
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: Books Like Game of Thrones—Best Epic Fantasy Books & Series
It's time to branch out and find some new material to fill that dragon-shaped hole in your listening life. If you liked Game of Thrones, these epic fantasy books are your next best listen. Some are standalone novels, some are the start of a new series, and others are the first in a completed series. Oh, and they're all excellent. And as Tyrion Lannister said, "... a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge."

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
Novelist Marlon James had his first book nominated as a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and his second book named a New York Times Editor’s Choice. In this, his third novel, a failing preacher in 1957 Jamaica is ousted by a fiery newcomer who sends the congregation into a frenzy of spiritual awakening—and violence.
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Slow but surprising
- By Thaysha on 09-16-13
By: Marlon James
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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 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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The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps
- By: Kai Ashante Wilson
- Narrated by: Kevin Free
- Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Since leaving his homeland, the earthbound demigod Demane has been labeled a sorcerer. With his ancestors' artifacts in hand, the sorcerer follows the captain, a beautiful man with song for a voice and hair that drinks the sunlight. The two of them are the descendants of the gods who abandoned the Earth for Heaven, and they will need all the gifts those divine ancestors left to them to keep their caravan brothers alive. The one safe road between the northern oasis and southern kingdom is stalked by a necromantic terror. Demane may have to master his wild powers and trade humanity for godhood if he is to keep his brothers and his beloved captain alive.
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Challenging but worthwhile and engaging novella
- By A reader on 08-17-16
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Riot Baby
- By: Tochi Onyebuchi
- Narrated by: Tochi Onyebuchi
- Length: 3 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Ella has a Thing. She sees a classmate grow up to become a caring nurse. A neighbor's son murdered in a drive-by shooting. Things that haven't happened yet. Kev, born while Los Angeles burned around them, wants to protect his sister from a power that could destroy her. But when Kev is incarcerated, Ella must decide what it means to watch her brother suffer while holding the ability to wreck cities in her hands. Rooted in the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is as much an intimate family story as a global dystopian narrative.
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I...wasn’t...ready
- By Amazon Customer1 on 04-28-20
By: Tochi Onyebuchi
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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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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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The Sky Is Yours
- A Novel
- By: Chandler Klang Smith
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In the burned-out, futuristic city of Empire Island, three young people navigate a crumbling metropolis constantly under threat from a pair of dragons that circle the skies. When violence strikes, reality star Duncan Humphrey Ripple V, the spoiled scion of the metropolis' last dynasty; Baroness Swan Lenore Dahlberg, his tempestuous, death-obsessed betrothed; and Abby, a feral beauty he discovered tossed out with the trash; are forced to flee everything they've ever known.
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a hot mess
- By Alison on 04-09-19
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Rosewater
- By: Tade Thompson
- Narrated by: Bayo Gbadamosi
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry, and the helpless—people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers. Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care to again—but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realization about a horrifying future.
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Wow! Just wow!
- By Debra Harris on 09-28-18
By: Tade Thompson
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How We Fight for Our Lives
- By: Saeed Jones
- Narrated by: Saeed Jones
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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From award-winning poet Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir written at the crossroads of sex, race, and power. Blending poetry and prose, Jones has developed a style that is equal parts sensual, beautiful, and powerful - a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one-of-a-kind memoir and an audiobook that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.
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This guy can write (and read)
- By Reader X on 11-12-19
By: Saeed Jones
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Beyond Redemption
- Manifest Delusions, Book 1
- By: Michael R. Fletcher
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Common knowledge isn't an axiom, it's a force of nature. What the masses believe is. But insanity is a weapon; conviction a shield. Delusions give birth to foul new gods. Violent and dark, the world is filled with the Geisteskranken - men and women whose delusions manifest, twisting reality. High Priest Konig seeks to create order from chaos. He defines the beliefs of his followers, leading their faith to one end: a young boy, Morgen, must Ascend to become a god. A god they can control. But there are many who would see this would-be-god in their thrall....
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Extraordinarily dark and disturbing
- By Amazon Customer on 04-28-21
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War Girls
- By: Tochi Onyebuchi
- Narrated by: Adepero Oduye
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The year is 2172. Climate change and nuclear disasters have rendered much of earth unlivable. Only the lucky ones have escaped to space colonies in the sky. In a war-torn Nigeria, battles are fought using flying, deadly mechs, and soldiers are outfitted with bionic limbs and artificial organs meant to protect them from the harsh, radiation-heavy climate. Across the nation, as the years-long civil war wages on, survival becomes the only way of life. Two sisters, Onyii and Ify, dream of more.
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The Mecha Story Set In Africa I've Always Craved
- By Mehmed Mitchel-EL on 06-16-20
By: Tochi Onyebuchi
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Love in Color
- Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold
- By: Bolu Babalola
- Narrated by: Ajjaz Awad, Nneka Okoye, Bolu Babalola, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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A high-born Nigerian goddess, who has been beaten down and unappreciated by her gregarious lover, longs to be truly seen. A young businesswoman attempts a great leap in her company, and an even greater one in her love life. A powerful Ghanaian spokeswoman is forced to decide whether she should uphold her family’s politics or be true to her heart. In her debut collection, internationally acclaimed writer Bolu Babalola retells the most beautiful love stories from history and mythology with incredible new detail and vivacity.
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Evolving Ancient Wisdom
- By Sarah Applegate on 05-06-21
By: Bolu Babalola
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Akata Witch
- Akata Witch Series, Book 1
- By: Nnedi Okorafor
- Narrated by: Yetide Badaki
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Twelve-year-old Sunny lives in Nigeria, but she was born American. Her features are African, but she has albinism. She's a terrific athlete but can't go out into the sun to play soccer. There seems to be no place where she fits in. And then she discovers something amazing - she is a "free agent" with latent mystical power.
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imaginative!
- By A^3 on 04-26-18
By: Nnedi Okorafor
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The Fifth Season
- The Broken Earth, Book 1
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the way the world ends...for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the Earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
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The Nay-Sayers are Wrong.
- By Steve Groves on 02-10-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
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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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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
What listeners say about Black Leopard, Red Wolf
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Hazel
- 03-19-19
Incredible story; masterful narrator.
This is destined to be a classic of the fantasy genre. James is an artist.
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- Lysa
- 01-12-21
very good book. better narration!
Loved the character development! very immersive story. Definitely recommend this book for those interested in fantasy genre
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- Ryan
- 03-31-21
incredible read.
Marlon James is an incredible mind, who wrote one of the best novels I have ever read and listened to. Black Leopard Red Wolf is innovative and yet classic, nostalgic and yet astonishingly fresh. This novel changed the way I think; it's emotional, barbaric, philosophical, psychological, and reads like a painting. Furthermore, Dion Graham's narration brings so much emotion to the whispered words between lovers, angry threats between rivals, and betrayed spitting between old friends. This book is one of the best you could read, or will ever read. Truly a spectacular piece.
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- The Jones
- 01-07-20
from the mind off a true GRIOT!
Wow! nuff said! an awesome book read by a master story teller! thank you this! an awesome movie could come out of these pages!
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-27-20
Great read, dark storyline.
Loved it! Extremely descriptive, well read. An acquired taste for sure. I woukd recommend it
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- Terry Pep Carter
- 04-27-21
Grotesquely Beautiful
I was a bit unsure of where this story was going at first. in the beginning, it was a tad difficult to follow. However as I kept following along it got more and more entranced by the book. It was graphic and extremely grotesque. Some of the situations described were very monstrously gruesome and freakishly hideous! However, the story came together in such a beautiful way! I love it.
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.
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- R ob
- 03-16-22
links to the gruesome past
very engaging cadence, and primal. The Book's characters were sharp and alive with purpose.
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- Charles McNeice
- 07-27-22
Truly amazing work that will challenge everything you think you know about fantasy
I just can’t say enough about how good this book is. You WILL need someone to discuss it with afterwards, it’s that different. I wish I could give this 10 stars, it’s so good.
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.
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- Joe B.
- 03-11-23
Brilliant Performance
A fantastic yet bitter story made even better by the narration. A terrific all around read!
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- Dennis M Brown
- 12-16-23
Excellent Performance
It took a few hours to get into the story but the entire time I was impressed with the technical skill of the narrator. The voice acting was crisp and (seemingly) authentic accents.
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!
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