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Light Perpetual
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
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Publisher's summary
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, NPR, Slate, Lit Hub, Fresh Air, and more
A New York Times Notable Book
From the critically acclaimed and award‑winning author of Golden Hill, an “extraordinary … symphonic … casually stunning” (The Wall Street Journal) novel tracing the infinite possibilities of five lives in the bustling neighborhoods of 20th-century London.
Lunchtime on a Saturday, 1944: The Woolworths on Bexford High Street in South London receives a delivery of aluminum saucepans. A crowd gathers to see the first new metal in ages - after all, everything’s been melted down for the war effort. An instant later, the crowd is gone; incinerated. Among the shoppers were five young children.
Who were they? What futures did they lose? This brilliantly constructed novel, inspired by real events, lets an alternative reel of time run, imagining the lives of these five souls as they live through the extraordinary, unimaginable changes of the bustling immensity of 20th-century London. Their intimate everyday dramas, as sons and daughters, spouses, parents, grandparents; as the separated, the remarried, the bereaved. Through decades of social, sexual, and technological transformation, as bus conductors and landlords, as swindlers and teachers, patients and inmates. Days of personal triumphs and disasters; of second chances and redemption.
Ingenious and profound, full of warmth and beauty, Light Perpetual “offers a moving view of how people confront the gap between their expectations and their reality” (The New Yorker) and illuminates the shapes of experience, the extraordinariness of the ordinary, the mysteries of memory, and the preciousness of life.
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Story
The spectacular first novel from acclaimed nonfiction author Francis Spufford follows the adventures of a mysterious young man in mid-18th century Manhattan, 30 years before the American Revolution.
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So Much Potential But A Failure Of Execution
- By Sara on 12-01-17
By: Francis Spufford
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Cahokia Jazz
- By: Francis Spufford
- Narrated by: Andy Ingalls
- Length: 15 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Like his earlier novel Golden Hill, Francis Spufford’s Cahokia Jazz inhabits a different version of America, now through the lens of a subtly altered 1920s—a fully imagined world filled with fog, cigarette smoke, dubious motives, danger, and dark deeds. In the main character of hard-boiled detective Joe Barrow, we have a hero of truly epic proportions, a troubled soul to fall in love with as you are swept along by a propulsive and brilliantly twisty plot.
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There’s a third alt-hist noir thriller!
- By Rebbe Don Justino on 03-12-24
By: Francis Spufford
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Neverhome
- A Novel
- By: Laird Hunt
- Narrated by: Mary Stuart Masterson
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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She calls herself Ash, but that's not her real name. She is a farmer's faithful wife, but she has left her husband to don the uniform of a Union soldier in the Civil War. Neverhome tells the harrowing story of Ash Thompson during the battle for the South. Through bloodshed and hysteria and heartbreak, she becomes a hero, a folk legend, a madwoman and a traitor to the American cause.
Laird Hunt's dazzling new novel throws a light on the adventurous women who chose to fight instead of stay behind.
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Good but Not Flawless
- By Cariola on 12-16-15
By: Laird Hunt
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Red Plenty
- By: Francis Spufford
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Strange as it may seem, the gray, oppressive USSR was founded on a fairy tale. It was built on the 20th-century magic called "the planned economy," which was going to gush forth an abundance of good things that the lands of capitalism could never match. And just for a little while, in the heady years of the late 1950s, the magic seemed to be working. Red Plenty is about that moment in history, and how it came, and how it went away. Red Plenty is history, it's fiction, it's as ambitious as Sputnik, and as uncompromising as an Aeroflot flight attendant.
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Simple review
- By Jay J Peters on 06-24-18
By: Francis Spufford
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Super Sad True Love Story
- A Novel
- By: Gary Shteyngart
- Narrated by: Ali Ahn, Adam Grupper
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, creates a compelling reality in this tale about an illiterate America in the not-too-distant future. Lenny Abramov may just be penning the world’s last diary. Which is good, because while falling in love with a rather unpleasant woman and witnessing the fall of a great empire, Lenny has a lot to write about.
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Dystopia Now
- By Ryan on 09-19-10
By: Gary Shteyngart
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The Russian Debutante’s Handbook
- By: Gary Shteyngart
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Best-selling author Gary Shteyngart’s exquisite fiction is met with a level of critical acclaim reserved for the very best in the field. In this startlingly provocative work, Russian immigrant Vladimir Girshkin searches for love and self-identity while interacting with a quirky set of acquaintances.
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Don't Let the Title Fool You
- By Loretta R. Cooper on 01-24-14
By: Gary Shteyngart
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Golden Hill
- A Novel of Old New York
- By: Francis Spufford
- Narrated by: Sarah Borges
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The spectacular first novel from acclaimed nonfiction author Francis Spufford follows the adventures of a mysterious young man in mid-18th century Manhattan, 30 years before the American Revolution.
-
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So Much Potential But A Failure Of Execution
- By Sara on 12-01-17
By: Francis Spufford
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Cahokia Jazz
- By: Francis Spufford
- Narrated by: Andy Ingalls
- Length: 15 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Like his earlier novel Golden Hill, Francis Spufford’s Cahokia Jazz inhabits a different version of America, now through the lens of a subtly altered 1920s—a fully imagined world filled with fog, cigarette smoke, dubious motives, danger, and dark deeds. In the main character of hard-boiled detective Joe Barrow, we have a hero of truly epic proportions, a troubled soul to fall in love with as you are swept along by a propulsive and brilliantly twisty plot.
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There’s a third alt-hist noir thriller!
- By Rebbe Don Justino on 03-12-24
By: Francis Spufford
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Neverhome
- A Novel
- By: Laird Hunt
- Narrated by: Mary Stuart Masterson
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
She calls herself Ash, but that's not her real name. She is a farmer's faithful wife, but she has left her husband to don the uniform of a Union soldier in the Civil War. Neverhome tells the harrowing story of Ash Thompson during the battle for the South. Through bloodshed and hysteria and heartbreak, she becomes a hero, a folk legend, a madwoman and a traitor to the American cause.
Laird Hunt's dazzling new novel throws a light on the adventurous women who chose to fight instead of stay behind.
-
-
Good but Not Flawless
- By Cariola on 12-16-15
By: Laird Hunt
-
Red Plenty
- By: Francis Spufford
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Strange as it may seem, the gray, oppressive USSR was founded on a fairy tale. It was built on the 20th-century magic called "the planned economy," which was going to gush forth an abundance of good things that the lands of capitalism could never match. And just for a little while, in the heady years of the late 1950s, the magic seemed to be working. Red Plenty is about that moment in history, and how it came, and how it went away. Red Plenty is history, it's fiction, it's as ambitious as Sputnik, and as uncompromising as an Aeroflot flight attendant.
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Simple review
- By Jay J Peters on 06-24-18
By: Francis Spufford
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Super Sad True Love Story
- A Novel
- By: Gary Shteyngart
- Narrated by: Ali Ahn, Adam Grupper
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, creates a compelling reality in this tale about an illiterate America in the not-too-distant future. Lenny Abramov may just be penning the world’s last diary. Which is good, because while falling in love with a rather unpleasant woman and witnessing the fall of a great empire, Lenny has a lot to write about.
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Dystopia Now
- By Ryan on 09-19-10
By: Gary Shteyngart
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The Russian Debutante’s Handbook
- By: Gary Shteyngart
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Gary Shteyngart’s exquisite fiction is met with a level of critical acclaim reserved for the very best in the field. In this startlingly provocative work, Russian immigrant Vladimir Girshkin searches for love and self-identity while interacting with a quirky set of acquaintances.
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Don't Let the Title Fool You
- By Loretta R. Cooper on 01-24-14
By: Gary Shteyngart
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Cold Enough for Snow
- By: Jessica Au
- Narrated by: Angela Lin
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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A mother and daughter travel from abroad to meet in Tokyo. They walk along the canals through the autumn evenings, escape the typhoon rains, share meals in small cafes and restaurants, and visit galleries to see some of the city’s most radical modern art. All the while, they talk: about the weather, horoscopes, clothes, and objects, about family, distance, and memory. But uncertainties abound. Who is really speaking here - is it only the daughter? And what is the real reason behind this elliptical, perhaps even spectral journey?
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Great audio!!
- By David on 12-18-22
By: Jessica Au
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Nocturnes
- Five Stories of Music and Nightfall
- By: Kazuo Ishiguro
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall, Kirby Heyborne, Lincoln Hoppe, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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An exploration of love, need, and the ineluctable force of the past, Nocturnes reveals these individuals to us with extraordinary precision and subtlety, and with the arresting psychological and emotional detail that has marked all of Kazuo Ishiguro's acclaimed works of fiction.
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Wow!
- By Rebecca Lindroos on 11-29-09
By: Kazuo Ishiguro
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The Luminaries
- By: Eleanor Catton
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 29 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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It is 1866 and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of 12 local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky.
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Not So Luminous
- By Mel on 11-10-13
By: Eleanor Catton
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Night Boat to Tangier
- A Novel
- By: Kevin Barry
- Narrated by: Kevin Barry
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In the dark waiting room of the ferry terminal in the sketchy Spanish port of Algeciras, two aging Irishmen - Maurice Hearne and Charlie Redmond, longtime partners in the lucrative and dangerous enterprise of smuggling drugs - sit at night, none too patiently. It is October 23, 2018, and they are expecting Maurice's estranged daughter, Dilly, to either arrive on a boat coming from Tangier or depart on one heading there. This nocturnal vigil will initiate an extraordinary journey back in time to excavate their shared history of violence, romance, mutual betrayals, and serial exiles.
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Two Spooky Guys Waiting…
- By David on 12-06-19
By: Kevin Barry
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American War
- A Novel
- By: Omar El Akkad
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, that unmanned drones fill the sky. And when her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she quickly begins to be shaped by her particular time and place until, finally, through the influence of a mysterious functionary, she is turned into a deadly instrument of war.
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Best listen in years
- By odin on 04-08-17
By: Omar El Akkad
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Specimen Days
- By: Michael Cunningham
- Narrated by: Alan Cumming
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In each section of Michael Cunningham's new book, we encounter the same group of characters: a young boy, an older man, and a young woman. "In the Machine" is a ghost story which takes place at the height of the Industrial Revolution, as human beings confront the alienated realities of the new machine age. "The Children's Crusade," set in the early twenty-first century, plays with the conventions of the noir thriller as it tracks the pursuit of a terrorist band which is detonating bombs seemingly at random around the city.
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Hit and miss.
- By Matthew on 07-26-05
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Veronica
- By: Mary Gaitskill
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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As a teenager on the streets of San Francisco, Alison is discovered by a photographer and swept into the world of fashion-modeling in Paris and Rome. When her career crashes and a love affair ends disastrously, she moves to New York City to build a new life. There she meets Veronica: an older wisecracking eccentric with her own ideas about style, a proofreader who comes to work with a personal "office kit" and a plaque that reads "Still Anal After All These Years".
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Everything is baroque-en
- By Eric on 12-14-06
By: Mary Gaitskill
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The Savage Detectives
- A Novel
- By: Roberto Bolaño
- Narrated by: Eddie Lopez, Armando Durán
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The late Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño has been called the García Marquez of his generation. The Savage Detectives is a hilarious and sexy, meandering and melancholy, companionable and complicated road trip through Mexico City, Barcelona, Israel, Liberia, and finally the desert of northern Mexico. It is the first of Bolaño's two giant works, with 2666, to be translated into English and is already being hailed as a masterpiece.
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Bolaño Poetic Gyre
- By Darwin8u on 11-14-14
By: Roberto Bolaño
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Random Family
- Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
- By: Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
- Narrated by: Roxana Ortega
- Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
In her extraordinary best seller, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immerses listeners in the intricacies of the ghetto, revealing the true sagas lurking behind the headlines of gangsta glamour, gold-drenched drug dealers, and street-corner society. Focusing on two romances - Jessica's dizzying infatuation with a hugely successful young heroin dealer, Boy George; and Coco's first love with Jessica's little brother, Cesar - Random Family is the story of young people trying to outrun their destinies.
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Speechless
- By Amazon Customer on 09-02-19
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We the Animals
- By: Justin Torres
- Narrated by: Frankie J. Alvarez
- Length: 3 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Three brothers tear their way through childhood—smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn—he’s Puerto Rican, she’s white—and their love is a serious, dangerous thing that makes and unmakes a family many times.
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I want my credit back!
- By Van Gilder on 09-02-11
By: Justin Torres
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Austerlitz
- By: W. G. Sebald
- Narrated by: Richard Matthews
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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A small child when he comes to England on a Kindertransport in the summer of 1939, Jacques Austerlitz is told nothing of his real family by the Welsh Methodist minister and his wife who raise him. When he is a much older man, fleeting memories return to him, and obeying an instinct he only dimly understands, Austerlitz follows their trail back to the world he left behind a half century before. There, faced with the void at the heart of twentieth-century Europe, he struggles to rescue his heritage from oblivion.
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To each their own
- By Sebastian Romero on 04-23-20
By: W. G. Sebald
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A Mercy
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Jacob is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh north. Despite his distaste for dealing in "flesh," he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, "with the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady." Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, but later from a handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved.
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Great book
- By Pablo Tebas on 01-18-09
By: Toni Morrison
What listeners say about Light Perpetual
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ben Utter
- 06-18-21
Transcendently written and brilliantly performed.
This is one of those novels that manages to contain the world. Come for the sumptuous sentences; stay for the beautiful exploration of redemption.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Stephan Schier
- 12-19-22
Rich with detail and deeper meaning
Wonderful. Beautifully written and perfectly performed. The opening scene is tremendous and the rest does not disappoint.
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- M F.
- 08-23-21
Superlatives only
I can’t say enough good things about this miraculous book. It is a masterpiece. The narrator of this recording is probably the best I’ve ever heard, too. Thank you for a transcendent experience.
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5 people found this helpful
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- klstickel
- 06-05-21
Outstanding... breathtaking
This is such exemplary, transporting work, as a story and series of stories, and in performance. Of the hundreds of books I’ve read & heard in the past several years, this clearly stands out.
The vast array of voices and moods performed by Imogen Church is unsurpassable - I’ve never heard a better narration.
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15 people found this helpful
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- Thomas Mierzwinski
- 01-10-22
Prose poetry
The language was beautiful and evocative. Poetic and powerful. The characters and their lives were well drawn. The main premise and promise of the novel, however, imagining the lives that might have been of children killed in a London bombing, felt unfulfilled to me. There was no tie to the beginning at the end of the book. The story was left dangling.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Autodidact
- 08-24-21
deep and beautiful
At the beginning, I had trouble concentrating on the lives described, in their stunning intricacy, as I continued remembering...they died; these lives never happened. Finally, I was able to give in to the ineluctible weave of this master storyteller's tale.
This is a remarkable achievement and a memorable reading experience. Thank you, Frances Spofford.
Brilliant.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 03-02-24
Brilliant narration
Such a magnificent ode to hope, full of futures, pasts spawned by and ending in dust. Never read anything comparable.
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- cameron
- 09-17-24
A great novel
the voice performance was excellent, and the story was very well written. A really fascinating perspective on the journey through life.
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- gail
- 08-22-21
Wonderful reader
The reader is wonderful. She breathed a spirit into the book that I think would have been missing from the printed word. On the other hand, it might have been easier to keep track on the characters and the jumps in time in a print edition.
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3 people found this helpful
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- D
- 03-11-22
Best Narrator!
The writing was BEAUTIFUL, descriptive and soaring, quiet and sweet. The narrator, Imogen Church, is one of the best I’ve ever heard: she voiced characters from a two year old toddler to a vicious skinhead, used timing and volume perfectly—just wonderful.
The story itself didn’t grab me, though, I didn’t get to know most of the characters; I liked some, didn’t care about others. I will try more of her books, though, just for the superb writing
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1 person found this helpful