-
The Epic City
- The World on the Streets of Calcutta
- Narrated by: Homer Todiwala
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
The Epic City
Buy for $18.59
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Bengalis
- A Portrait of a Community
- By: Sudeep Chakravarti
- Narrated by: Anindya Chakravorty
- Length: 18 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4
The Bengalis are the third largest ethno-linguistic group in the world, after the Han Chinese and the Arabs. A quarter of a billion strong and growing, the community has produced three Nobel laureates, world-class scientists, legendary political leaders, iconic movie stars and directors and an unending stream of writers, philosophers, painters, poets and musicians of the first rank. But, bald facts aside, just who are the Bengalis? What is the community all about? In order to find the answers, the author delves deep into the culture, literature, history and social mores of the Bengalis.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
VERY INTERESTING
- By JK on 03-03-24
-
The Fortress of Solitude
- By: Jonathan Lethem
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 18 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 404
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 256
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 259
This is the story of two boys, Dylan Ebdus and Mingus Rude. They are friends and neighbors, but because Dylan is white and Mingus is black, their friendship is not simple. This is the story of their Brooklyn neighborhood, which is almost exclusively black despite the first whispers of something that will become known as "gentrification."
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A smorgasbord of language
- By Jonathan on 10-21-03
By: Jonathan Lethem
-
Gun Island
- A Novel
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Sagar Arya
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 233
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 197
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 195
Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island is a beautifully realized novel that effortlessly spans space and time. It is the story of a world on the brink, of increasing displacement and unstoppable transition. But it is also a story of hope, of a man whose faith in the world and the future is restored by two remarkable women.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved the story and the narrator
- By Frances on 10-10-19
By: Amitav Ghosh
-
The Lives of Others
- By: Neel Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Raj Ghatak
- Length: 21 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 43
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 36
The aging patriarch and matriarch of the Ghosh family preside over their large household, made up of their five adult children and their respective children, unaware that beneath the barely ruffled surface of their lives the sands are shifting. Each set of family members occupies a floor of the home, in accordance to their standing within the family.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
extraordinary insights
- By Susan on 07-13-15
By: Neel Mukherjee
-
The Sleeping Dictionary
- By: Sujata Massey
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 245
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 224
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 225
The term "sleeping dictionary" was coined for young Indian women who slept with British men and educated them in the ways of India. Set between 1925 and the end of World War II, The Sleeping Dictionary is the story of Kamala, born to a peasant family in West Bengal, who makes her way to Calcutta of the 1930s. Haunted by a forbidden love, she is caught between the raging independence movement and the British colonial society she finds herself inhabiting.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Overly ambitious
- By Placeholder on 08-31-18
By: Sujata Massey
-
The Anarchy
- The Relentless Rise of the East India Company
- By: William Dalrymple
- Narrated by: Sid Sagar
- Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,109
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 921
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 916
The Anarchy tells the remarkable story of how one of the world’s most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide, and answerable only to its distant shareholders. In his most ambitious and riveting audiobook to date, William Dalrymple tells the story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
excellent book but awkward narration
- By TexasVC on 02-25-20
-
The Bengalis
- A Portrait of a Community
- By: Sudeep Chakravarti
- Narrated by: Anindya Chakravorty
- Length: 18 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4
The Bengalis are the third largest ethno-linguistic group in the world, after the Han Chinese and the Arabs. A quarter of a billion strong and growing, the community has produced three Nobel laureates, world-class scientists, legendary political leaders, iconic movie stars and directors and an unending stream of writers, philosophers, painters, poets and musicians of the first rank. But, bald facts aside, just who are the Bengalis? What is the community all about? In order to find the answers, the author delves deep into the culture, literature, history and social mores of the Bengalis.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
VERY INTERESTING
- By JK on 03-03-24
-
The Fortress of Solitude
- By: Jonathan Lethem
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 18 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 404
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 256
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 259
This is the story of two boys, Dylan Ebdus and Mingus Rude. They are friends and neighbors, but because Dylan is white and Mingus is black, their friendship is not simple. This is the story of their Brooklyn neighborhood, which is almost exclusively black despite the first whispers of something that will become known as "gentrification."
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A smorgasbord of language
- By Jonathan on 10-21-03
By: Jonathan Lethem
-
Gun Island
- A Novel
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Sagar Arya
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 233
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 197
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 195
Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island is a beautifully realized novel that effortlessly spans space and time. It is the story of a world on the brink, of increasing displacement and unstoppable transition. But it is also a story of hope, of a man whose faith in the world and the future is restored by two remarkable women.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved the story and the narrator
- By Frances on 10-10-19
By: Amitav Ghosh
-
The Lives of Others
- By: Neel Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Raj Ghatak
- Length: 21 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 43
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 36
The aging patriarch and matriarch of the Ghosh family preside over their large household, made up of their five adult children and their respective children, unaware that beneath the barely ruffled surface of their lives the sands are shifting. Each set of family members occupies a floor of the home, in accordance to their standing within the family.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
extraordinary insights
- By Susan on 07-13-15
By: Neel Mukherjee
-
The Sleeping Dictionary
- By: Sujata Massey
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 245
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 224
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 225
The term "sleeping dictionary" was coined for young Indian women who slept with British men and educated them in the ways of India. Set between 1925 and the end of World War II, The Sleeping Dictionary is the story of Kamala, born to a peasant family in West Bengal, who makes her way to Calcutta of the 1930s. Haunted by a forbidden love, she is caught between the raging independence movement and the British colonial society she finds herself inhabiting.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Overly ambitious
- By Placeholder on 08-31-18
By: Sujata Massey
-
The Anarchy
- The Relentless Rise of the East India Company
- By: William Dalrymple
- Narrated by: Sid Sagar
- Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,109
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 921
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 916
The Anarchy tells the remarkable story of how one of the world’s most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide, and answerable only to its distant shareholders. In his most ambitious and riveting audiobook to date, William Dalrymple tells the story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
excellent book but awkward narration
- By TexasVC on 02-25-20
-
Joan Is Okay
- A Novel
- By: Weike Wang
- Narrated by: Catherine Ho
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 286
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 250
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 250
Joan is a thirtysomething ICU doctor at a busy New York City hospital. The daughter of Chinese parents who came to the United States to secure the American dream for their children, Joan is intensely devoted to her work, happily solitary, successful. She does look up sometimes and wonder where her true roots lie: at the hospital, where her white coat makes her feel needed, or with her family, who try to shape her life by their own cultural and social expectations.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing Story!
- By amanda chambers on 01-26-22
By: Weike Wang
-
Autumn
- By: Ali Smith
- Narrated by: Melody Grove
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 496
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 440
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 436
Fusing Keatsian mists and mellow fruitfulness with the vitality, the immediacy, and the color hit of Pop Art, Autumn is a witty excavation of the present by the past. The novel is a stripped-branches take on popular culture and a meditation, in a world growing ever more bordered and exclusive, on what richness and worth are, what harvest means.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Incredible use of language
- By Mary on 03-06-17
By: Ali Smith
-
The Emigrants
- By: W. G. Sebald
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
The four long narratives in The Emigrants appear at first to be the straightforward biographies of four Germans in exile. Sebald reconstructs the lives of a painter, a doctor, an elementary-school teacher, and Great Uncle Ambrose. Following (literally) in their footsteps, the narrator retraces routes of exile which lead from Lithuania to London, from Munich to Manchester, from the South German provinces to Switzerland, France, New York, Constantinople, and Jerusalem.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Masterpiece
- By B. Dowdy on 04-02-18
By: W. G. Sebald
-
Nothing to Envy
- Ordinary Lives in North Korea
- By: Barbara Demick
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,065
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,169
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,165
Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years - a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung and the unchallenged rise to power of his son, Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Taking us into a landscape never before seen, Demick brings to life what it means to be an average Korean citizen, living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The man who wants to be GOD
- By Gohar on 05-08-10
By: Barbara Demick
-
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
- Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
- By: Katherine Boo
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,268
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,955
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,956
In this breathtaking book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. As India starts to prosper, the residents of Annawadi are electric with hope. Abdul, an enterprising teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
An Antidote for Shantaram
- By Dr. on 06-14-12
By: Katherine Boo
-
An American Family
- A Memoir of Hope and Sacrifice
- By: Khizr Khan
- Narrated by: Khizr Khan
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 160
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 146
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 146
Khizr Khan electrified viewers around the world when he took the stage at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. And when he offered to lend Donald Trump his own much-read and dog-eared pocket Constitution, his gesture perfectly encapsulated the feelings of millions.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Inspirational immigrant memoir
- By Mark on 04-16-18
By: Khizr Khan
-
Street Without a Name
- Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria
- By: Kapka Kassabova
- Narrated by: Emily Gray
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 51
Kassabova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and grew up under the drab, muddy, gray mantle of one of communism’s most mindlessly authoritarian regimes. Escaping with her family as soon as possible after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, she lived in Britain, New Zealand, and Argentina, and several other places. But when Bulgaria was formally inducted to the European Union she decided it was time to return to the home she had spent most of her life trying to escape. What she found was a country languishing under the strain of transition. This two-part memoir of Kapka’s childhood and return explains life on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Good start, but ended up not liking the author
- By Giselle on 11-02-21
By: Kapka Kassabova
-
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
- A Novel
- By: Arundhati Roy
- Narrated by: Arundhati Roy
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 650
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 580
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 579
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness transports us across a subcontinent on a journey of many years. It takes us deep into the lives of its gloriously rendered characters, each of them in search of a place of safety - in search of meaning and of love.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Author narration does not work for me
- By Amazon Customer on 06-18-17
By: Arundhati Roy
-
Outwitting History
- The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books
- By: Aaron Lansky
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 84
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
Recipient of the MacArthur “genius” fellowship and founder of the National Yiddish Book Center, Lansky recounts his efforts to rescue the world’s abandoned Yiddish-language books before they pass out of existence. Outwitting History follows Lansky’s far-flung travels and features the engaging men and women he meets along the way.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I laughed, I cried
- By BabsD on 08-05-11
By: Aaron Lansky
-
West of Kabul, East of New York
- By: Tamim Ansary
- Narrated by: Tamim Ansary
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 270
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 232
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 230
The day after the World Trade Center was destroyed, Tamim Ansary sent an anguished e-mail to 20 friends, discussing the attack from his perspective as an Afghan American. The message reached millions. Here, in his own words, is one man's passionate personal journey through two cultures in conflict.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Essential Book. Audible needs to re-edit
- By In the Prime on 12-18-21
By: Tamim Ansary
-
Street of Eternal Happiness
- Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road
- By: Rob Schmitz
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 50
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
Modern Shanghai: a global city in the midst of a renaissance, where dreamers arrive each day to partake in a mad torrent of capital, ideas, and opportunity. Marketplace's Rob Schmitz is one of them. He immerses himself in his neighborhood, forging deep relationships with ordinary people who see in the city's sleek skyline a brighter future, and a chance to rewrite their destinies.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Deserving of better audio
- By Rachael on 02-19-18
By: Rob Schmitz
-
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
- By: Paul Theroux
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 24 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 227
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 162
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 160
In Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Paul Theroux retraces the steps he took thirty years ago in his classic The Great Railway Bazaar. From the Eurostar in London, he once again sets out on a journey to the East, travelling overland through Eastern Europe, India and Asia. Infused with the changes that have shaped the exterior landscape and enriched with developments to his own perceptions and psychology, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star is an absorbing and beautifully written follow-up to The Great Railway Bazaar.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
ghost train to the eastern star
- By roger w patton on 07-22-09
By: Paul Theroux
Publisher's summary
A masterful and entirely fresh portrait of great hopes and dashed dreams in a mythical city from a major new literary voice.
Everything that could possibly be wrong with a city was wrong with Calcutta.
When Kushanava Choudhury arrived in New Jersey at the age of 12, he had already migrated halfway around the world four times. After graduating from Princeton, he moved back to the world which his immigrant parents had abandoned, to a city built between a river and a swamp, where the moisture-drenched air swarms with mosquitos after sundown.
Once the capital of the British Raj, and then India's industrial and cultural hub, by 2001 Calcutta was clearly past its prime. Why, his relatives beseeched him, had he returned? Surely, he could have moved to Delhi, Bombay or Bangalore, where a new Golden Age of consumption was being born. Yet 15 million people still lived in Calcutta.
Working for the Statesman, its leading English newspaper, Kushanava Choudhury found the streets of his childhood unchanged by time. Shouting hawkers still overran the footpaths, fish-sellers squatted on bazaar floors; politics still meant barricades and bus burnings, while Communist ministers travelled in motorcades.
Sifting through the chaos for the stories that never make the papers, Kushanava Choudhury paints a soulful, compelling portrait of the everyday lives that make Calcutta. Written with humanity, wit and insight, The Epic City is an unforgettable portrait of an era, and a city which is a world unto itself.
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
Finding George Orwell in Burma
- By: Emma Larkin
- Narrated by: Emily Durante
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 49
Over the years the American writer Emma Larkin has spent traveling in Burma, she has come to know all too well the many ways this police state can be described as "Orwellian". The life of the mind exists in a state of siege in Burma, and it long has. The connection between George Orwell and Burma is not simply metaphorical, of course; Orwell's mother was born in Burma, and he was shaped by his experiences there as a young man working for the British Imperial Police.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Orwell's Horrors Brought to Life
- By Roger on 09-21-10
By: Emma Larkin
-
Street of Eternal Happiness
- Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road
- By: Rob Schmitz
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 50
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
Modern Shanghai: a global city in the midst of a renaissance, where dreamers arrive each day to partake in a mad torrent of capital, ideas, and opportunity. Marketplace's Rob Schmitz is one of them. He immerses himself in his neighborhood, forging deep relationships with ordinary people who see in the city's sleek skyline a brighter future, and a chance to rewrite their destinies.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Deserving of better audio
- By Rachael on 02-19-18
By: Rob Schmitz
-
Street Without a Name
- Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria
- By: Kapka Kassabova
- Narrated by: Emily Gray
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 51
Kassabova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and grew up under the drab, muddy, gray mantle of one of communism’s most mindlessly authoritarian regimes. Escaping with her family as soon as possible after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, she lived in Britain, New Zealand, and Argentina, and several other places. But when Bulgaria was formally inducted to the European Union she decided it was time to return to the home she had spent most of her life trying to escape. What she found was a country languishing under the strain of transition. This two-part memoir of Kapka’s childhood and return explains life on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Good start, but ended up not liking the author
- By Giselle on 11-02-21
By: Kapka Kassabova
-
Factory Girls
- From Village to City in a Changing China
- By: Leslie T. Chang
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 417
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 260
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 256
A book of global significance that provides new insight into China, Factory Girls demonstrates how the mass movement from rural villages to cities is remaking individual lives and transforming Chinese society, much as immigration to America's shores remade our own country a century ago.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Living in Shenzhen - and What A Disappointment
- By Abstraction on 03-01-10
By: Leslie T. Chang
-
Black Dog of Fate
- A Memoir
- By: Peter Balakian
- Narrated by: Peter Balakian
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
The first-born son of his generation, Peter Balakian grew up in a close, extended family, sheltered by 1950s and '60s New Jersey suburbia. He was immersed in an all-American boyhood defined by rock 'n' roll, adolescent pranks, and a passion for the New York Yankees that he shared with his beloved grandmother. But beneath this sunny world lay the dark specter of the trauma his family and ancestors had experienced: the Turkish government's extermination of more than a million Armenians.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book!
- By Lm on 06-27-13
By: Peter Balakian
-
Nine Continents
- A Memoir In and Out of China
- By: Xiaolu Guo
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
Xiaolu Guo has traveled further than most to become who she needed to be. Now, as she experiences the birth of her daughter in a London maternity ward surrounded by women from all over the world, she looks back on that journey. It begins in the fishing village shack on the East China Sea where her illiterate grandparents raised her, and brings her to a rapidly changing Beijing, full of contradictions: a thriving underground art scene amid mass censorship, curious Westerners who held out affection only to disappear back home.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
must read
- By Jeff Darlington on 10-22-17
By: Xiaolu Guo
-
Finding George Orwell in Burma
- By: Emma Larkin
- Narrated by: Emily Durante
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 49
Over the years the American writer Emma Larkin has spent traveling in Burma, she has come to know all too well the many ways this police state can be described as "Orwellian". The life of the mind exists in a state of siege in Burma, and it long has. The connection between George Orwell and Burma is not simply metaphorical, of course; Orwell's mother was born in Burma, and he was shaped by his experiences there as a young man working for the British Imperial Police.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Orwell's Horrors Brought to Life
- By Roger on 09-21-10
By: Emma Larkin
-
Street of Eternal Happiness
- Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road
- By: Rob Schmitz
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 50
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
Modern Shanghai: a global city in the midst of a renaissance, where dreamers arrive each day to partake in a mad torrent of capital, ideas, and opportunity. Marketplace's Rob Schmitz is one of them. He immerses himself in his neighborhood, forging deep relationships with ordinary people who see in the city's sleek skyline a brighter future, and a chance to rewrite their destinies.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Deserving of better audio
- By Rachael on 02-19-18
By: Rob Schmitz
-
Street Without a Name
- Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria
- By: Kapka Kassabova
- Narrated by: Emily Gray
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 51
Kassabova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and grew up under the drab, muddy, gray mantle of one of communism’s most mindlessly authoritarian regimes. Escaping with her family as soon as possible after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, she lived in Britain, New Zealand, and Argentina, and several other places. But when Bulgaria was formally inducted to the European Union she decided it was time to return to the home she had spent most of her life trying to escape. What she found was a country languishing under the strain of transition. This two-part memoir of Kapka’s childhood and return explains life on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Good start, but ended up not liking the author
- By Giselle on 11-02-21
By: Kapka Kassabova
-
Factory Girls
- From Village to City in a Changing China
- By: Leslie T. Chang
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 417
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 260
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 256
A book of global significance that provides new insight into China, Factory Girls demonstrates how the mass movement from rural villages to cities is remaking individual lives and transforming Chinese society, much as immigration to America's shores remade our own country a century ago.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Living in Shenzhen - and What A Disappointment
- By Abstraction on 03-01-10
By: Leslie T. Chang
-
Black Dog of Fate
- A Memoir
- By: Peter Balakian
- Narrated by: Peter Balakian
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
The first-born son of his generation, Peter Balakian grew up in a close, extended family, sheltered by 1950s and '60s New Jersey suburbia. He was immersed in an all-American boyhood defined by rock 'n' roll, adolescent pranks, and a passion for the New York Yankees that he shared with his beloved grandmother. But beneath this sunny world lay the dark specter of the trauma his family and ancestors had experienced: the Turkish government's extermination of more than a million Armenians.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book!
- By Lm on 06-27-13
By: Peter Balakian
-
Nine Continents
- A Memoir In and Out of China
- By: Xiaolu Guo
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
Xiaolu Guo has traveled further than most to become who she needed to be. Now, as she experiences the birth of her daughter in a London maternity ward surrounded by women from all over the world, she looks back on that journey. It begins in the fishing village shack on the East China Sea where her illiterate grandparents raised her, and brings her to a rapidly changing Beijing, full of contradictions: a thriving underground art scene amid mass censorship, curious Westerners who held out affection only to disappear back home.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
must read
- By Jeff Darlington on 10-22-17
By: Xiaolu Guo
-
In Manchuria
- A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China
- By: Michael Meyer
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 56
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 45
For three years Meyer rented a home in the rice-farming community of Wasteland, hometown of his wife's family, and their personal saga mirrors the tremendous change most of rural China is undergoing in the form of a privately held rice company that has built new roads, introduced organic farming, and constructed high-rise apartments into which farmers can move in exchange for their land rights.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
If you liked the Wonder Years...?
- By Judas Mallory on 05-19-15
By: Michael Meyer
-
The Cut Out Girl
- A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found
- By: Bart van Es
- Narrated by: Bart van Es
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 66
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
Bart van Es left Holland for England many years ago, but one story from his Dutch childhood never left him. It was a mystery of sorts: A young Jewish girl named Lientje had been taken in during the war by relatives and hidden from the Nazis, handed over by her parents. The girl had been raised by her foster family as one of their own, but then, well after the war, they were no longer in touch. What was the girl's side of the story, Bart wondered? What really happened during the war and after? So began an investigation that would consume Bart van Es's life and change it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
a powerful & unique work on the Holocaust
- By D. Littman on 03-06-19
By: Bart van Es
-
The Sugar King of Havana
- The Rise and Fall of Julio Lobo, Cuba's Last Tycoon
- By: John Paul Rathbone
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
Fifty years after the Cuban revolution, the legendary wealth of the sugar magnate Julio Lobo remains emblematic of a certain way of life that came to an abrupt end when Fidel Castro marched into Havana. Known in his day as the King of Sugar, Lobo was for decades the most powerful force in the world sugar market, controlling vast swaths of the island's sugar interests.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
VERY INFORMATIVE
- By Terry on 03-26-12
-
Nothing to Envy
- Ordinary Lives in North Korea
- By: Barbara Demick
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,065
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,169
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,165
Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years - a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung and the unchallenged rise to power of his son, Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Taking us into a landscape never before seen, Demick brings to life what it means to be an average Korean citizen, living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The man who wants to be GOD
- By Gohar on 05-08-10
By: Barbara Demick
-
Sovietistan
- Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan
- By: Erika Fatland
- Narrated by: Jill Rolls
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 52
Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan became free of the Soviet Union in 1991. But though they are new to modern statehood, this is a region rich in ancient history, culture, and landscapes unlike anywhere else in the world. Traveling alone, Erika Fatland is a true adventurer in every sense. In Sovietistan, she takes the listener on a compassionate and insightful journey to explore how their Soviet heritage has influenced these countries, with governments experimenting with both democracy and dictatorships.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Outstanding book
- By George MP on 04-24-22
By: Erika Fatland
-
The Upstairs Wife
- An Intimate History of Pakistan
- By: Rafia Zakaria
- Narrated by: Rafia Zakaria
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 81
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 74
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 74
For a brief moment on December 27, 2007, life came to a standstill in Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto, the country's former prime minister and the first woman ever to lead a Muslim country, had been assassinated at a political rally just outside Islamabad. Back in Karachi--Bhutto's birthplace and Pakistan's other great metropolis--Rafia Zakaria's family was suffering through a crisis of its own: her uncle Sohail, the man who had brought shame upon the family, was near death.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Mixed feelings
- By Darcy on 10-06-17
By: Rafia Zakaria
-
The Naked Don't Fear the Water
- An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees
- By: Matthieu Aikins
- Narrated by: Nick Nikon
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 138
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 124
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 124
In this extraordinary book, an acclaimed young war reporter chronicles a dangerous journey on the smuggler’s road to Europe, accompanying his friend, an Afghan refugee, in search of a better future.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Great story, horrible narration
- By AB on 02-25-22
By: Matthieu Aikins
-
City of Thorns
- Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp
- By: Ben Rawlence
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 100
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 90
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
Situated hundreds of miles from any other settlement, deep within the inhospitable desert of Northern Kenya, Dadaab is a city like no other. Its buildings are made from mud, sticks, or plastic; its entire economy is gray; and its citizens survive on rations and luck. Over the course of four years, Ben Rawlence became a firsthand witness to a strange and desperate limbo-land, getting to know many of those who have come there seeking sanctuary.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Compelling but dry
- By Megan on 09-16-16
By: Ben Rawlence
-
Under Red Skies
- Three Generations of Life, Loss, and Hope in China
- By: Karoline Kan
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 110
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
A deeply personal and shocking look at how China is coming to terms with its conflicted past as it emerges into a modern, cutting-edge superpower.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
An intimate view of real life in China
- By Lonnie G. Hardy, Jr. on 08-15-19
By: Karoline Kan
-
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun
- A Memoir of Africa
- By: Peter Godwin
- Narrated by: Peter Godwin
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 73
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 63
After his father's heart attack in 1984, Peter Godwin began a series of pilgrimages back to Zimbabwe, the land of his birth, from Manhattan, where he now lives. On these frequent visits to check on his elderly parents, he bore witness to Zimbabwe's dramatic spiral downward into the jaws of violent chaos, presided over by an increasingly enraged dictator. And yet long after their comfortable lifestyle had been shattered and millions were fleeing, his parents refuse to leave, steadfast in their allegiance to the failed state that has been their adopted home for 50 years.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Worth the listen.
- By SEE on 09-06-21
By: Peter Godwin
-
Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible
- The Surreal Heart of the New Russia
- By: Peter Pomerantsev
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 777
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 697
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 698
Professional killers with the souls of artists, would-be theater directors turned Kremlin puppet-masters, suicidal supermodels, Hell's Angels who hallucinate themselves as holy warriors, and oligarch revolutionaries: welcome to the glittering, surreal heart of 21st-century Russia. It is a world erupting with new money and new power, changing so fast it breaks all sense of reality, home to a form of dictatorship far subtler than 20th century strains, that is rapidly rising to challenge the West.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved it!
- By Elle Kay on 11-25-16
-
Indonesia, Etc.
- Exploring the Improbable Nation
- By: Elizabeth Pisani
- Narrated by: Jan Cramer
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 183
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 152
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 151
Bewitched by Indonesia for twenty-five years, Elizabeth Pisani recently traveled 26,000 miles around the archipelago in search of the links that bind this impossibly disparate nation. Fearless and funny, Pisani shares her deck space with pigs and cows, bunks down in a sulfurous volcano, and takes tea with a corpse. Along the way, she observes Big Men with child brides, debates corruption and cannibalism, and ponders "sticky" traditions that cannot be erased.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Bill Bryson channels Margaret Mead
- By John S. on 09-01-14
By: Elizabeth Pisani
What listeners say about The Epic City
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
- Teodora
- 08-09-19
In Calcutta after 40 years
I have lived in Calcutta in the seventies. Went back after 40 years for the city called me. This book made me understend what has happened in between. Original, emotional, historical, lovely description of its inhabitants and so very true.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!