
Paradise
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Narrated by:
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Chukwudi Iwuji
About this listen
From the Nobel Prize winner, a coming-of-age story that illuminates the harshness and beauty of an Africa on the brink of colonization
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award, Paradise was characterized by the Nobel Prize committee as Abdulrazak Gurnah’s “breakthrough” work. It is at once the chronicle of an African boy’s coming-of-age, a tragic love story, and a tale of the corruption of African tradition by European colonialism.
Sold by his father in repayment of a debt, twelve-year-old Yusuf is thrown from his simple rural life into complexities of pre-colonial urban East Africa. Through Yusuf’s eyes, Gurnah depicts communities at war, trading safaris gone awry, and the universal trials of adolescence. The result is what Publishers Weekly calls a “vibrant” and “powerful” work that “evokes the Edenic natural beauty of a continent on the verge of full-scale imperialist takeover.”
©2023 Abdulrazak Gurnah (P)2023 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
He thinks, as he escapes from Zanzibar, that he will probably never return, and yet the dream of studying in England matters above that. Things do not happen quite as he imagined—the school where he teaches is cramped and violent, he forgets how it feels to belong. But there is Emma, beautiful, rebellious Emma, who turns away from her white, middle-class roots to offer him love and bear him a child. And in return, he spins stories of his home and keeps her a secret from his family. Twenty years later, the barriers come down in Zanzibar and he is able and compelled to go back.
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WOW. Fantastic book; perfect narrator
- By MAJ_lawyer on 05-01-23
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The Years
- By: Annie Ernaux
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The Years is a personal narrative of the period of 1941 to 2006 told through the lens of memory, impressions past and present - even projections into the future - photos, books, songs, radio, television, and decades of advertising and headlines, contrasted with intimate conflicts and written notes from six decades of diaries. Local dialect, words of the time, slogans, brands, and names for ever-proliferating objects are given a voice here. The voice we recognize as the author's continually dissolves and re-emerges.
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Mixed Feelings
- By Elin VanD on 05-10-20
By: Annie Ernaux
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Fifty Words for Rain
- A Novel
- By: Asha Lemmie
- Narrated by: Robin Eller, Siho Ellsmore, Katharine Lee McEwan, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The child of a married Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Her grandparents take her in, only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life, despite her natural intellect and curiosity.
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Transformation of a bastered girl with Blue blood
- By Emiko Sugita Deri on 10-11-20
By: Asha Lemmie
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Anna Karenina
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Length: 35 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Leo Tolstoy's classic story of doomed love is one of the most admired novels in world literature. Generations of readers have been enthralled by his magnificent heroine, the unhappily married Anna Karenina, and her tragic affair with dashing Count Vronsky.
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Need to Disclose and Highlight Name of Translator
- By Charles B on 08-27-18
By: Leo Tolstoy
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The Paris Express
- By: Emma Donoghue
- Narrated by: Justin Avoth
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on an 1895 disaster that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs, The Paris Express is a propulsive novel set on a train packed with a fascinating cast of characters who hail from as close as Brittany and as far as Russia, Ireland, Algeria, Pennsylvania, and Cambodia.
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Outstanding narrator
- By Amazon Customer on 03-19-25
By: Emma Donoghue
What listeners say about Paradise
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Michael B. Horn
- 04-26-25
beautifully narrated
A vivid story seeking an anchor but so well told. I enjoyed this immensely.
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- albita
- 11-15-23
Interesting
I’m part of a book club and this book was suggested to me. I really like it. The detail story takes you all the way to Tanzania and let you explore and live there showing you that culture and history. Excellent sound and voice.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Nzingha
- 03-08-24
East African pre-colonual history from the inside out
Several European countries plus Greek, Indian & Arabs traders all plot to steal the riches of the country that becomes Tranzania. Gurnah is a skillful writer who when he describes a terrible oder, you smell it. When he describes a beautiful scenic settings, you can see it. Paradise is both paradise and hell simultaneously. This is one beautiful and distribing read, will worth your time and effort.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Pamela J Blair
- 03-22-24
Beautiful book
Gurnah’s writing is superb. His description of the caravan and where it went was so realistic I felt I was on the journey. The end was sad and hopeful at the same time.
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