko Tsushima.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Strange Weather in Tokyo
- A Novel
- By: Hiromi Kawakami, Allison Markin Powell - translator
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 185
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 153
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 152
Tsukiko, 38, works in an office and lives alone. One night, she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, "Sensei", in a local bar. Tsukiko had only ever called him "Sensei" ("Teacher"). He is 30 years her senior, retired, and presumably a widower. Their relationship develops from a perfunctory acknowledgment of each other as they eat and drink alone at the bar, to a hesitant intimacy, which tilts awkwardly and poignantly into love.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Cozy Love Story and Leisure Time in Japan
- By mz on 01-02-19
By: Hiromi Kawakami, and others
-
The Woman in the Purple Skirt
- A Novel
- By: Natsuko Imamura, Lucy North - translator
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 32
Almost every afternoon, the Woman in the Purple Skirt sits on the same park bench, where she eats a cream bun while the local children make a game of trying to get her attention. Unbeknownst to her, she is being watched—by the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan, who is always perched just out of sight, monitoring which buses she takes, what she eats, whom she speaks to.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Wild
- By Anna Christine on 07-27-22
By: Natsuko Imamura, and others
-
Breasts and Eggs
- By: Mieko Kawakami
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Jeena Yi
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 421
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 362
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 363
Breasts & Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own. It tells the story of three women: the 30-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Masterful Writing and Performance
- By Noelle on 03-01-21
By: Mieko Kawakami
-
Tokyo Ueno Station
- A Novel
- By: Yu Miri, Morgan Giles
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 136
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 110
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 110
Kazu is dead. Born in Fukushima in 1933, the same year as the Japanese emperor, his life is tied by a series of coincidences to the Imperial family and has been shaped at every turn by modern Japanese history. But his life story is also marked by bad luck, and now, in death, he is unable to rest, doomed to haunt the park near Ueno Station in Tokyo.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Goods story, great translation, poor narration
- By Rose on 12-04-20
By: Yu Miri, and others
-
The Flowers of Buffoonery
- By: Osamu Dazai
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 1 hr and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 4
The Flowers of Buffoonery opens in a seaside sanitarium where Yozo Oba—the narrator of No Longer Human at a younger age—is being kept after a failed suicide attempt. While he is convalescing, his friends and family visit him, and other patients and nurses drift in and out of his room. Against this dispiriting backdrop, everyone tries to maintain a lighthearted, even clownish atmosphere: playing cards, smoking cigarettes, vying for attention, cracking jokes, and trying to make each other laugh.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Quick Read
- By ALICE on 06-17-23
By: Osamu Dazai
-
No Longer Human
- By: Osamu Dazai
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,142
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 957
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 954
Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life, even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo's attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Reassuring in its bare-boned humanity
- By Michael - Audible Editor on 07-19-17
By: Osamu Dazai
-
Strange Weather in Tokyo
- A Novel
- By: Hiromi Kawakami, Allison Markin Powell - translator
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 185
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 153
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 152
Tsukiko, 38, works in an office and lives alone. One night, she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, "Sensei", in a local bar. Tsukiko had only ever called him "Sensei" ("Teacher"). He is 30 years her senior, retired, and presumably a widower. Their relationship develops from a perfunctory acknowledgment of each other as they eat and drink alone at the bar, to a hesitant intimacy, which tilts awkwardly and poignantly into love.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Cozy Love Story and Leisure Time in Japan
- By mz on 01-02-19
By: Hiromi Kawakami, and others
-
The Woman in the Purple Skirt
- A Novel
- By: Natsuko Imamura, Lucy North - translator
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 32
Almost every afternoon, the Woman in the Purple Skirt sits on the same park bench, where she eats a cream bun while the local children make a game of trying to get her attention. Unbeknownst to her, she is being watched—by the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan, who is always perched just out of sight, monitoring which buses she takes, what she eats, whom she speaks to.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Wild
- By Anna Christine on 07-27-22
By: Natsuko Imamura, and others
-
Breasts and Eggs
- By: Mieko Kawakami
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Jeena Yi
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 421
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 362
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 363
Breasts & Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own. It tells the story of three women: the 30-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Masterful Writing and Performance
- By Noelle on 03-01-21
By: Mieko Kawakami
-
Tokyo Ueno Station
- A Novel
- By: Yu Miri, Morgan Giles
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 136
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 110
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 110
Kazu is dead. Born in Fukushima in 1933, the same year as the Japanese emperor, his life is tied by a series of coincidences to the Imperial family and has been shaped at every turn by modern Japanese history. But his life story is also marked by bad luck, and now, in death, he is unable to rest, doomed to haunt the park near Ueno Station in Tokyo.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Goods story, great translation, poor narration
- By Rose on 12-04-20
By: Yu Miri, and others
-
The Flowers of Buffoonery
- By: Osamu Dazai
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 1 hr and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 4
The Flowers of Buffoonery opens in a seaside sanitarium where Yozo Oba—the narrator of No Longer Human at a younger age—is being kept after a failed suicide attempt. While he is convalescing, his friends and family visit him, and other patients and nurses drift in and out of his room. Against this dispiriting backdrop, everyone tries to maintain a lighthearted, even clownish atmosphere: playing cards, smoking cigarettes, vying for attention, cracking jokes, and trying to make each other laugh.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Quick Read
- By ALICE on 06-17-23
By: Osamu Dazai
-
No Longer Human
- By: Osamu Dazai
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,142
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 957
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 954
Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life, even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo's attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Reassuring in its bare-boned humanity
- By Michael - Audible Editor on 07-19-17
By: Osamu Dazai
Related to this topic
-
A Nail Through The Heart
- A Poke Rafferty Thriller
- By: Timothy Hallinan
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 517
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 440
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 438
Poke Rafferty was writing offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored when Bangkok stole his heart. Now the American expat is assembling a new family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and Miaow, the tiny, streetwise urchin he wants to adopt. But trouble in the guise of good intentions comes calling just when everything is beginning to work out.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Ever been to Bangkok?
- By Richard Delman on 12-11-11
By: Timothy Hallinan
-
Fault Lines
- A Novel
- By: Emily Itami
- Narrated by: Lydia Wilson
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 121
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 109
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 111
Mizuki is a Japanese housewife. She has a hardworking husband, two adorable children, and a beautiful Tokyo apartment. It’s everything a woman could want, yet sometimes she wonders whether she would rather throw herself off the high-rise balcony than spend another evening not talking to her husband and hanging up laundry.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Confused by the choice of narrator
- By Bri T. on 02-13-22
By: Emily Itami
-
Blood Wedding
- By: Pierre Lemaitre, Frank Wynne - translator
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 33
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 29
Sophie Duguet is losing her grip. Haunted by visions from her past of her loving husband, who committed suicide after a car accident. One morning she wakes to find Leo, the child in her care, strangled in his bed by Sophie's own shoelaces. She can remember nothing of the night before. Could she really have killed him? She flees in panic, but this only cements her guilt in the eyes of the law. Not long afterwards it happens again - she wakes with blood on her hands, with no memory of the murder committed.
By: Pierre Lemaitre, and others
-
A Thousand Roads Home
- By: Carmel Harrington
- Narrated by: Jill Crawford, Frank Grimes
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 177
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 163
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 163
Meet Tom. Or Dr O’Grady, as he used to be called. When you pass him on the street, most people don’t even give him a second glance. You see, Tom isn’t living his best life. Burdened by grief, he’s only got his loyal dog, Bette Davis, for company and a rucksack containing his whole world. Then there’s Ruth and her son, DJ, who no longer have a place to call home. But Ruth believes that you can change the world by helping one person at a time - and Tom needs her help. There are a thousand ways to find your home - you just need to be brave enough to look for them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Couldn't put it down
- By Allison Swart on 09-22-19
-
The Nanny
- A Novel
- By: Gilly Macmillan
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett, Patience Tomlinson, Ben Eliot
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,474
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,066
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 3,051
In this compulsively listenable tale of secrets, lies, and deception, Gilly Macmillan explores the darkest impulses and desires of the human heart. Diabolically clever, The Nanny reminds us that sometimes the truth hurts so much you’d rather hear the lie.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great gripping story!
- By Jordan Zenzel on 10-01-19
By: Gilly Macmillan
-
The Shadow Lines
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Raj Varma
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 88
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 68
Opening in Calcutta in the 1960s, Ghosh’s radiant second novel follows two families - one English, one Bengali - as their lives intertwine in tragic and comic ways. The narrator, Indian-born and English educated, traces events back and forth in time, through years of Bengali partition and violence, observing the ways in which political events invade private lives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Narrator Doesn't Know How to Pronounce
- By Amazon Customer on 08-27-11
By: Amitav Ghosh
-
A Nail Through The Heart
- A Poke Rafferty Thriller
- By: Timothy Hallinan
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 517
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 440
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 438
Poke Rafferty was writing offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored when Bangkok stole his heart. Now the American expat is assembling a new family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and Miaow, the tiny, streetwise urchin he wants to adopt. But trouble in the guise of good intentions comes calling just when everything is beginning to work out.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Ever been to Bangkok?
- By Richard Delman on 12-11-11
By: Timothy Hallinan
-
Fault Lines
- A Novel
- By: Emily Itami
- Narrated by: Lydia Wilson
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 121
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 109
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 111
Mizuki is a Japanese housewife. She has a hardworking husband, two adorable children, and a beautiful Tokyo apartment. It’s everything a woman could want, yet sometimes she wonders whether she would rather throw herself off the high-rise balcony than spend another evening not talking to her husband and hanging up laundry.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Confused by the choice of narrator
- By Bri T. on 02-13-22
By: Emily Itami
-
Blood Wedding
- By: Pierre Lemaitre, Frank Wynne - translator
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 33
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 29
Sophie Duguet is losing her grip. Haunted by visions from her past of her loving husband, who committed suicide after a car accident. One morning she wakes to find Leo, the child in her care, strangled in his bed by Sophie's own shoelaces. She can remember nothing of the night before. Could she really have killed him? She flees in panic, but this only cements her guilt in the eyes of the law. Not long afterwards it happens again - she wakes with blood on her hands, with no memory of the murder committed.
By: Pierre Lemaitre, and others
-
A Thousand Roads Home
- By: Carmel Harrington
- Narrated by: Jill Crawford, Frank Grimes
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 177
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 163
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 163
Meet Tom. Or Dr O’Grady, as he used to be called. When you pass him on the street, most people don’t even give him a second glance. You see, Tom isn’t living his best life. Burdened by grief, he’s only got his loyal dog, Bette Davis, for company and a rucksack containing his whole world. Then there’s Ruth and her son, DJ, who no longer have a place to call home. But Ruth believes that you can change the world by helping one person at a time - and Tom needs her help. There are a thousand ways to find your home - you just need to be brave enough to look for them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Couldn't put it down
- By Allison Swart on 09-22-19
-
The Nanny
- A Novel
- By: Gilly Macmillan
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett, Patience Tomlinson, Ben Eliot
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,474
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,066
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 3,051
In this compulsively listenable tale of secrets, lies, and deception, Gilly Macmillan explores the darkest impulses and desires of the human heart. Diabolically clever, The Nanny reminds us that sometimes the truth hurts so much you’d rather hear the lie.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great gripping story!
- By Jordan Zenzel on 10-01-19
By: Gilly Macmillan
-
The Shadow Lines
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Raj Varma
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 88
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 68
Opening in Calcutta in the 1960s, Ghosh’s radiant second novel follows two families - one English, one Bengali - as their lives intertwine in tragic and comic ways. The narrator, Indian-born and English educated, traces events back and forth in time, through years of Bengali partition and violence, observing the ways in which political events invade private lives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Narrator Doesn't Know How to Pronounce
- By Amazon Customer on 08-27-11
By: Amitav Ghosh