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The Broken Circle
- A Memoir of Escaping Afghanistan
- Narrated by: Lameece Issaq
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
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Publisher's summary
An emotional and sweeping memoir of love and survival - and of a committed and desperate family uprooted and divided by the violent, changing landscape of Afghanistan in the early 1980s.
Before the Soviet invasion of 1980, Enjeela Ahmadi remembers her home - Kabul, Afghanistan - as peaceful, prosperous, and filled with people from all walks of life. But after her mother, unsettled by growing political unrest, leaves for medical treatment in India, the civil war intensifies, changing young Enjeela’s life forever. Amid the rumble of invading Soviet tanks, Enjeela and her family are thrust into chaos and fear when it becomes clear that her mother will not be coming home.
Thus begins an epic, reckless, and terrifying five-year journey of escape for Enjeela, her siblings, and their father to reconnect with her mother. In navigating the dangers ahead of them, and in looking back at the wilderness of her homeland, Enjeela discovers the spiritual and physical strength to find hope in the most desperate of circumstances.
A heart-stopping memoir of a girl shaken by the brutalities of war and empowered by the will to survive, The Broken Circle brilliantly illustrates that family is not defined by the borders of a country but by the bonds of the heart.
Critic reviews
“Full of vivid detail and emotion, this compelling memoir captures the ache of a young child desperate for safety and security.” (Kirkus Reviews)
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- A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace
- By: Le Ly Hayslip, Jay Wurts
- Narrated by: Nancy Kwan
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Abridged
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This haunting memoir tells the brutal story of the Vietnam War from the perspective of an innocent victim whose childhood was dominated by violence, devastation, and conflicts between the teachings of her culture and the realities of war. The youngest in a close-knit Buddhist family, Le Ly Hayslip was 12 years old when U.S. helicopters landed in her village. She was raped and "ruined" for marriage by Viet Cong soldiers, imprisoned and tortured by the South Vietnamese, and sentenced to death by the Viet Cong. Ultimately fleeing to the U.S. with her children, she finally found peace, and in 1986, she was reunited with her family in Vietnam. The story of her homecoming, interwoven with her memories of the war years, paints a vivid picture of a noble, optimistic woman and her native country.
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Difficult to listen to
- By heatherhg on 07-01-07
By: Le Ly Hayslip, and others
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Remember Us
- My Journey from the Shtetl Through the Holocaust
- By: Vic Shayne, Martin Small
- Narrated by: Peter Altschuler
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Remember Us is a look back at the lost world of the shtetl: a wise Zayde offering prophetic and profound words to his grandson, the rich experience of Shabbos, and the treasure of a loving family. All this is torn apart with the arrival of the Holocaust, beginning a crucible fraught with twists and turns so unpredictable and surprising that they defy any attempt to find reason within them. Through the eyes of 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Martin Small, we learn that these priceless memories that are too painful to remember are also too painful to forget.
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A Tragic and Rich Life, With Lessons For All
- By still reading on 03-17-16
By: Vic Shayne, and others
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Something Fierce
- Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter
- By: Carmen Aguirre
- Narrated by: Carmen Aguirre
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Carmen Aguirre was six-year-old when she and her family fled to Canada following General Augusto Pinochet’s violent 1973 coup in Chile. She was only eleven-years-old when her mother and stepfather joined the resistance movement and returned to South America, taking Carmen and her sister went with them. As their mother and stepfather set up a safe house for resistance members in La Paz, Bolivia, the girls' own double lives began. At 18, Carmen became a militant herself, plunging further into a world of terror, paranoia and euphoria.
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revolutionary read
- By David Brown on 04-05-18
By: Carmen Aguirre
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Stars Between the Sun and Moon
- One Woman's Life in North Korea and Escape to Freedom
- By: Lucia Jang, Susan McClelland
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Born in 1970s North Korea, Lucia Jang grew up in a typical household - her parents worked in the factories, and the family scraped by on rations. Nightly she bowed to her photo of Kim Il-Sung. It was the beginning of a chaotic period with a decade-long famine. Jang married an abusive man who sold their baby. She left him and went home to help her family by illegally crossing the river to China to trade goods. She was caught and imprisoned twice.
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Fantastic story. Well read.
- By Jfm on 02-20-16
By: Lucia Jang, and others
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The Orphan Keeper
- By: Camron Wright
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Seven-year-old Chellamuthu's life - and his destiny - is forever changed when he is kidnapped from his village in Southern India and sold to the Lincoln Home for Homeless Children. His family is desperate to find him, and Chellamuthu anxiously tells the Indian orphanage that he is not an orphan, he has a mother who loves him. But he is told not to worry, he will soon be adopted by a loving family in America.
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5 Star Worthy
- By Kari on 10-26-16
By: Camron Wright
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A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
- By: Brigid Pasulka
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The novel opens on the eve of World War II. In the mountain village of Half-Village, a young man nicknamed the Pigeon, under the approving eyes of the entire village, courts the beautiful Anielica Hetmanska. But the war's arrival wreaks havoc in all their lives and delays their marriage for six long years.
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The Old & New Worlds Converge & Transcend Time
- By Sara on 11-22-16
By: Brigid Pasulka
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The War Girls
- By: V. S. Alexander
- Narrated by: Kelli Tager
- Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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It's not just a thousand miles that separates Hanna Majewski from her younger sister, Stefa. There is another gulf—between the traditional Jewish ways that Hanna chose to leave behind in Warsaw, and her new, independent life in London. But as autumn of 1940 draws near, Germany begins a savage aerial bombing campaign in England, killing and displacing tens of thousands. Hanna, who narrowly escapes death, is recruited as a spy in an undercover operation that sends her back to her war-torn homeland.
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Courageous Sisters
- By Sara on 08-10-22
By: V. S. Alexander
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The Song Poet
- A Memoir of My Father
- By: Kao Kalia Yang
- Narrated by: Kao Kalia Yang
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Bee lost his father as a young boy and keenly felt his orphanhood. He would wander from one neighbor to the next, collecting the things they said to each other, whispering the words to himself at night until one day a song was born. Bee sings the life of his people through the war-torn jungle and a Thai refugee camp. But the songs fall away in the cold, bitter world of a Minneapolis housing project and on the factory floor until, with the death of Bee's mother, the songs leave him for good.
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Beautiful, full of sadness, power, and heart.
- By Melissa L. Magana on 04-27-17
By: Kao Kalia Yang
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The Glass Palace
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose love will shape his life. He cannot forget her, and years later, as a rich man, he goes in search of her.
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I struggled to finish... enough said.
- By Ty on 05-02-10
By: Amitav Ghosh
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The Girl in the Blue Beret
- A Novel
- By: Bobbie Ann Mason
- Narrated by: Fred Sullivan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Inspired by a true story, the best-selling author of In Country offers a gorgeous, haunting novel about an airline pilot coming to terms with his past, and searching for the people who saved him during World War II. After Marshall Stone's B-17 bomber was shot down in occupied Europe in 1944, people in the French Resistance helped him escape to safety.
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Needs a woman narrator for female characters
- By Patricia A Gallagher on 02-23-21
By: Bobbie Ann Mason
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The Hundred-Year Walk
- An Armenian Odyssey
- By: Dawn Anahid MacKeen
- Narrated by: Neil Shah, Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In the heart of the Ottoman Empire as World War I rages, Stepan Miskjian's world becomes undone. He is separated from his family as they are swept up in the government's mass deportation of Armenians into internment camps. Gradually realizing the unthinkable - that they are all being driven to their deaths - he fights, through starvation and thirst, not to lose hope.
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Everything a memoir should be. You will enjoy it!
- By Jakk on 02-19-18
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First They Killed My Father
- A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
- By: Loung Ung
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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One of seven children of a high-ranking government official, Loung Ung lived a privileged life in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh until the age of five. Then, in April 1975, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into the city, forcing Ung's family to flee and, eventually, to disperse. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, her siblings were sent to labor camps, and those who survived the horrors would not be reunited until the Khmer Rouge was destroyed.
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Brutal, Heartbreaking
- By Gillian on 01-27-15
By: Loung Ung
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The Masked Rider
- Cycling in West Africa
- By: Neil Peart
- Narrated by: Brian Sutherland
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The prolific drummer for the rock band Rush travels through African villages, both large and small, and relates his story through journal entries and tales of adventure, while simultaneously addressing issues such as differences in culture, psychology, and labels. Literary and artistic sidekicks such as Aristotle, Dante, and Van Gogh join Peart and his cycling companions, reminding the listener that this is not just another travel book - it is a story of both external and introspective discovery and adventure.
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Fascinating Trip Across Cameroon
- By Diann Sedam on 11-26-19
By: Neil Peart
What listeners say about The Broken Circle
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Pam Pearson
- 07-13-19
Take heed
This book should be required reading for all Americans. From the perspective of what some go through to become American’s while God blessed us by being born in this country, that we all too often take for granted. More importantly how, if we allow our government to be taken over by any specific interest such as extreme ideals or morals of communism, fascism, Religious fundamentalism, etc. all that has been built can be lost far too quickly. It can begin with the smallest of things and then grow into a wave impossible to stop as it did in Germany and Italy causing WWII, and as this book indicates Afghanistan, Iran and other parts of the world today. Germans didn’t think it could happen there, Afghans didn’t think it could happen there, we American’s don’t think it can happen here; but, it can, it has and it will if we do not fight to maintain our constitutional rights and governmental balance of power as defined by our founding fathers.
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21 people found this helpful
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- Scott
- 09-24-19
If you like stories told by a 7 year old...
the narrator is the only thing that kept me going until chapter 12. the story itself was interesting up until chapter 11. then the fantasies and wild tales told by 7 year old girl took over and ruined the entire story. I gave up and stopped listening. somehow she stared down a wolf just a few feet away from her and their souls touched. next she wanders into a cave and found her way to the deep back of the cave and finds a clear pool of water which she swims in. next she's on the hunt with her pocket knife looking for scorpions and killing them left and right and sticking them in a jar of magic scorpion medicine. just too unbelievable. she is a rich, spoiled, whiny, disobedient, Brat who constantly put herself and her family in danger because of her immaturity and disobedience. an alcoholic father and a mother who just takes one child and leaves for India. very hard to believe that this is a true story.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Connie
- 08-25-19
Immigrants
What courage and resiliance for such a small child to go through to escape a bad government. It shows that any family can have great love for each other.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Skye
- 09-23-20
Hidden treasure
I was unsure of this book when I started but I’m so glad I got it and listened. The performance was wonderfully done and the story is incredible. I thought I knew the history of the USSR in Afghanistan but I did not. Not only is this a great story about survival but it’s also about how family can make all the difference in the world.
There are a lot of lessons to learn in this story. I know that I probably missed some & will need to listen again to it.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Grown Heeyah
- 10-15-19
A must Listen!
A glimpse into the past of a country, and a family, with a much needed lesson in humanity, grit, and family.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Poriotis
- 08-12-19
Amazing story
This is an amazing story. It will keep you listening.
I didn't like the ending though and I was close to giving it 3 stars but I decided that it's worth more. I believe the author could have spent another chapter to summarize the remaining of her life's journey. This leads me to believe there might be a second book in the works.
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4 people found this helpful
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- NorthGenia
- 05-20-19
inspired me to learn
good family dynamics, interesting "quest", inspired me to learn more about the history of the area.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Debbie
- 07-15-22
The Afghanistan You Never Knew
This is one of the most touching and yet hard-to-listen-to books I've ever come across, a contrast of the utmost, bringing to the forefront an Afghanistan that most of the western world really doesn't know ever existed. One of culture, music, art and learning to rival the best in the civilized world, juxtaposed against the most primitive and brutal customs and treatment of its own people that can be imagined. A natural environment of breathtaking beauty and harsh ruggedness that bring both fear and awe to those who travel through it. This story of a close -knit family during the 1970s and leading up to the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR tells of lives of freedom, joy and fun . . . until it abruptly stopped. The months and years following tell what an entire family would do . . . indeed DID to regain freedom . . . and escape from the hell that came to their beloved country . . . it is an ugly tale, that everyone who has ever valued freedom needs to listen to . . . This book is etched into my memory . . .
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1 person found this helpful
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- Alexis Michael
- 03-13-19
Disappointed with the end
It is an interesting story about her escape from Afghanistan. The family dynamics are dealt with very superficially, which left me feeling dissatisfied with the ending.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Terri
- 03-13-19
Great!
Couldn’t put it down, the story is fascinating and very easy to follow. Enjeela’s adventures were believable and difficult for a young girl and her family in the midst of political upheaval.
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1 person found this helpful