Discontent and Its Civilizations
Dispatches from Lahore, New York, and London
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Narrated by:
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Mohsin Hamid
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By:
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Mohsin Hamid
About this listen
From "one of his generation's most inventive and gifted writers" (The New York Times), intimate and sharply observed commentary on life, art, politics, and "the war on terror".
Mohsin Hamid's brilliant, moving, and extraordinarily clever novels have not only made him an international best seller, they have earned him a reputation as a "master critic of the modern global condition" (Foreign Policy). His stories are at once timeless and of-the-moment, and his themes are universal: love, language, ambition, power, corruption, religion, family, identity. Here, he explores this terrain from a different angle in essays that deftly counterpoise the personal and the political, and are shot through with the same passion, imagination, and breathtaking shifts of perspective that gives his fiction its unmistakable electric charge.
A "water lily" who has called three countries on three continents his home - Pakistan, the birthplace to which he returned as a young father; the United States, where he spent his childhood and young adulthood; and Britain, where he married and became a citizen - Hamid writes about overlapping worlds with fluidity and penetrating insight. Whether he is discussing courtship rituals or pop culture, drones or the rhythms of daily life in an extended family compound, he transports us beyond the scarifying headlines of an anxious West and a volatile East, beyond stereotype and assumption, and helps to bring a dazzling, diverse global culture within emotional and intellectual reach.
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Awakens hope
- By Diane on 09-23-08
By: Jared Cohen
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India
- A Portrait
- By: Patrick French
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Second only to China in the magnitude of its economic miracle and second to none in its potential to shape the new century, India is fast undergoing one of the most momentous transformations the world has ever seen. In this dazzlingly panoramic book, Patrick French chronicles that epic change, telling human stories to explain a larger national narrative. Melding on-the-ground reports with a deep knowledge of history, French exposes the cultural foundations of India’s political, economic and social complexities.
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An Epic Book by Award-Winning Author
- By morton on 10-31-11
By: Patrick French
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We Don't Know Ourselves
- A Personal History of Modern Ireland
- By: Fintan O'Toole
- Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
- Length: 22 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In We Don't Know Ourselves, Fintan O'Toole weaves his own experiences into Irish social, cultural, and economic change, showing how Ireland, in just one lifetime, has gone from a reactionary "backwater" to an almost totally open society - perhaps the most astonishing national transformation in modern history. O'Toole narrates the once unthinkable collapse of the all-powerful Catholic Church, brought down by scandal and by the activism of ordinary Irish. He relates the horrific violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which led most Irish to reject violent nationalism.
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Relentlessly Negative
- By John on 06-02-22
By: Fintan O'Toole
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The People's Republic of Amnesia
- Tiananmen Revisited
- By: Louisa Lim
- Narrated by: Louisa Lim
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In The People's Republic of Amnesia, NPR correspondent Louisa Lim charts how the events of June 4 changed China, and how China changed the events of June 4 by rewriting its own history. Lim reveals new details about those fateful days, including how one of the country's most senior politicians lost a family member to an army bullet, as well as the inside story of the young soldiers sent to clear Tiananmen Square.
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great book and recording
- By Robert Peters on 06-14-16
By: Louisa Lim
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Arab and Jew
- Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land
- By: David K. Shipler
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 27 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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David Shipler delves into the origins of the prejudices of Jews and Arabs that have been intensified by war, terrorism, and nationalism. Focusing on the diverse cultures that exist side by side in Israel and Israeli-controlled territories, Shipler examines the process of indoctrination that begins in schools; he discusses the far ranging effects of socioeconomic differences, historical conflicts between Islam and Judaism, attitudes about the Holocaust, and much more.
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'Arab and Jew' Needs a Good Editor
- By Robert W. Gillespie on 10-23-03
By: David K. Shipler
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Age of Ambition
- Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
- By: Evan Osnos
- Narrated by: Evan Osnos, George Backman
- Length: 16 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control.
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Come back when you have a warrant!
- By Neuron on 11-06-15
By: Evan Osnos
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Indelible City
- Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong
- By: Louisa Lim
- Narrated by: Louisa Lim
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The story of Hong Kong has long been dominated by competing myths: to Britain, a “barren rock” with no appreciable history; to China, a part of Chinese soil from time immemorial, at last returned to the ancestral fold. For decades, Hong Kong’s history was simply not taught, especially to Hong Kongers, obscuring its origins as a place of refuge and rebellion.
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Visceral History
- By Amazon Customer on 11-21-23
By: Louisa Lim
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Children of Paradise
- The Struggle for the Soul of Iran
- By: Laura Secor
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò
- Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The drama that shaped today’s Iran, from the Revolution to the present day. In 1979, seemingly overnight - moving at a clip some 30 years faster than the rest of the world - Iran became the first revolutionary theocracy in modern times. Since then, the country has been largely a black box to the West, a sinister presence looming over the horizon. But inside Iran, a breathtaking drama has unfolded since then, as religious thinkers, political operatives, poets, journalists, and activists have imagined and reimagined what Iran should be.
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Most Engaging
- By malita on 12-29-22
By: Laura Secor
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The Invention of Russia
- From Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War
- By: Arkady Ostrovsky
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The end of Communism and breakup of the Soviet Union was a time of euphoria around the world, but Russia today is violently anti-American and dangerously nationalistic. So how did we go from the promise of those days to the autocratic police state of Putin's new Russia? The Invention of Russia reaches back to the darkest days of the Cold War to tell the story of the fight for the soul of a nation.
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Sad Story of Russia's Abandonment of Liberalism
- By Amazon Customer on 10-03-16
By: Arkady Ostrovsky
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The Almost Nearly Perfect People
- Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia
- By: Michael Booth
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Journalist Michael Booth has lived among the Scandinavians for more than 10 years, and he has grown increasingly frustrated with the rose-tinted view of this part of the world offered up by the Western media. In this timely audiobook, he leaves his adopted home of Denmark and embarks on a journey through all five of the Nordic countries to discover who these curious tribes are, the secrets of their success, and, most intriguing of all, what they think of one another.
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Obsessed with bad politics
- By Erik on 09-07-20
By: Michael Booth
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The Miracle of the Kurds
- A Remarkable Story of Hope Reborn in Northern Iraq
- By: Stephen Mansfield
- Narrated by: Stephen Mansfield
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Hundreds of thousands of Kurds were murdered under the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein. Some four thousand Kurdish villages were destroyed. Betrayed again and again by the nations of the world, the Kurds were as decimated as any people in history. Then came the Kurdish Miracle, that combination of ancient wisdom and modern economic genius that is now making the Kurdish homeland one of the most prosperous places on earth.
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Long live the Kurds
- By Dry Bones on 03-09-19
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Prague Winter
- A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948
- By: Madeleine Albright
- Narrated by: Madeleine Albright
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Before Madeleine Albright turned twelve, her life was shaken by the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia—the country where she was born—the Battle of Britain, the near total destruction of European Jewry, the Allied victory in World War II, the rise of communism, and the onset of the Cold War. Albright's experiences, and those of her family, provide a lens through which to view the most tumultuous dozen years in modern history.
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History from a Personal Perspective
- By Jeanette Finan on 02-22-13
What listeners say about Discontent and Its Civilizations
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Huffie
- 04-10-21
Thought-Provoking Essays by Mohsin Hamid
I particularly liked the essays in the first half or 2/3 of the collection that Bowles gave background on Hamid as a person and on his views of living in Lahore, New York and London. The pieces on his writing is a craft were very interesting, but the pieces on his views of our diverse and changing world were most thought-provoking. The final essays are mostly on Pakistan and will give western readers some insight into the situation there, perhaps in a broad stroke way, in much food for thought for those living in Pakistan.
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- Affyb
- 07-31-15
Good story but too many statistics
As a Pakistani this book allowed me to revisit Pakistan's political history through present and its relationship with America. However, Mohsin doesn't fully explain its impact directly on his life and or his family. This would have been more engaging.
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- Viva
- 09-20-17
Favorite of Hamid's writings
While I still haven't read Moth Smoke, this is my favorite of Hamid's works. Thoughtful and articulate.
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- Ray
- 07-16-15
A thought provoking insight into the modern political and cultural landscape
If want to think about the clash of cultures in a interesting intelligent way this is for you
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- hanaa
- 08-30-15
Narrator
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
I hate to say this, but I was unable to listen to this Narrator. Maybe he is talented in many other things, but narration or reading is DEFINETLY not one of his talents. Or maybe it is the audio quality that taped him. He mumbles and his voice trails away , I had to turn the volume to the loudest back and forth. Maybe if someone else read it ,I would have understood it better. I just finished another Pakistani story, the narrator was marvelous, " I dared to call him father" by Bilquis Sheikh and the narrator was I think Lorna something. Her diction, her reading ,acting etc was v pleasant. I really apologize, but it is a friendly critique, maybe if someone else read it, I could listen to it and understand it . The subject was v interesting though .
What didn’t you like about Mohsin Hamid’s performance?
I don't know him and I don't want to hurt his feelings or ruin his future. This is a very friendly advice to just learn from it. He has a nice speaking voice, but maybe the audio equipment was not working ,so he seemed as if not interested, he didn't project his voice clearly, his voice trails away as if whispering . So overall if he took Speech and how to project or voice training, maybe that would help him in the future.
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
As I said before, I really tried my best to listen, but, I couldn't stay with the recording . Tried to rewind etc, and sometimes I just drifted to sleep .
Any additional comments?
I'm really saying this just to help him in the future. No one is perfect by birth, some are really talented and don't need schooling, many others have to work harder and train longer to achieve the results hoped for. All of us are God's wonderful creation, made in His image ( our eternal spirits of course, not our gender) So all of us are valuable with different talents.
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