
Parasol Against the Axe
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Dorje Swallow
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By:
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Helen Oyeyemi
About this listen
ONE OF BIBLIOLIFESTYLE’S “BEST LITERARY FICTION OF 2024”
"A shape-shifting novel about the power of stories…Helen Oyeyemi is a literary pied piper—her voice is the kind that readers gamely follow into the most bewildering and unnerving of situations."–The New York Times
“A metatextual masterpiece.”—Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Oyeyemi writes here as an heir to Calvino or Borges…A dizzying, dazzling romp.”—Kirkus Reviews
The prize-winning, bestselling author of Peaces and Gingerbread returns with a novel about competitive friendship, the elastic boundaries of storytelling, and the meddling influence of a city called Prague
In Helen Oyeyemi’s joyous new novel, the Czech capital is a living thing—one that can let you in or spit you out.
For reasons of her own, Hero Tojosoa accepts an invitation she was half expected to decline, and finds herself in Prague on a bachelorette weekend hosted by her estranged friend Sofie. Little does she know she’s arrived in a city with a penchant for playing tricks on the unsuspecting. A book Hero has brought with her seems to be warping her mind: the text changes depending on when it’s being read and who’s doing the reading, revealing startling new stories of fictional Praguers past and present. Uninvited companions appear at bachelorette activities and at city landmarks, offering opinions, humor, and even a taste of treachery. When a third woman from Hero and Sofie’s past appears unexpectedly, the tensions between the friends’ different accounts of the past reach a new level.
An adventurous, kaleidoscopic novel, Parasol Against the Axe considers the lines between illusion and delusion, fact and interpretation, and weighs the risks of attaching too firmly to the stories of a place, or a person, or a shared history. How much is a tale influenced by its audience, or vice versa? And finally, in a battle between friends, is it better to be the parasol or the axe?
©2024 Helen Oyeyemi (P)2024 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
One of The BBC's “12 Best Books of 2024 so far”
“Delightfully weird.”—TIME
“An intimate, opulent portrait of Prague.”—The Washington Post
"Mind-bending. Parasol Against the Axe is a book about a physical place, the stories that make up that place, and the disembodied plane on which those stories and that place meet."—The Atlantic
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Story
Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body using a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth. However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she's found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warmhearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human
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Weird, but good
- By Kris Rudin on 12-08-24
By: John Wiswell
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The Island of Missing Trees
- A Novel
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Daphne Kouma, Amira Ghazalla
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof, and this tree bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings and eventually, to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish.
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WOW! What a great story and narration!
- By Marcy on 12-02-21
By: Elif Shafak
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The City We Became
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In Manhattan, a young grad student gets off the train and realizes he doesn't remember who he is, where he's from, or even his own name. But he can sense the beating heart of the city, see its history, and feel its power. In the Bronx, a Lenape gallery director discovers strange graffiti scattered throughout the city, so beautiful and powerful it's as if the paint is literally calling to her. In Brooklyn, a politician and mother finds she can hear the songs of her city, pulsing to the beat of her Louboutin heels.
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I don't understand the hype
- By Joe on 04-13-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
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Klara and the Sun
- A Novel
- By: Kazuo Ishiguro
- Narrated by: Sura Siu
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her. Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: What does it mean to love?
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Well Worth Having Waited For!
- By otherdeb on 03-04-21
By: Kazuo Ishiguro
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The Beautiful Bureaucrat
- A Novel
- By: Helen Phillips
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In a windowless building in a remote part of town, the newly employed Josephine inputs an endless string of numbers into something known only as The Database. After a long period of joblessness, she's not inclined to question her fortune, but as the days inch by and the files stack up, Josephine feels increasingly anxious in her surroundings - the office's scarred, pinkish walls take on a living quality, the drone of keyboards echo eerily down the long halls.
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Helen Philips is Kafka strolling through Night Vale
- By vurnt22 on 04-29-16
By: Helen Phillips
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Grendel
- By: John Gardner
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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This classic and much lauded retelling of Beowulf follows the monster Grendel as he learns about humans and fights the war at the center of the Anglo Saxon classic epic.
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Unselfconscious, powerful narration.
- By Stephanie on 01-12-10
By: John Gardner
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Annie Bot
- A Novel
- By: Sierra Greer
- Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the pert outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she’s not the greatest at keeping Doug’s place spotless, but she’s trying to please him. She’s trying hard.
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Good, but not great
- By Katie Ramey on 03-25-24
By: Sierra Greer
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Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
- By: Haruki Murakami
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Across two parallel narratives, Murakami draws listeners into a mind-bending universe in which Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, a split-brained data processor, a deranged scientist, his shockingly undemure granddaughter, and various thugs, librarians, and subterranean monsters collide to dazzling effect. What emerges is a novel that is at once hilariously funny and a deeply serious meditation on the nature and uses of the mind.
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Highly recommend
- By Amazon Customer on 07-23-18
By: Haruki Murakami
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Watership Down
- By: Richard Adams
- Narrated by: Peter Capaldi
- Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Fiver could sense danger. Something terrible was going to happen to the warren; he felt sure of it. They had to leave immediately. So begins a long and perilous journey of survival for a small band of rabbits. As the rabbits skirt danger at every turn, we become acquainted with the band, its humorous characters, and its compelling culture, complete with its own folk history and mythos. Fiver’s vision finally leads them to Watership Down, an upland meadow. But here they face their most difficult challenges of all.
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Capaldi is FANTASTIC; tech editing, not as much
- By Becca on 05-19-19
By: Richard Adams
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The Art of Racing in the Rain
- By: Garth Stein
- Narrated by: Christopher Evan Welch
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The New York Times best-selling novel from Garth Stein - a heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope - a captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life...as only a dog could tell it.
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5 out of 3000
- By Roger on 02-23-10
By: Garth Stein
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The Book of Doors
- A Novel
- By: Gareth Brown
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers—a lonely yet charming old man—dies right in front of her. Cassie is devastated. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading. But this is no ordinary book… It is the Book of Doors. Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them.
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So good! I see a series!
- By Smith on 03-11-24
By: Gareth Brown
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Piranesi
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has. In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.
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Fascinating Social Study
- By Henry V on 02-26-21
By: Susanna Clarke
As a narrator, Dorje Swallow is exceptional. So many characters to handle, which he did with perfectly distinct voices, not to mention handling Czech. I'm already looking for other books he performs.
I listened to it twice in immediate succession, and I'm glad I did. I was able to fall more freely into the second reading, and my linear brain could be told to wait on the sofa til I was done. Maybe not my very favorite of Oyeyemi's novels (some hit right at the right time), but a joy nonetheless, and I will listen again. Recommended for people who embrace surrealism, playfulness, fluidity, narrative acrobatics, and phrases that sparkle like gemstones, and narration that is nothing short of bewitching.
A surrealist chocolate box of delights
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Amazing concept for a book
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Narrator’s Czech accent sounds like a low budget Dracula
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