Lara
The Untold Love Story and the Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago
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Narrated by:
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Antonia Beamish
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By:
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Anna Pasternak
About this listen
The heartbreaking story of the love affair between Boris Pasternak, the author of Doctor Zhivago, and Olga Ivinskaya - the true tragedy behind the timeless classic.
When Stalin came into power in 1924, the Communist government began persecuting dissident writers. Though Stalin spared the life of Boris Pasternak - whose novel in progress, Doctor Zhivago, was suspected of being anti-Soviet - he persecuted Boris' mistress, typist, and literary muse, Olga Ivinskaya. Boris' affair with Olga devastated the straitlaced Pasternaks, and they were keen to disavow Olga's role in Boris' writing process. Twice Olga was sentenced to work in Siberian labor camps, where she was interrogated about the book Boris was writing, but she refused to betray the man she loved. When Olga was released from the gulags, she assumed that Boris would leave his wife for her, but, trapped by his family's expectations and his own weak will, he never did.
Drawing on previously neglected family sources and original interviews, Anna Pasternak explores this hidden act of moral compromise by her great-uncle and restores to history the passionate affair that inspired and animated Doctor Zhivago. Devastated that Olga suffered on his behalf and frustrated that he could not match her loyalty to him, Boris instead channeled his thwarted passion for Olga into the love story in Doctor Zhivago.
Filled with the rich detail of Boris' secret life, Lara unearths a moving love story of courage, loyalty, suffering, drama, and loss and casts a new light on the legacy of Doctor Zhivago.
©2017 Anna Pasternak (P)2017 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Touching memoir. Consider hard copy
- By Joschka Philipps on 02-22-18
By: Hisham Matar
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Magnificent Rebels
- The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self
- By: Andrea Wulf
- Narrated by: Julie Teal
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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When did we begin to be as self-centered as we are today? At what point did we expect to have the right to determine our own lives? When did we first ask the question, how can I be free? It all began in the 1790s in a quiet university town in Germany when a group of playwrights, poets, and writers put the self at center stage in their thinking, writing, and their lives.
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fascinating overall, too much drama
- By soup cook on 11-27-22
By: Andrea Wulf
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Labyrinths
- Emma Jung, Her Marriage to Carl, and the Early Years of Psychoanalysis
- By: Catrine Clay
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Clever and ambitious, Emma Jung yearned to study the natural sciences at the University of Zurich. But the strict rules of proper Swiss society at the beginning of the 20th century dictated that a woman of Emma's stature - one of the richest heiresses in Switzerland - travel to Paris to "finish" her education, to prepare for marriage to a suitable man. Engaged to the son of one of her father's wealthy business colleagues, Emma's conventional and predictable life was upended when she met Carl Jung.
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Carl plays center stage
- By Sparrowhawk on 12-23-16
By: Catrine Clay
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Charlotte Brontë
- A Fiery Heart
- By: Claire Harman
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Charlotte Brontë's life contained all the drama and tragedy of the great Gothic novels it inspired. Like Jane Eyre, she was raised motherless on remote Yorkshire moors and sent away to a brutally strict boarding school at a young age. Charlotte grew up and watched helplessly as, one by one, her five beloved siblings sickened and died; by the end of her short life, she was the only child of the Brontë clan remaining.
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Clear-Eyed Bio of Literature's Most Elusive Figure
- By wally on 09-02-16
By: Claire Harman
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Marina and Lee
- The Tormented Love and Fatal Obsession Behind Lee Harvey Oswald's Assassination of John F. Kennedy
- By: Priscilla Johnson McMillan
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray, Joseph Finder
- Length: 24 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Marina and Lee is one of the best and truest audiobooks about the Kennedy assassination. Priscilla Johnson McMillan came to the story with a unique knowledge of the two main characters. In the 1950s she knew Kennedy well for a time when he was hospitalized with Addison's disease. She talked to him frequently, brought him books, knew his wife, and formed a strong opinion of the sort of man he was. What is astonishing is that she also knew Lee Harvey Oswald.
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Now I know why he did it
- By Rodd on 06-09-14
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I Am Dynamite!
- A Life of Nietzsche
- By: Sue Prideaux
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Nietzsche wrote that all philosophy is autobiographical, and in this vividly compelling, myth-shattering biography, Sue Prideaux brings listeners into the world of this brilliant, eccentric, and deeply troubled man, illuminating the events and people that shaped his life and work. I Am Dynamite! is the essential biography for anyone seeking to understand history's most misunderstood philosopher.
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Fascinating; tragic
- By Cineaste21 on 12-30-18
By: Sue Prideaux
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The Romanov Sisters
- The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
- By: Helen Rappaport
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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They were the Princess Dianas of their day—perhaps the most photographed and talked about young royals of the early twentieth century. The four captivating Russian Grand Duchesses—Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Romanov—were much admired for their happy dispositions, their looks, the clothes they wore and their privileged lifestyle. Over the years, the story of the four Romanov sisters and their tragic end in a basement at Ekaterinburg in 1918 has clouded our view of them, leading to a mass of sentimental and idealized hagiography.
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Made you want to change the ending
- By MissSusie66 on 01-23-15
By: Helen Rappaport
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Zelda Fitzgerald
- The Tragic, Meticulously Researched Biography of the Jazz Age's High Priestess
- By: Sally Cline
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 17 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Zelda Fitzgerald was the mythical American Dream Girl of the Roaring Twenties who became, in the words of her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald, "the first American flapper." Their romance transformed a symbol of glamour and spectacle of the Jazz Age. When Zelda cracked up, not long after the stock market crash of 1929, Scott remained loyal to her through a nightmare of later breakdowns and final madness.
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The Beautiful and the Bungled
- By Silverthorne on 12-08-17
By: Sally Cline
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The Rasputin File
- By: Edvard Radzinsky, Judson Rosengrant - translator
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 22 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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For almost a century, historians could only speculate about the role Grigory Rasputin played in the downfall of tsarist Russia. But in 1995 a lost file from the state archives turned up, a file that contained the complete interrogations of Rasputin's inner circle. With this extensive and explicit amplification of the historical record, Edvard Radzinsky has written a definitive biography, reconstructing in full the fascinating life of an improbable holy man who changed the course of Russian history.
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Good old Radzinsky
- By Babs on 03-13-18
By: Edvard Radzinsky, and others
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Stalin
- The Court of the Red Tsar
- By: Simon Sebag Montefiore
- Narrated by: Jonathan Aris
- Length: 27 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In a seamless meshing of exhaustive research, brilliant synthesis and narrative élan, Simon Sebag Montefiore chronicles the life and lives of Stalin’s court from the time of his acclamation as “leader” in 1929, five years after Lenin’s death, until his own death in 1953 at the age of 73. Through the lens of personality - Stalin’s as well as those of his most notorious henchmen, Molotov, Beria and Yezhov among them - the author sheds new light on the oligarchy that attempted to create a new world by exterminating the old.
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Stalinist Tyranny
- By Kindle Customer on 12-28-19
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The Sisters
- The Saga of the Mitford Family
- By: Mary S. Lovell
- Narrated by: Annie Wauters
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the story of a close, loving family splintered by the violent ideologies of Europe between the wars. Jessica was a Communist; Debo became the Duchess of Devonshire; Nancy was one of the best-selling novelists of her day; the ethereally beautiful Diana was the most hated woman in England; and Unity Valkyrie, born in Swastika, Alaska, would become obsessed with Adolf Hitler.
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Great story, terrible reader
- By Victoria on 02-27-14
By: Mary S. Lovell
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Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know
- By: Colm Toibin
- Narrated by: Colm Toibin
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Elegant, profound, and riveting, Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know illuminates not only the complex relationships between three of the greatest writers in the English language and their fathers, but also illustrates the surprising ways these men surface in their work. Through these stories of fathers and sons, Tóibín recounts the resistance to English cultural domination, the birth of modern Irish cultural identity, and the extraordinary contributions of these complex and masterful authors.
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Eminently re-readable
- By Ellen-A on 01-02-19
By: Colm Toibin
What listeners say about Lara
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- N. Carey
- 08-24-21
Great Story, Thoroughly Enjoyable
As a Dr. Zhivago fan I really enjoyed the story and all the detail in this book. It was very thoroughly researched and I learned so much about the background of the Zhivago characters.
The performance (narration) was quite lacking for me. The pronunciation of the Russian names and words was poor, often (mostly) accented on the wrong syllables and making it hard to understand sometimes. The Russian pronunciations were really over-emphasized, stressed in an un-natural way. But still, I enjoyed the book very much.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- gran 80
- 03-15-17
A wonderfully enjoyable read
Antonia Beamish brings to light Pasternak's 30 year long work on his famous novel Dr Zhivago. Lara, this gripping real story, is so full of detail the author must have researched long and hard. The story evolves during Russia's turmoil after WWII and during the cold war. Stalin, a native of Georgia, spared Pasternak from the gulag when many of his contemporaries disappeared. The dictator favored the author because of his work on Georgia's literature. Had he perished, we would be missing a masterpiece. Pasternak's intricate life, two marriages and mistress would be complicated under any circumstances. But the beauty of the story is the uncanny similiarity between the reality and the novel. The narrative of the Russian revolution and the creation a workers paradise in Zhivago's experience didn't agree with the party line, so Pasternak was forced to decline the Nobel prize for literature, his son was invited to accept the medal 30 years later, after his father's death. You will appreciate reading Anna Pasternak's book even if you haven't read Dr. Zhivago, a great love story in difficult times. Although, who hasn't at least seen the movie with Julie Christy and Omar Shariff. There is a recent remake but I favor the old one.
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13 people found this helpful
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- PM
- 07-21-20
Intriguing insight on the true story of Lara
So beautifully written and organized with great deep first hand accounts of Pastrrnak's Nobel journey.
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3 people found this helpful
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- marjorie
- 05-29-22
Revealing
A deep and revealing background for those of us loving the romance and revolution that is Russia.
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- Angelo Parra
- 11-22-21
True story of the affair inspiring Dr Zhivago
Pasternak, granddaughter of Boris Pasternak's sister, has written a heartrending account of the politically embroiled, rollercoaster love affair between the acclaimed Russian poet, Boris Pasternak, and the self-less woman, Olga Ivinskaya, who inspired the character of Lara in Pasternak's classic novel, Doctor Zhivago. Revealing artistic rivalries, political persecution, global intrigue, tangled relationships, and the influence of CIA and Stalin, among other crushing elements, this account of the illicit, star-crossed romance is as suspenseful and affecting as any fiction could be.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Victor T. Foia
- 10-02-20
A perfectly written, incredible story
Anna Pasternak has succeeded in writing an account of Pasternak's love affair with Olga as captivating and suspenseful as "Doctor Zhivago" itself. As a former denizen of the Communist Block (Transylvania), Anna has made me relive many dark moments when fear of the secret police was a perpetual feeling.
I believe a movie based on this book could rival in popular appeal the movie that made Feltrinelli rich and Pasternak a household name.
Anna, you have delighted and surprised me. Your book has exceeded all my expectations. I am putting the other books you have written on my "read ASAP" list.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Merrilee R
- 02-20-17
EXCUSES EXCUSES
Would you try another book from Anna Pasternak and/or Antonia Beamish?
Read by Ms Beamish yes.
What was most disappointing about Anna Pasternak’s story?
When I first read DZ was enamored. Years later not impressed with artistic license to do as one pleases.
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
Disappointment. So much name dropping, The chronology was confusing.
Any additional comments?
Remember seeing movie with my mom & then 4 year old daughter. "Why is he sleeping with two ladies?" rang thruout the theater.
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3 people found this helpful