American Dervish
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Ayad Akhtar
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By:
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Ayad Akhtar
About this listen
Audie Award Nominee, Narration by the Author or Authors, 2013
Hayat Shah was captivated by Mina long before he met her: his mother's beautiful, brilliant, and soulfully devout friend is a family legend. When he learns that Mina is leaving Pakistan to live with the Shahs in America, Hayat is thrilled.
Hayat's father is less enthusiastic. He left the fundamentalist world behind with reason. What no one expects is that when Mina shows Hayat the beauty and power of the Quran, it will utterly transform the boy.
Mina's real magic may be that the Shah household, always contentious and sad, becomes a happy one. But when Mina finds her own path to happiness, the ember of jealousy in Hayat's heart is enflamed by the community's anti-Semitism-and he acts with catastrophic consequences for those he loves most.
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- Unabridged
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The daughter of a poor baker in rural Bengal, India, Sabitri yearns to get an education, but her family's situation means college is an impossible dream. Then an influential woman from Kolkata takes Sabitri under her wing, but her generosity soon proves dangerous after the girl makes a single unforgivable misstep. Years later, Sabitri's own daughter, Bela, haunted by her mother's choices, flees abroad with her political refugee lover - but the America she finds is vastly different from the country she'd imagined.
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Absolutely Worth a Credit
- By Texastanya on 08-27-16
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Surprised by Oxford
- A Memoir
- By: Carolyn Weber
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Surprised by Oxford is the memoir of a skeptical agnostic who comes to a dynamic personal faith in God during graduate studies in literature at Oxford University.
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Beautifully Written book
- By Adam Shields on 10-11-22
By: Carolyn Weber
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Lifted by the Great Nothing
- By: Karim Dimechkie
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Max doesn't remember his mother, who was murdered by burglars before they emigrated from Beirut to New Jersey. He lives with his father, Rasheed, who is enamored of his concept of American culture - baseball and barbeques - and tries to shed his Lebanese heritage completely.
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Excellent
- By Cheyenne on 06-13-15
By: Karim Dimechkie
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Hum If You Don't Know the Words
- By: Bianca Marais
- Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a 10-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred...until the Soweto Uprising.
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Completely wrong accents
- By Debbie on 02-12-22
By: Bianca Marais
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How to Survive a Summer
- A Novel
- By: Nick White
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Grad student Will Dillard has largely buried memories of the summer he spent at a camp intended to "cure" homosexuality. But when he finds out a horror movie based on the camp is hitting theaters, he's forced to face his past - and his role in another camper's death. As he recounts the events surrounding his "failed rehabilitation", Will strikes out on an impromptu road trip back home to Mississippi, eventually returning to the abandoned campgrounds to solve the mysteries of that pivotal summer.
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A story full of heart and healing
- By ZippyBippy on 05-06-18
By: Nick White
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The Vine of Desire
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Anju and Sudha formed an astounding, almost psychic connection during their childhood in India. When Anju invites Sudha, a single mother in Calcutta, to come live with her and her husband, Sunil, in California, Sudha foolishly accepts, knowing full well that Sunil has long desired her. As Sunil's attraction rises to the surface, the trio must struggle to make sense of the freedoms of America - and of the ties that bind them to India and to one another.
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Vine of desire
- By Mz Shantay on 03-27-21
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Love Walked In
- By: Marisa de los Santos
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning poet Marisa de los Santos crafts an irresistibly touching debut novel. Love Walked In is a contemporary tale, steeped in nostalgic, cinematic charm, of love in all its forms. Unapologetically idealistic about love, Cornelia Brown appears to catch the break of a lifetime when the dashing Martin Grace, her own personal Cary Grant, comes strolling into her life. But it is Martin's connection to 11-year-old Clare Hobbes that touches Cornelia's heart in ways she never imagined.
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Dreadful audio quality
- By Marenghi on 09-16-11
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The Finishing School
- A Novel
- By: Joanna Goodman
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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One spring night in 1998, the beautiful Cressida Strauss plunges from a fourth-floor balcony at the Lycée Internationale Suisse with catastrophic consequences. Loath to draw negative publicity to the school, a bastion of European wealth and glamour, officials quickly dismiss the incident as an accident, but questions remain. Was it a suicide attempt? Or was Cressida pushed? It was no secret that she had a selfish streak and had earned as many enemies as allies in her tenure at the school.
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this book was just ok
- By Josh Fields on 02-26-20
By: Joanna Goodman
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Modern Girls
- By: Jennifer S. Brown
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1935, Dottie Krasinsky is the epitome of the modern girl. A bookkeeper in midtown Manhattan, Dottie steals kisses from her steady beau, meets her girlfriends for drinks, and eyes the latest fashions. Yet at heart, she is a dutiful daughter, living with her Yiddish-speaking parents on the Lower East Side. So when, after a single careless night, she finds herself in a family way by a charismatic but unsuitable man, she is desperate: unwed, unsure, and running out of options.
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Super annoying voiceover
- By Amazon Customer on 04-25-17
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When She Woke
- By: Hillary Jordan
- Narrated by: Heather Corrigan
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Hannah Payne awakens to a nightmare. She is lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home. She is now a convicted criminal, and her skin color has been genetically altered. Her crime, according to the State of Texas: the murder of her unborn child, whose father she refuses to name. Her color: red. The color of newly shed blood.
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A Thoughtful Dystopia
- By Amy on 01-28-13
By: Hillary Jordan
What listeners say about American Dervish
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jennifer
- 11-29-17
Amazing Story
This is one of the best books I have read this year! Extremely well written and thought-provoking. The author makes you feel as if you are in the home of the Shah family. I don’t k ow much about the Muslim faith but the story paints a picture of the challenges we all face to understand and follow our beliefs. It is especially poignant from the perspective of an adolescent Young man trying to do the right thing and the harsh reality when he makes the wrong choices.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Nancy
- 12-01-17
Highly Recommend!
The author and narrator gives an extraordinary performance revealing how religion affects life as an American-Pakistani.
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1 person found this helpful
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- AmyK023
- 10-17-12
The author's narration makes the story poingnant.
Where does American Dervish rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Withthe author narrating his own works it was possible to truly hear the inflection and tone he was attempting to create in his writing.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 01-29-19
Good novel
This book was so engaging I made time to listen to it and listened through to the end. I have had close friends from Pakistan so I picked it up to better understand their culture. I ended up learning a lot.
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- David
- 01-24-12
a complex, rewarding book
What about Ayad Akhtar’s performance did you like?
Because of Mr. Akhtar's background and the fact that he is also a wonderful actor, his performance is completely involving, his accents spot on. You really feel as if you come to know the people inhabiting this book.
Who was the most memorable character of American Dervish and why?
The character of Meena, the
Any additional comments?
This is a book to live in, full of insights and beautifully told. It's one of the best books I've listened to in ages.
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10 people found this helpful
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- KJE
- 02-03-19
A fly on the wall in someone's kitchen
I felt like a fly on the wall in the kitchen of a Muslim family pressed on both sides by traditional Muslim practices/customs and shifting values. I wish I could sit at more tables like that. I know very little behind the scenes about Muslim customs, particularly as they affect women, and to see it impact a specific family was very interesting. What a great play this would make.
MORE PLEASE?
.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mary B. Mosleh
- 09-09-19
Interesting story with amazing narration
This story held my interest all the way through. The characters were so well developed I thought this was a true story. I felt compassion for each person’s situation. I found it intelligent and gripping The author gave such insights to each misunderstanding and complexity. It made me think and it made me feel. This story will linger with me for some time to come
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- SKL
- 01-28-19
Outstanding! simply outstanding!
didn't expect much but this was something else... from beginning to the end, just amazing
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- Lauren
- 02-27-23
Best book of the year
The best book of the year. And I read a lot! Thank you to the author, and encouragement to write more!
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- pat dubus
- 08-04-12
Compelling performance and story
This little novel stunned me into immobility,and until I finished the epiloge I was in the world of Pakistani newcomers in the midwest. When I refer to the novel as "little" I am only referring to its length. It is a powerful big story of family, faith, love, hate and all the universal themes that make good fiction the moral compass for the 21st century. I have searched for a novel that could give the reader a look at what it is like to be a Muslim in America. Although that is too large a task for one little Muslim community, it does give the curious a direction to follow.It doesn't suprise me that the reader is the author.This is one of the most riveting performaces I have ever enjoyed. Please read this book.
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18 people found this helpful