
Black Leopard, Red Wolf
The Dark Star Trilogy, Book 1
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Narrated by:
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Dion Graham
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By:
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Marlon James
About this listen
One of Time’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time
Winner of the LA Times Ray Bradbury Prize
Finalist for the 2019 National Book Award
The New York Times best seller
Named a Best Book of 2019 by The Wall Street Journal, Time, NPR, GQ, Vogue, and The Washington Post
"A fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made." (Neil Gaiman)
"Gripping, action-packed.... The literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)
The epic novel, an African Game of Thrones, from the Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings
In the stunning first novel in Marlon James' Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child.
Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: "He has a nose," people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard.
As Tracker follows the boy's scent - from one ancient city to another; into dense forests and across deep rivers - he and the band are set upon by creatures intent on destroying them. As he struggles to survive, Tracker starts to wonder: Who, really, is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And perhaps the most important questions of all: Who is telling the truth, and who is lying?
Drawing from African history and mythology and his own rich imagination, Marlon James has written a novel unlike anything that's come before it: a saga of breathtaking adventure that's also an ambitious, involving read. Defying categorization and full of unforgettable characters, Black Leopard, Red Wolf is both surprising and profound as it explores the fundamentals of truth, the limits of power, and our need to understand them both.
©2019 Marlon James (P)2019 Penguin AudioInterview: Listen in as Marlon James talks about why his epic Black Leopard, Red Wolf is expertly brought to life in audio, and shares where his Dark Star Trilogy is going next.
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Critic reviews
“The first volume of a promised trilogy, a fabulist reimagining of Africa, with inevitable echoes of Tolkien, George R.R. Martin and Black Panther, but highly original, its language surging with power, its imagination all-encompassing.... Marlon is a writer who must be read.” (Salman Rushdie, Time)
“No novel this year was as intoxicated by the pleasures and possibilities of storytelling as this bloody, bawdy, profane, deliriously overstuffed work of high fantasy. The first part of a planned trilogy, Marlon James’s book already boasts more swagger and invention than most multivolume epics dragging toward their 10th installment.” (The Wall Street Journal, Best Books of 2019)
"Gripping, action-packed.... The literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe - filled with dizzying, magpie references to old movies and recent TV, ancient myths and classic comic books, and fused into something new and startling by his gifts for language and sheer inventiveness.” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)
“Black Leopard, Red Wolf is the kind of novel I never realized I was missing until I read it. A dangerous, hallucinatory, ancient Africa, which becomes a fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made, with language as powerful as Angela Carter's. It's as deep and crafty as Gene Wolfe, bloodier than Robert E. Howard, and all Marlon James. It's something very new that feels old, in the best way. I cannot wait for the next installment.” (Neil Gaiman)
Featured Article: The Best Black Audiobook Narrators to Listen to Right Now
A skilled performer has the ability to take the written word to new heights, infusing an author’s work with empathy, warmth, and excitement. And representation matters just as much for audio as it does for any visual medium: listeners should feel and hear themselves in art driven by powerful performers and authentic deliveries. We’ve gathered a few of the best Black audiobook narrators in the business and their can't-miss performances.

Editor's Pick
You will hear more about this series
"I’m not claiming any credit for finding this one, as it has already become something of a movement, but I am definitely swept up in the transcendent force that is Marlon James and Dion Graham. I saw Neil Gaiman described the setting as "hallucinatory," and I haven’t heard a more apt description, but don’t let that fool you into thinking this is an aimless, vague, or overly literary effort. It is absolutely riveting: My "listening hours per day" have more than tripled since I started listening to Black Leopard, Red Wolf. Word is Marlon James spent a long time researching African languages as well, and Dion Graham just nails all of the different accents. But the merits of Graham’s performance aren’t limited to language or accents. In every minute there is a new threat, a new scheme, and a new astoundingly unique voice; be it beast, witch, demi-god, or amorphous liquid assassin. I can only imagine Graham took a good break after this performance because the sheer number of different voices would put any narrator to the test, and he aced it." —Micahel D., Audible Editor
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Story
Meoshii “Jett” Cándida is known for being a self-absorbed and often inconsiderate human being. Raised by one of Brooklyn’s most notorious and ruthless kingpins, she’s always had this outlook that her needs and wants are above everyone else. After all, she grew up spoiled. But when her father dies and her mom is admitted into a mental facility, her entire world changes as she knows it. Thrust into the dismal world of poverty, Jett has no choice but to take care of herself—with the help of her best friend’s boyfriend, of course. Somehow, she finds herself in a stressful and ...
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Loved it
- By Anonymous User on 06-05-25
By: Pebbles Starr
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The Book of Night Women
- By: Marlon James
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the 18th century. Even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they - and she - will come to both revere and fear. The Night Women, as they call themselves, have long been plotting a slave revolt, and as Lilith comes of age and reveals the extent of her power, they see her as the key to their plans.
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"A lyrical, heart thumping, engaging masterpiece"
- By ann on 01-07-11
By: Marlon James
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The Stranger's Child
- By: Alan Hollinghurst
- Narrated by: James Daniel Wilson
- Length: 19 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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In the late summer of 1913, George Sawle brings his Cambridge schoolmate—a handsome, aristocratic young poet named Cecil Valance—to his family’s modest home outside London for the weekend. George is enthralled by Cecil, and soon his sixteen-year-old sister, Daphne, is equally besotted by him and the stories he tells about Corley Court, the country estate he is heir to.
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Left me feeling sad and disappointed
- By Kindle Customer on 11-28-11
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The Cloven Viscount
- Translated by Archibald Colquhoun
- By: Italo Calvino
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 2 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In this fantastically macabre tale, the separate halves of a nobleman split in two by a cannonball go on to pursue their own independent adventures. In a battle against the Turks, Viscount Medardo of Terralba is bissected lengthwise by a cannonball. One half of him returns to his feudal estate and takes up a lavishly evil life. Soon the other, virtuous half appears. The two halves become rivals for the love of the same woman, fight a bloody duel, and achieve a miraculous resolution.
By: Italo Calvino
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Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
- By: Andrea Lawlor
- Narrated by: Dani Martineck
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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It's 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a dyke best friend, makes zines, and is a flaneur with a rich dating life. But Paul's also got a secret: he's a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub, Paul transforms his body and his gender at will as he crossed the country–a journey and adventure through the deep queer archives of struggle and pleasure.
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The Hottest Book Ever Written
- By Dawn on 06-28-19
By: Andrea Lawlor
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All the Birds in the Sky
- By: Charlie Jane Anders
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Childhood friends Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead didn't expect to see each other again after parting ways under mysterious circumstances during high school. After all, the development of magical powers and the invention of a two-second time machine could hardly fail to alarm one's peers and families. But now they're both adults, living in the hipster mecca San Francisco, and the planet is falling apart around them.
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Too twee for me.
- By Amy on 03-13-17
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The Rage of Dragons
- By: Evan Winter
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable fight for almost 200 years. The lucky ones are born gifted. One in every 2,000 women has the power to call down dragons. One in every 100 men is able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine. Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war. Young, giftless Tau knows all this, but he has a plan of escape. He's going to get himself injured, get out early, and settle down to marriage, children, and land. Only, he doesn't get the chance. Those closest to him are murdered....
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It's... almost really good.
- By Chris on 01-25-20
By: Evan Winter
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Goodbye, Columbus
- And Five Short Stories
- By: Philip Roth
- Narrated by: Ramiz Monsef, Jonathan Davis, Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Goodbye, Columbus is the story of Neil Klugman and pretty, spirited Brenda Patimkin. Neil comes from poor Newark, while Brenda is of suburban Short Hills. On one summer break, they meet and dive into an affair that is as much about social class and suspicion as it is about love. The novella is accompanied by five short stories that range in tone from the iconoclastic to the astonishingly tender.
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A masterpiece
- By marjorie on 10-12-24
By: Philip Roth
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Daughters of Nri
- By: Reni K. Amayo
- Narrated by: Weruche Opia
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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A gruesome war results in the old gods' departure from earth. The only remnants of their existence lie in two girls. Twins, separated at birth. Goddesses who grow up believing that they are human. Daughters of Nri explores their epic journey of self-discovery as they embark on a path back to one another. Strong-willed Naala grows up seeking adventure in her quiet and small village. While the more reserved Sinai resides in the cold and political palace of Nri.
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The potential to be a good story but the pace is unbearable
- By Danay on 02-19-20
By: Reni K. Amayo
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Black Sun
- By: Rebecca Roanhorse
- Narrated by: Cara Gee, Nicole Lewis, Kaipo Schwab, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial even proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world. Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man’s mind. Her ship carries one passenger.
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5-star Concept; Too Many Threads Left Hanging
- By Lisa Davidson on 10-26-20
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Ninefox Gambit
- By: Yoon Ha Lee
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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To win an impossible war, Captain Kel Cheris must awaken an ancient weapon and a despised traitor general.
Captain Kel Cheris of the Hexarchate is disgraced for using unconventional methods in a battle against heretics. Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics. Cheris' career isn't the only thing at stake. If the fortress falls, the Hexarchate itself might be next.
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Just too confusing with enough context
- By Jose Alvarez on 04-02-17
By: Yoon Ha Lee
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The Pariah
- By: Anthony Ryan
- Narrated by: Steven Brand
- Length: 19 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Born into the troubled kingdom of Albermaine, Alwyn Scribe is raised as an outlaw. Quick of wit and deft with a blade, Alwyn is content with the freedom of the woods and the comradeship of his fellow thieves. But an act of betrayal sets him on a new path - one of blood and vengeance, which eventually leads him to a soldier's life in the king's army. Fighting under the command of Lady Evadine Courlain, a noblewoman beset by visions of a demonic apocalypse, Alwyn must survive war and the deadly intrigues of the nobility if he hopes to claim his vengeance.
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Has a great first half then slowly goes downhill
- By Spencer Corpuz on 08-31-21
By: Anthony Ryan
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We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
- By: Karen Joy Fowler
- Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet the Cooke family: Mother and Dad, brother Lowell, sister Fern, and Rosemary, who begins her story in the middle. She has her reasons. “I was raised with a chimpanzee”, she explains. “I tell you Fern was a chimp and already you aren’t thinking of her as my sister. But until Fern’s expulsion...she was my twin, my funhouse mirror, my whirlwind other half and I loved her as a sister”. As a child, Rosemary never stopped talking. Then, something happened, and Rosemary wrapped herself in silence.
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This was totally worth the credit.
- By Amber on 10-04-13
By: Karen Joy Fowler
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She Who Became the Sun
- By: Shelley Parker-Chan
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.
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Almost great.
- By stacey on 09-13-21
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The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Casaundra Freeman
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian North. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with cousins she never knew she had. As she fights for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother's death and her family's bloody history.
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Read, don't listen, to this book
- By Kaylee on 02-24-19
By: N. K. Jemisin
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The Buried Giant
- A Novel
- By: Kazuo Ishiguro
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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"You've long set your heart against it, Axl, I know. But it's time now to think on it anew. There's a journey we must go on, and no more delay..." The Buried Giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen in years. Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel in nearly a decade is about lost memories, love, revenge, and war.
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The beauty of the reveal
- By Anonymous User on 03-17-15
By: Kazuo Ishiguro
Incredible story; masterful narrator.
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very good book. better narration!
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incredible read.
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from the mind off a true GRIOT!
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Great read, dark storyline.
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I can tell the ending was set up for a sequel or series but I wish it would've left me a bit more. I feel that to say this book is similar to an African "Game of Thrones" is a bit inaccurate. It was nothing of the sort except for the blood and grotesqueries and maybe some flying demons/entities.
Grotesquely Beautiful
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links to the gruesome past
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If you friend fantasy before, and you’re familiar with Elves, dwarf‘s, dragons, and the like, then this will give you an entire new Pantheon of creatures to experience and enjoy!
There’s 20 of the same old stuff out there, if you want to read something that truly innovates this genre, pick up this book.
Truly amazing work that will challenge everything you think you know about fantasy
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Brilliant Performance
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I’m not sure that I’ll go for the next book in the series, but if I do it’ll be because I want to continue to hear Dion Graham!
Excellent Performance
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