
Ayiti
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Narrated by:
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Roxane Gay
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By:
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Roxane Gay
About this listen
From New York Times best-selling powerhouse Roxane Gay, Ayiti is a powerful collection exploring the Haitian diaspora experience. Originally published by a small press, this edition will make Gay’s debut widely available for the first time, including several new stories.
In Ayiti, a married couple seeking boat passage to America prepares to leave their homeland. A young woman procures a voodoo love potion to ensnare a childhood classmate. A mother takes a foreign soldier into her home as a boarder, and into her bed. And a woman conceives a daughter on the bank of a river while fleeing a horrific massacre, a daughter who later moves to America for a new life but is perpetually haunted by the mysterious scent of blood.
These early stories showcase Gay’s prowess as "one of the voices of our age” (National Post, Canada).
©2011, 2018 Roxane Gay. Recorded by arrangement with Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2018 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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The women in these stories live lives of privilege and of poverty, are in marriages both loving and haunted by past crimes or emotional blackmail. A pair of sisters, grown now, have been inseparable ever since they were abducted together as children and must negotiate the elder sister's marriage. A woman married to a twin pretends not to realize when her husband and his brother impersonate each other. A stripper putting herself through college fends off the advances of an overzealous customer.
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-
Solid good writing, but not a great collection
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By: Roxane Gay
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The Metamorphosis
- A New Translation by Susan Bernofsky
- By: Franz Kafka, Susan Bernofsky - translator
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Victor Bevine, Christa Lewis
- Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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- Narrated by: Roxane Gay
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Very Nice
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Overall
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Performance
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Exceptional story!
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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Second person POV releases poignant perspective
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The Refugees
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
With the coruscating gaze that informed The Sympathizer, in The Refugees Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to lives led between two worlds, the adopted homeland and the country of birth. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia and starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will.
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Good collection of short stories
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What listeners say about Ayiti
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Overall
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Performance
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-29-19
As you would expect
Roxanne Gay is incredible as always. Got me crying in the car on my way to work with that queer love.
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Overall
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Performance
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- TohirT
- 06-05-19
Stories I never knew I wanted to learn
I loved everything about this audio book. The performance kept me in the experience every minute of every story.
Each story, showed me a different world that other people call their only world. Some stories are heartbreaking other are inspiring.
Thank you for an amazing experience.
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- Cheri Thompson
- 05-25-19
Meh
Just okay, nothing special or riveting here. I really had a tough time following this one.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
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- Karen West
- 06-02-19
Not great
I was hoping to learn a bit more of Haiti,but book only stressed that Haitians have full active and varied sex lives
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4 people found this helpful
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Story
- jerlean daniel
- 09-24-22
Raw Yet Gentle
Love, truth and jagged edges intertwine in rich full bloom. Excellent! Author’s narration exquisitely positions the reader at the heart of the matter.
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- Jessica Cannon
- 08-27-19
It's ok...
First thing I must note, every story entails, at least one scene of sex. It is tastefully done but, some people may not be okay with it. Many of the stories were good; some stories I wanted to hear more, others, I could care less.
I wasn't happy with the narration. I would have liked a better transition between stories, especially since the author/narrorator didn't change voices and the stories were written in first person, welll...mostly.
Not sure if I'd recommend this one. I don't regret listening but there was nothing I wanted to even share with anyone else. If the massacre/scent of blood story or the couple heading to Miami were more in depth, I may...there was something there. This is the reason for the score.
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- Sarah
- 06-13-19
Poetic Journal Entries
The writing style is personal, poetic, and emotional. Nearly all first person 'slice of life' stories about a girl in Haiti. A few longer stories have some depth and emotion. Many of the shorter works read like journal entries, jotting down thoughts and observing life. The narrator has a slight lisp.
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- Sandra P D Bushnell
- 11-03-22
Brought back memories
Really liked it. Some of the stories really brought back fun memories of my homeland. I loved how descriptive the author about her sensory experiences. I didn't like the way most of the stories left you wondering. Overall good stories and very well read.
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- Book Mom
- 08-06-18
The Best Short Story Collection...
...I have read. Always a pleasure when the author is the narrator of the audio book! Well balanced, thoughtful, and utterly satisfying.
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28 people found this helpful
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- A. Mc
- 12-15-22
Wonderful! I wish a Movie could be Made!
What a Wonderful Collection of Stories! So diverse in the subject yet the setting is Ayiti. I plan to listen again and maybe pick up the hardcopy at the library.
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