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On Division
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
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Publisher's summary
"A novel of wisdom and uncertainty, of love in its greater and lesser forms, and of the struggle between how it should be and how it is. It is impossible not to be moved." (Amy Bloom, author of White Houses)
"This book brings the reader into the heart of a close-knit Jewish family and their joys, loves, and sorrows.... A marvelous book by a masterful writer." (Audrey Niffenegger, author of Her Fearful Symmetry and The Time Traveler's Wife)
"As beautiful as it is unexpected." (Claire Messud, author of The Burning Girl)
Through one woman's life at a moment of surprising change, the award-winning author Goldie Goldbloom tells a deeply affecting, morally insightful story and offers a rare look inside Brooklyn's Chasidic community
In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, just a block or two up from the East River on Division Avenue, Surie Eckstein is soon to be a great-grandmother. Her 10 children range in age from 13 to 39. Her in-laws, postwar immigrants from Romania, live on the first floor of their house. Her daughter Tzila Ruchel lives on the second. She and Yidel, a scribe in such demand that he makes only a few Torah scrolls a year, live on the third. Wed when Surie was 16, they have a happy marriage and a full life, and, at the ages of 57 and 62, they are looking forward to some quiet time together.
Into this life of counted blessings comes a surprise. Surie is pregnant. Pregnant at 57. It is a shock. And at her age, at this stage, it is an aberration, a shift in the proper order of things, and a public display of private life. She feels exposed, ashamed. She is unable to share the news, even with her husband. And so for the first time in her life, she has a secret - a secret that slowly separates her from the community.
Goldie Goldbloom's On Division is an excavation of one woman's life, a story of awakening at middle age, and a thoughtful examination of the dynamics of self and collective identity. It is a steady-eyed look inside insular communities that also celebrates their comforts. It is a rare portrait of a long, happy marriage. And it is an unforgettable new novel from a writer whose imagination is matched only by the depth of her humanity.
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When Frankie’s mother died and her father left her and her siblings at an orphanage in Chicago, it was supposed to be only temporary - just long enough for him to get back on his feet and be able to provide for them once again. That’s why Frankie's not prepared for the day that he arrives for his weekend visit with a new woman on his arm and out-of-state train tickets in his pocket. Now, Frankie and her sister, Toni, are abandoned alongside so many other orphans - two young, unwanted women doing everything they can to survive.
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Boring, boring, boring
- By Marie J. on 08-20-21
By: Laura Ruby
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A Girl Is a Body of Water
- By: Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
- Narrated by: Tovah Ott
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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International award-winning author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s novel is a sweeping and powerful portrait of a young girl and her family: who they are, what history has taken from them, and - most importantly - how they find their way back to each other. In her thirteenth year, Kirabo confronts a piercing question that has haunted her childhood: who is my mother? Kirabo has been raised by women in the small Ugandan village of Nattetta - her grandmother, her best friend, and her many aunts - but the absence of her mother follows her like a shadow.
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African narrators for African novels!
- By Lynn on 04-24-21
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Black Sunday
- A Novel
- By: Tola Rotimi Abraham
- Narrated by: Liz Femi, Dele Ogundiran, Miebaka Yohannes, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Twin sisters Bibike and Ariyike are enjoying a relatively comfortable life in Lagos in 1996. Then their mother loses her job due to political strife, and the family, facing poverty, is drawn into the New Church, an institution led by a charismatic pastor who is not shy about worshipping earthly wealth. Soon Bibike and Ariyike's father wagers the family home on a sure bet that evaporates like smoke.
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Good Story - Awful accents
- By Tamara C-J on 02-15-21
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Pearl in a Cage
- By: Joy Dettman
- Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein
- Length: 20 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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On a balmy midsummer's evening in 1923, a young woman - foreign, dishevelled and heavily pregnant - is found unconscious just off the railway tracks in the tiny logging community of Woody Creek. The town midwife, Gertrude Foote, is roused from her bed when the woman is brought to her door. Try as she might, Gertrude is unable to save her, but the baby lives.
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Pearl in a Cage
- By Verita on 06-16-17
By: Joy Dettman
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I Couldn't Love You More
- A Novel
- By: Esther Freud
- Narrated by: Niamh Cusack
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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A sweeping story of three generations of women, crossing from London to Ireland and back again, and the enduring effort to retrieve the secrets of the past.
By: Esther Freud
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A Nail Through The Heart
- A Poke Rafferty Thriller
- By: Timothy Hallinan
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Poke Rafferty was writing offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored when Bangkok stole his heart. Now the American expat is assembling a new family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and Miaow, the tiny, streetwise urchin he wants to adopt. But trouble in the guise of good intentions comes calling just when everything is beginning to work out.
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Ever been to Bangkok?
- By Richard Delman on 12-11-11
By: Timothy Hallinan
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Tomorrow Will Be Better
- By: Betty Smith
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Tomorrow Will Be Better tells the story of Margy Shannon, a shy but joyfully optimistic young woman just out of school who lives with her parents and witnesses how a lifetime of hard work, poverty, and pain has worn them down. Her mother's resentment toward being a housewife and her father's inability to express his emotions result in a tense home life where Margy has no voice. Unable to speak up against her overbearing mother, Margy takes refuge in her dreams of a better life.
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Heartfelt and Heart-wrenchingly Real!
- By M. Ryder on 02-16-22
By: Betty Smith
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The Parisian
- By: Isabella Hammad
- Narrated by: Fiona Button
- Length: 20 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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A masterful debut novel by Plimpton Prize winner Isabella Hammad, The Parisian illuminates a pivotal period of Palestinian history through the journey and romances of one young man, from his studies in France during World War I to his return to Palestine at the dawn of its battle for independence.
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Overly ambitious
- By Placeholder on 06-16-19
By: Isabella Hammad
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The Puzzle Women
- By: Anna Ellory
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Berlin, 1989. Siblings Rune and Lotte are shaken awake by Mama and told to follow her quietly into the night. Last time they snuck away from Papa, with Mama bruised and broken, they were back within a week. But this time they are starting a new life, Mama says - where nobody can ever hurt them again. Ten years later, the memories of their escape are blurry; Mama is long gone, and the siblings are back at Papa’s house.
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Heartbreak to Joy
- By Jo Ann Roussey on 01-17-21
By: Anna Ellory
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The Third Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Talia Carner
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The turn of the 20th century finds 14-year-old Batya in the Russian countryside, fleeing with her family endless pogroms. Desperate, her father leaps at the opportunity to marry Batya to a worldly, wealthy stranger who can guarantee his daughter an easy life and passage to America. Feeling like a princess in a fairytale, Batya leaves her old life behind as she is whisked away to a new world. But soon, she discovers that she’s entered a waking nightmare. Her new “husband” does indeed bring her to America.
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brilliant novel based on shocking truth
- By Rochelle Jewel Shapiro on 07-05-20
By: Talia Carner
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Virgins of Paradise
- By: Barbara Wood
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 19 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Jasmine and Camelia Rasheed grow to womanhood under the watchful eye of their grandmother inside the walls surrounding a beautiful house on Virgins of Paradise Street in exotic Cairo. They come of age in society in which the subjugation of women is assumed - they must wear veils, are forbidden to leave the house, have no independent rights, and are circumcised to ensure purity and obedience.
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eye opening
- By C Ohana on 11-13-08
By: Barbara Wood
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The Latehomecomer
- A Hmong Family Memoir
- By: Kao Kalia Yang
- Narrated by: Kao Kalia Yang
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In the 70s and 80s, thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles of Laos to the overcrowded refugee camps of Thailand and onward to the United States, all in search of a new place to call home. Decades later, their experiences remain largely unknown. Kao Kalia Yang was driven to tell her own family's story after her grandmother’s death. The Latehomecomer is a tribute to that grandmother, a remarkable woman whose spirit held her family together.
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Great Hmong history, lousy literature
- By Isadore Ducasse on 10-12-18
By: Kao Kalia Yang
What listeners say about On Division
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Susannah 111
- 05-20-21
Insights into an Insular Community
I haven't ready many books about New York's Hasidic Jewish community where someone in the story isn't desperate to escape its constraints. Not so here. This one has a 57-year-old woman who is a mother, grandmother, and great grandmother and is happy with her lot. The fulcrum of the story is whether or not she will share a secret with her husband. I found it hard to believe that so many months would pass by without her spilling or him discovering it. Nonetheless, the story is a satisfying window into family life in this insular group.
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- TGA
- 07-21-20
A marvelous journey into the characters’ minds
A masterful depiction of a pious Chasidic woman conflicted—loving her life on the one hand and yet wanting more. The author does a wonderful job of bringing the reader on this journey of awakening and awareness.
A heartwarming, somewhat disturbing and deeply satisfying read.
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- Philharmonic
- 03-31-23
Beautiful Story!! Perfect Narration!!!
Love this book. it is a wonderful story. well worth the listen. I will prob buy a hard copy too.
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-06-23
Listen and learn
I was raised in the Satmar community and chose to leave it at a young age. I educated myself and flourished. The matters that are covered up and denied in the community are not an exaggeration and I do not wish to cast aspersions or point fingers at the Satmars. This type of mindset continues to flourish amongst the faithful and fanatic across many faiths and cultures. I chose to leave but have an understanding of the motives that continue to drive these communities. The author did a good job in trying to convey the layers of complexity of the Chassidishe life and either has a background as I do or did a lot of research.
For me though, the grossly mispronounced Hungarian and Yiddish words detracted greatly from the experience and I can’t help but wonder how the editors let this slide.
Yeedle was a “SOYFER”, a scribe. A “SHOYFER” is a rams horn that is blown on the Jewish New Year.
“DÉDANJU” the blind mother-in-law, should be pronounced “DAYDANYOO” and OPAH is German for grandfather. They weren’t German and they even alluded to the “Oberlanders” in the story and how different they were. “UPOO” is the diminutive pronunciation for grandfather, though he should have been called “DAYDUPOO” in alignment with the great-grandmother.
The reader kept calling one of the grandchildren “CHENYA” and I’m only guessing that the author was going for “HENYA” or “CHANCHE” (a form of Hannah) which are chassidishe names for girls.
The story took me down memory lane, both in a good and a bad way, and if the reader is not as critical as I am, it might help to illuminate the lifestyle of neighbors who live in our midst.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Dini
- 04-29-20
Authentic. Intriguing.
Very well written, and a great representation for REAL life situations in that community.
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- Lou Mandelman
- 10-19-23
The Irony of Love
Wonderful story about a Chassidic Orthodox Jewish woman going though menopause , and discovers she is pregnant at the age of 57 with twins ! She has the same midwife as she had when she was having all 10 of her children. Married to a Rabbi who did not consider pregnancy as to why she was getting so big. She does not tell him. She gets very involved in translating for the midwife instead.
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- Nancy Cohen-Vardy
- 01-20-21
outstanding
The performance was unbelievably professional and touching. This book is so we'll written, crafted lovingly.
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- Holly
- 03-14-22
Slow sweet story
A (bitter)sweet story about a middle aged Hasidic woman, her marriage, and her identity within the religious community she inhabits. The main character is slightly annoying but I sympathized with her plight and enjoyed learning more about the frum household.
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- L. W. LARSON
- 04-22-23
Interesting but not believable.
I really got into the story and enjoyed learning about the lifestyle and religious beliefs but the protagonist was frustrating and just not believable.
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- Becky Johnson
- 04-16-23
Beautiful Story
This is a love story. Real love stories are born through pain and the joy of true love endures and grows with age.
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1 person found this helpful