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Berta Isla
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo, Bruce Mann
- Length: 18 hrs and 30 mins
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Publisher's summary
From the award-winning, internationally best-selling Spanish writer, author of The Infatuations, comes a gripping new novel of intrigue and missed chances - at once a spy story and a profound examination of a marriage founded on secrets and lies.
When Berta Isla was a schoolgirl, she decided she would marry Tomás Nevinson - the dashing half-Spanish, half-English boy in her class with an extraordinary gift for languages. But when Tomás returns to Madrid from his studies at Oxford, he is a changed man. Unbeknownst to her, he has been approached by an agent from the British intelligence services, and he has unwittingly set in motion events that will derail forever the life they had planned.
With peerless insight into the most shadowed corners of the human soul, Marías plunges the listener into the growing chasm between Berta and Tomás and the decisions that irreversibly change the course of the couple's fate. Berta Isla is a novel of love and truth, fear and secrecy, buried identities, and the destinies we bring upon ourselves.
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Critic reviews
“Marías transforms a spy thriller into an eloquent depiction of those left behind at home in this rich novel.... The espionage premise is initially enticing, but the real draw is the depth of Marías’s characterization. This weighty novel rewards readers with the patience for its deliberate dissection of a marriage.” (Publisher’s Weekly)
“A brooding tale of lives darkened by separation and deception...As usual, Marías propels his philosophical debates with the urgency of a thriller, including a bravura plot twist...Skilled and provocative, as always.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“A novel by Javier Marías, as his millions of readers know, is never what it purports to be. Spain’s most eminent novelist, Nobel laureate in waiting, translated into more than 40 languages, Marías likes to play with existential ideas. [His] stories are always interwoven with deliberations on truth, morality, deceit and the impossibility of knowing one another, with side trips through literature and history . . . Berta Isla has many of the master’s signature preoccupations.... The elegant translation is alive to every nuance...Berta, the desolate wife, is the heart of the story; her first-person narrative eloquently occupies the bulk of the novel.... A complex, emotionally torn character, she evolves and matures, and her intimate story carries the book.” (Lee Langley, The Spectator)
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It begins with a glimpse or a passing thought. It ends in obsession. One day a renowned author discovers that his wife, a war correspondent, has disappeared leaving no trace. Though time brings more success and new love, he remains mystified - and increasingly fascinated - by her absence. Was she kidnapped, blackmailed, or simply bored with their marriage? The unrest she causes is as strong as the attraction she exerts.
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Beautiful and deep read!
- By Top 1% Buyer on 09-13-15
By: Paulo Coelho
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Crime and Punishment
- Penguin Classics
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Oliver Ready
- Narrated by: Don Warrington
- Length: 25 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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This acclaimed new translation of Dostoyevsky's 'psychological record of a crime' gives his dark masterpiece of murder and pursuit a renewed vitality, expressing its jagged, staccato urgency and fevered atmosphere as never before. Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders alone through the slums of St. Petersburg, deliriously imagining himself above society's laws. But when he commits a random murder, only suffering ensues.
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Best translation on audible – mediocre narrator
- By Fantod on 04-29-20
By: Fyodor Dostoevsky, and others
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The Stars, Like Dust
- By: Isaac Asimov
- Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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His name was Biron Farrill and he was a student at the University of Earth. A native of one of the helpless Nebular Kingdoms, he saw his home world conquered and controlled by the planet Tyrann - a ruthless, barbaric Empire that was building a dynasty of cruelty and domination among the stars. Farrill’s own father had been executed for trying to resist the Tyrann dictatorship and now someone was trying to kill Biron. But why? His only hope for survival lay in fleeing Earth and joining the rebellion that was rumored to be forming somewhere in the Kingdoms.
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A Great Literary Master
- By Michael F. kloppel on 06-21-21
By: Isaac Asimov
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The Unbearable Lightness of Being
- A Novel
- By: Milan Kundera, Michael Henry Heim - translator
- Narrated by: Richmond Hoxie
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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A young woman is in love with a successful surgeon, a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing. His mistress, a free-spirited artist, lives her life as a series of betrayals—while her other lover, earnest, faithful, and good, stands to lose everything because of his noble qualities. In a world where lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and fortuitous events, and everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence we feel “the unbearable lightness of being."
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Love, Politics, and Strange Bedfellows
- By Mel on 07-01-12
By: Milan Kundera, and others
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The Diary of a Country Priest
- By: Georges Bernanos
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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A young, shy, sickly priest is assigned to his first parish, a sleepy village in Northern France. Though his faith is devout, he finds nothing but indifference and mockery. The children laugh at his teachings, his parishioners are consumed by boredom, rumours are spread about him and he is tormented by stomach pains. Even his attempts to clarify his thoughts in a diary fail to deliver him from worldly concerns. Yet somehow, despite his suffering, he tries to find love for his fellow humans and even a state of grace.
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A "Bucket List" Book to Read
- By S. Cremona on 05-11-22
By: Georges Bernanos
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Fifth Business
- The Deptford Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Robertson Davies
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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This first novel in The Deptford Trilogy introduces Ramsay, a man who returns from World War I decorated with the Victoria Cross but who is destined to be caught in a no man's land where memory, history, and myth collide. As we hear Ramsey tell his story, we begin to realize that, from childhood, he has influenced those around him in a perhaps mystical, perhaps pernicious way.
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Been waiting for this
- By Vinity on 12-10-11
By: Robertson Davies
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Crime and Punishment
- Pevear & Volokhonsky Translation (Vintage Classics)
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Narrated by: Peter Batchelor
- Length: 25 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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With the same suppleness, energy, and range of voices that won their translation of The Brothers Karamazov the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize, Pevear and Volokhonsky offer a brilliant translation of Dostoevsky's classic novel that presents a clear insight into this astounding psychological thriller. This audio edition of Crime and Punishment is expressively brought to life by Peter Batchelor.
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waited for this translation
- By L. Kerr on 12-22-20
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The Captain and the Enemy
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Victor was only 12 when the Captain took him away from school to live with Liza, his girlfriend. He claimed that Victor, now reborn as Jim Smith, had been won as the result of a bet. Having reached his 20s, Jim attempts to piece together the story.
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"Who is This King Kong?"
- By Mel on 07-07-12
By: Graham Greene
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The Sunday Philosophy Club
- An Isabel Dalhousie Mystery
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith, winner of the first-ever Saga Award for Wit, has entertained millions with his beloved No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency mysteries. Now this phenomenally popular author introduces a fresh series, brimming with the charm and humor his stable of dedicated fans can't get enough of.
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Advice For Prospective Listeners
- By DCinMI on 02-18-13
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The Shadow District
- By: Arnaldur Indridason
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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A 90-year-old man is found dead in his bed, smothered with his own pillow. On his desk, the police find newspaper cuttings about a murder case dating from the Second World War, when a young woman was found strangled behind Reykjavik's National Theatre. Konrad, a former detective, is bored with retirement and remembers the crime. He grew up in "the shadow district", a rough neighborhood bordered by the National Theatre. Why would someone be interested in that crime now?
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A slow burn!
- By Rosemary Wells on 12-12-17
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Cold Hand in Mine
- By: Robert Aickman
- Narrated by: Reece Shearsmith
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Cold Hand in Mine stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a 'strange story' writer to the full. The listener is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul. There is also a nod to the conventional vampire story ("Pages from a Young Girl's Journal") but all the stories remain unconventional and inconclusive, which perhaps makes them all the more startling and intriguing.
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Aickman is unique
- By Stark on 08-19-23
By: Robert Aickman
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City of Girls
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Blair Brown
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love. In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance.
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A strong story
- By Anita Kristensen on 06-08-19
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Burr
- A Novel (Narratives of Empire, Book 1)
- By: Gore Vidal
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 21 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is an extraordinary portrait of one of the most complicated - and misunderstood - figures among the Founding Fathers. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, and killed him. In 1807, he was arrested, tried, and acquitted of treason. In 1833, Burr is newly married, an aging statesman considered a monster by many. But he is determined to tell his own story, and he chooses to confide in a young New York City journalist. Burr is the first novel in Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series.
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Finally! Vidal's Great Take on the Life of Burr
- By John Norton on 06-12-19
By: Gore Vidal
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February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.”
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What listeners say about Berta Isla
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Timothy Christenfeld
- 04-26-23
Wonderfully intriguing
An incredibly thoughtful and engaging story about a spy and his wife. Complex, poignant, inner monologues about the impact on their lives rather than the swashbuckling escapades of spydom yet deeply intriguing in its own way. Thoroughly enjoyed it! Great audio production.
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- hans sandberg
- 09-13-19
Good plot, weak psychology
it's an interesting plot, but the characters are one-dimensional. Berta tells most of the story, but it's clearly a man's interpretation of her psychology, and it's not convincing. The philosophical ruminations are only moderately interesting.
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1 person found this helpful
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- S. L. Gold
- 01-16-20
Disappointing Marias
Other than learning about the fascistic recruiting of undercover agents, this book offers little insight into the characters via their 1st person accounts. Yes! one tragic historical incident can destroy entire lives -- a theme of Marias better told in Thus Bad Begins.
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- Kathleen
- 12-25-19
I am still thinking about Berta Isla...
A look at the espionage life from the point of view of the family left at home, ignorant of the secret agent’s secret. Berta Isla is the girlfriend and then wife, of a man who is destined to enter life with the British Secret service. We see the couple while still young, as students, with their whole lives ahead of them. We catch glimpses of each of them as their separate, and often disparate, lives unfold. And we see them again later on — when the secret life is over, while never actually dying. A haunting story, well written, superbly performed.
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- Annie Smart
- 09-11-23
Not for me.
Stream of consciousness from 2 characters spouting endlessly repetitive philosophical maunderings that provide little that is surprising or profound. And little actually happens. If the activities that caused the lengthy personal separations, and so the characters' mental pain, were actually described, that might have made for an interesting judgement call. Understanding the on-the-ground actions that infamous world events were causing fairly ordinary individuals to effect could have been very valuable. Instead literally everything is inferred, glossed over, bar one moment where a child is possibly threatened.
I haven't disliked a book quite so much in a long while. So why did I read it all? - I try always to finish any book I've started. Nothing more.
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