
Before We Visit the Goddess
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Narrated by:
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Sneha Mathan
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Priya Ayyar
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Vikas Adam
About this listen
A beautiful, powerful new novel from the best-selling, award-winning author of Sister of My Heart and The Mistress of Spies about three generations of mothers and daughters who must discover their greatest source of strength in one another - a masterful, brilliant tale of a family both united and torn apart by ambition and love.
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. As the marriage crumbles and Bela is forced to forge her own path, she unwittingly imprints her own child, Tara, with indelible lessons about freedom, heartbreak, and loyalty that will take a lifetime to unravel.
In her latest novel, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explores the complex relationships between mothers and daughters and the different kinds of love that bind us across generations. Before We Visit the Goddess captures the gorgeous complexity of these multigenerational and transcontinental bonds, sweeping across the 20th century from the countryside of Bengal, India, to the streets of Houston, Texas - an extraordinary journey told through a sparkling symphony of voices.
©2016 Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Alan Cumming
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In a dingy shack in the less-than-desirable Indian neighborhood he calls home, 12-year-old Anand is entrusted with a conch shell that possesses mystical powers. His task is to return the shell to its rightful home many hundreds of miles away. Accompanying him are Nisha, a headstrong but resourceful child of the streets, and a mysterious man of indeterminate age and surprising resources named Abadhyatta. His quest will take him farther from home than he's ever been and will teach him more than he ever imagined - and it will force him to make a poignant decision that will change him forever.
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Boring book
- By Lea on 08-22-15
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The Unknown Errors of Our Lives
- Stories
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Deepti Gupta
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In nine poignant stories spiked with humor and intelligence, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni captures lives at crossroad moments - caught between past and present, home and abroad, tradition, and fresh experience. A widow in California, recently arrived from India, struggles to adapt to a world in which neighbors are strangers and her domestic skills are deemed superfluous in the award-winning "Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter".
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Catalyst for introspection on life.
- By amanda shelton on 11-14-21
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Arranged Marriage: Stories
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Judith West
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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From the story of a young bride whose fairy-tale vision of California is shattered when her husband is murdered and she must face the future on her own, to a proud middle-aged divorced woman determined to succeed in San Francisco, Divakaruni's award-winning poetry fuses here with prose for the first time to create 11 devastating portraits of women on the verge of an unforgettable transformation.
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Horrible Fake Indian Accent!
- By Estemeee on 09-10-20
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Goddess of the River
- By: Vaishnavi Patel
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Ganga, joyful goddess of the river, serves as caretaker to the mischievous godlings who roam her banks. But when their antics incur the wrath of a powerful sage, Ganga is cursed to become mortal, bound to her human form until she fulfills the obligations of the curse. Though she knows nothing of mortal life, Ganga weds King Shantanu and becomes a queen, determined to regain her freedom no matter the cost. But in a cruel turn of fate, just as she is freed of her binding, she is forced to leave her infant son behind. Her son, prince Devavrata, unwittingly carries the legacy of Ganga’s curse.
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Quick read excellent narration
- By Navaneeth on 07-14-24
By: Vaishnavi Patel
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When the Moon Is Low
- A Novel
- By: Nadia Hashimi
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan, Neil Shah
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Mahmoud’s passion for his wife, Fereiba, a schoolteacher, is greater than any love she’s ever known. But their happy, middle-class world implodes when their country is engulfed in war and the Taliban rises to power. Mahmoud, a civil engineer, becomes a target of the new fundamentalist regime and is murdered. Forced to flee Kabul with her three children, Fereiba must find a way to cross Europe and reach her sister’s family in England. With forged papers and help from kind strangers they meet along the way, Fereiba make a dangerous crossing into Iran under cover of darkness.
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Unfinished?
- By James R. Hyde on 10-25-21
By: Nadia Hashimi
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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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The Museum of Failures
- By: Thrity Umrigar
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Remy Wadia left India for the United States long ago, carrying his resentment of his mother with him. He has now returned to Bombay to adopt a baby from a young pregnant girl—and to see his elderly mother for the first time in several years. Discovering that his mother is in the hospital, has stopped talking, and seems to have given up on life, he is struck with guilt for not realizing just how sick she has become.
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I loved this story...until I didn't...
- By R Cravey on 11-24-23
By: Thrity Umrigar
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The Secrets Between Us
- A Novel
- By: Thrity Umrigar
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Bhima, the unforgettable main character of Thrity Umrigar’s beloved national best seller, The Space Between Us, returns in this triumphant sequel - a poignant and compelling novel in which the former servant struggles against the circumstances of class and misfortune to forge a new path for herself and her granddaughter in modern India. Poor and illiterate, Bhima had faithfully worked for the Dubash family, an upper-middle-class Parsi household, for more than 20 years.
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A heart-wrenching story/sequel
- By Slopeggy on 08-17-18
By: Thrity Umrigar
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The Color of Our Sky
- A Novel
- By: Amita Trasi
- Narrated by: Zehra Jane Nacqvi, Sneha Mathan
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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India, 1986: Mukta, a 10-year-old village girl from the lower-caste Yellama cult, has come of age and must fulfill her destiny of becoming a temple prostitute, as her mother and grandmother did before her. In an attempt to escape her fate, Mukta is sent to be a house girl for an upper-middle class family in Mumbai. There she discovers a friend in the daughter of the family, high-spirited eight-year-old Tara, who helps her recover from the wounds of her past.
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Fast moving ,gripping ,emotional ,well depicted.
- By Amazon CustomerAmeeta Adur on 10-09-17
By: Amita Trasi
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Honor
- By: Thrity Umrigar
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to cover a story, but reluctantly: long ago she and her family left the country with no intention of ever coming back. As she follows the case of Meena—a Hindu woman attacked by members of her own village and her own family for marrying a Muslim man—Smita comes face to face with a society where tradition carries more weight than one’s own heart, and a story that threatens to unearth the painful secrets of Smita’s own past.
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Wow.
- By Robert Bryant on 01-19-22
By: Thrity Umrigar
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The Complete Jaipur Trilogy
- The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, and The Perfumist of Paris
- By: Alka Joshi
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan, Ariyan Kassam, Deepa Samuel
- Length: 33 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Vivid and compelling, The Henna Artist opens a door into a world that is at once lush and fascinating, stark and cruel. Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist—and confidante—to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own. Years later, she is confronted by her husband who has tracked her down.
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An fabulously expanding adventure !
- By Miki Lee on 11-24-23
By: Alka Joshi
What listeners say about Before We Visit the Goddess
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- M. Ryder
- 01-10-17
Expected So Much More!!!
Was really hoping that this story would be as good as some of the author's previous books, like Americana, Oleander Girl, and Purple Hibiscus, but sadly, it did not measure up to any of them. The plot was basically boring, with no actual depth to the characters. The story oddly jumped around, and was not well executed. As for the narration, the parts off the Grandmother and her daughter were performed OK, though the person narrating Tara (the youngest generation of the three), was pretty awful, and not at all a believable character. I truly felt like she was reading, rather than playing the part. Also, do not understand why the author added in that single chapter with Kenneth, the neighbor. It seemed pointless and inconsequential in telling the story. Would not recommend, when there are so many wonderful options available on audio.
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- just asking for some common sense
- 01-31-17
wonderful and sad all at once
I wasn't sure what to expect. It seemed that new characters were introduced late. I wasn't sure how that would work out, but each character was important and tied together a story at once wonderful and sad. The narration made me eager to finish, then it was bittersweet because I finished it.
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- Beth H
- 03-05-17
A gentle read
Good storyline, a bit jumbled and confusing the way the story jumps...from character to character without a good introduction. Wrapped up well at the end.
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- carolyn
- 11-29-16
touching and sweet
Loved the different characters in this story. .. they were very visible and interesting,each. Wonderful
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-27-24
Wonderful wonderful story and performance
What amazing story!
The performances were also excellent. Several people have commented on The performer who plays Tara, she definitely wasn’t as good as the other readers, but she didn’t spoil the book for me.
The stories of three women and 3 men that we’ve together so perfectly and meticulously. It was an absolute joy to listen to, and I would thoroughly recommend.
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- Mary Storms
- 06-13-17
Good read.
It's the story of multiple generations of an Asian Indian family, with changing & conflicting times & values. But it could be any family anywhere because the conflicts are created by misunderstandings, secrets, & shame. This isn't a dark story, despite loss & loneliness. I recommend it.
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- Chris
- 09-09-17
Surprising and well acted
This was not a normal purchase for me. In fact, think I got it on sale and based it purely on the clip and reviews. They led me the right way.
The acting for each person is excellent! The voices change based on age, location, and generation. You never loose the person even though the time jumping can get a bit confusing at 1 part. The voice acting really helps bring the story to life!
The story is excellent too! It does an amazing job tell the story 4 generations of women in a family which is no easy task. You see the challenges and changes each women face with amazing clarity. And it feels as if they do not short change on the details.
Will be looking for similar books by this author and with these voice actors.
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- Dee Garza
- 02-25-17
Beautiful Story
I recommend this to every daughter and to every mother of a daughter. Three generations of women and their struggles, their heartaches, their triumphs.
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- yoshima
- 05-29-17
whew, the things we hide
If you could sum up Before We Visit the Goddess in three words, what would they be?
hurtful family secrets
What did you like best about this story?
the stories of each woman and how what happened in their lives affected the next generation
Which scene was your favorite?
I guess when all the discoveries were made....It made me examine my "story" and how each of us try to put the best face forward thinking that we are helping or protecting our parents, siblings, children when really it is just causing mistakes to move forward
If you could rename Before We Visit the Goddess, what would you call it?
I think it is a good title....It alludes to the richness of the story....every title I could think of to rename it just didn't hold that richness
Any additional comments?
The narration was wonderful
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- butterfliiesinFL
- 06-08-18
Loved everything about it... except one reader
This was a beautiful story and I loved listening to it. I think the readers did an excellent job... all except the voice of Tara. It was completely out of place and the reader didn't sound like she was part of the story at all, she was simply reading what was written. Very unlike the other readers who really sounded like they were a part of the story.
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