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Song of a Captive Bird
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
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Publisher's summary
Los Angeles Times best seller
A spellbinding debut novel about the trailblazing Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad, who defied society's expectations to find her voice and her destiny
"A complex and beautiful rendering of [a] vanished country and its scattered people, a reminder of the power and purpose of art, and an ode to female creativity under a patriarchy that repeatedly tries to snuff it out." [The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)]
All through her childhood in Tehran, Forugh Farrokhzad is told that Persian daughters should be quiet and modest. She is taught only to obey, but she always finds ways to rebel - gossiping with her sister among the fragrant roses of her mother's walled garden, venturing to the forbidden rooftop to roughhouse with her three brothers, writing poems to impress her strict, disapproving father, and sneaking out to flirt with a teenage paramour over café glacé. During the summer of 1950, Forugh's passion for poetry takes flight - and tradition seeks to clip her wings.
Forced into a suffocating marriage, Forugh runs away and falls into an affair that fuels her desire to write and to achieve freedom and independence. Forugh's poems are considered both scandalous and brilliant; she is heralded by some as a national treasure, vilified by others as a demon influenced by the West. She perseveres, finding love with a notorious filmmaker and living by her own rules - at enormous cost. But the power of her writing only grows stronger amid the upheaval of the Iranian revolution.
Inspired by Forugh Farrokhzad's verse, letters, films, and interviews - and including original translations of her poems - this haunting novel uses the lens of fiction to capture the tenacity, spirit, and conflicting desires of a brave woman who represents the birth of feminism in Iran - and who continues to inspire generations of women around the world.
Praise for Song of a Captive Bird:
"Forugh Farrokhzad's short life brimmed with controversy and rebellion.... This feminist icon inspired Darznik's imaginative debut." (Ms.)
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Critic reviews
“If poetry is emotion rendered incendiary, then Forugh Farrokhzad was made of fire.... Song of a Captive Bird is an unsparing account of the necessity and consequences of speaking out.” (BookPage)
“Sumptuously captures a fierce and turbulent life, as well as a vanished country swept away by revolution.” (Newsweek)
“A stunning and powerful debut... At a time when our country is at war with art and women, this courageous book is required reading.” (Bret Anthony Johnston, author of Remember Me Like This)
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Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long lost letter arrives one Sunday afternoon with the return address of Milderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on its envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mother’s emotional distance masks an old secret.
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Right Mood At The Right Time
- By Simone on 11-13-12
By: Kate Morton
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Mr. Fox
- A Novel
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Carol Boyd
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding and the fairy tales don't get complicated. In this book, celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently....
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A Great Novel, just Poor for Audio
- By James A. Dittes on 08-13-16
By: Helen Oyeyemi
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The Ambassador's Daughter
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Brought to the peace conference by her father, a German diplomat, Margot Rosenthal initially resents being trapped in the congested French capital, where she is still looked upon as the enemy. But as she contemplates returning to Berlin and a life with Stefan, the wounded fiancé she hardly knows anymore, she decides that being in Paris is not so bad after all. Bored and torn between duty and the desire to be free, Margot strikes up unlikely alliances: with Krysia, an accomplished musician with radical acquaintances and a secret to protect; and with Georg, the handsome, damaged naval officer who gives Margot a job.
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Book 0 in the series
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Secrets of Nanreath Hall
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- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
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Cornwall, 1940. Back in England after the harrowing evacuation at Dunkirk, WWII Red Cross nurse Anna Trenowyth is shocked to learn her adoptive parents, Graham and Prue Handley, have been killed in an air raid. She desperately needs their advice, as she's been assigned to the military hospital that has set up camp inside her biological mother's childhood home - Nanreath Hall. Anna was just six years old when her mother, Lady Katherine Trenowyth, died. All she has left are vague memories that tease her with clues she can't unravel.
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Well done both narrators and Author !
- By Andover Meadow on 09-17-16
By: Alix Rickloff
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Lost Among the Living
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- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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England, 1921. Three years after her husband, Alex, disappeared, shot down over Germany, Jo Manders still mourns his loss. Working as a paid companion to Alex's wealthy, condescending aunt, Dottie Forsyth, Jo travels to Wych Elm House, the family's estate in the Sussex countryside. But there is much she never knew about her husband's origins...and the revelation of a mysterious death in the Forsyths' past is just the beginning.
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Interesting Story
- By Isobel on 05-07-16
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The Luxe
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Beautiful sisters Elizabeth and Diana Holland rule Manhattan's social scene. Or so it appears. When the girls discover their status among New York City's elite is far from secure, suddenly everyone from the backstabbing socialite Penelope Hayes, to the debonair bachelor Henry Schoonmaker, to the spiteful maid Lina Broud threatens Elizabeth's and Diana's golden future. With the fate of the Hollands resting on her shoulders, Elizabeth must choose between family duty and true love.
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Good story, but. . .
- By Shellra on 05-17-09
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The Gods of Tango
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February 1913: seventeen-year-old Leda, carrying only a small trunk and her father's cherished violin, leaves her Italian village for a new home, and a new husband, in Argentina. Arriving in Buenos Aires, she discovers that he has been killed, but she remains: living in a tenement, without friends or family, on the brink of destitution. Still, she is seduced by the music that underscores life in the city: tango, born from lower-class immigrant voices, now the illicit, scandalous dance of brothels and cabarets.
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A rousing tale
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The House Girl
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The year is 2004: Lina Sparrow is an ambitious young lawyer working on a historic class-action lawsuit seeking reparations for the descendants of American slaves. The year is 1852: Josephine is a 17-year-old house slave who tends to the mistress of a Virginia tobacco farm - an aspiring artist named Lu Anne Bell. It is through her father, renowned artist Oscar Sparrow, that Lina discovers a controversy rocking the art world: Art historians now suspect that the revered paintings of Lu Anne Bell, an antebellum artist known for her humanizing portraits of the slaves who worked her Virginia tobacco farm, were actually the work of her house slave, Josephine.
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Disappointing
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The Vine of Desire
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Anju and Sudha formed an astounding, almost psychic connection during their childhood in India. When Anju invites Sudha, a single mother in Calcutta, to come live with her and her husband, Sunil, in California, Sudha foolishly accepts, knowing full well that Sunil has long desired her. As Sunil's attraction rises to the surface, the trio must struggle to make sense of the freedoms of America - and of the ties that bind them to India and to one another.
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Vine of desire
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The Forgotten Room
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- Unabridged
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It's 1945: When the critically wounded Captain Cooper Ravenal is brought to a private hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side, young Dr. Kate Schuyler is drawn into a complex mystery that connects three generations of women in her family to a single extraordinary room in a Gilded Age mansion. Who is the woman in Captain Ravenel's portrait miniature who looks so much like Kate? And why is she wearing the ruby pendant handed down to Kate by her mother?
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The same story 3 times over...
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Wildest Dreams
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Joletta Caresse's beloved grandmother dies, taking with her the secret to the formula of a legendary perfume that is now the most sought-after perfume on the market. Joletta tries to track down the formula through journals written by her ancestress, Violet Fossier, who in 1854 made a grand tour of Europe. As Joletta follows Violet's itinerary across the continent, the story goes back in time, to 19th-century Europe and a scandalous love affair that is intimately bound up in the mystery of the perfume.
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Made me cry
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Silver Wattle
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In fear for their lives after the sudden death of their mother, Adéla and Klára must flee Prague to find refuge with their uncle in Australia. Later, Adéla becomes a film director at a time when the local industry is starting to feel the competition from Hollywood. But even while success is imminent, the issues of family and an impossible love are never far away.
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Groan, Snore and Wince!
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Jerusalem Maiden
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- Unabridged
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In the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, a young Orthodox Jewish woman in the holy city of Jerusalem is expected to marry and produce many sons to help hasten the Messiah's arrival. While the feisty Esther Kaminsky understands her obligations, her artistic talent inspires her to secretly explore worlds outside her religion, to dream of studying in Paris - and to believe that God has a special destiny for her. When tragedy strikes her family, Esther views it as a warning from an angry God....
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No dreaming, No painting, No thinking . . .
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What listeners say about Song of a Captive Bird
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 12-06-22
Excellent!
Beautifully written, as beautiful as the poetesses poems. so much compassion and warmth. I highly recommend the book.
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- Karen Lutsky
- 10-02-18
A woman we should all know about
In light of the persecution of women in many places in the world, the experiences of Forugh Farrokhzad, although well researched but fictionalized in this novel, was sad and inspiring. I was unfamiliar with her poetry and her struggles to be free prior to reading the novel. I'm so glad I spent time learning more about her. This book was well written.
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- Mojgan
- 01-08-23
Thank you
Thank you very much Jasmine for great writing and Mozhan for great narration. Looking forward to more from you both
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- Louis Bernstein
- 06-28-20
Great book.
This was an outstanding book. Really moving and so well written. I went through it in about three days. Couldn't stop.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mani
- 06-03-18
Captivating
I was mesmerized by this book; at times a biography; at times a novel; always respectful of the legacy of Forough Farrokhzad. I was unaware of most of the story, having moved to Iran at the young age of two in 1964. We lived in the small oil town of Masjid-I-Sulayman until we moved to Tehran in 1968, after Forough’s death. I had met the author Jasmin in Northern CA at a conference for Iranian Women. That’s where I bought the hardcover book, to support a fellow artistic Iranian-American woman (I’m a female Iranian-American architect). Now after hearing the audible book, I have such a tremendous understanding of our home country, the limitations under which Forough was raised, the reasons for her rebellion and the impact she left on the future generations of women; not only for her poetry and films, but mostly from this book, I truly understood the woman Forough. The narrator was very familiar with Persian terminology and kept a steady voice throughout, whether reading about a passionate love scene, a scary encounter, a heart wrenching moment or a confused mind. Even though I grew up in Iran for 15 years of my life, there’s so much I didn’t know until I read this book. Thank you Jasmin for opening our hearts by sharing this daring story with us.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Liezel du Plessis
- 07-25-21
Worth it
I couldn't stop listening. Such a rich and beautiful piece of historical fiction! One of my favorite books so far this year!
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- Lisa H.
- 05-09-18
A Mesmerizing Story
Song of a Captive Bird
Jasmin Darznik
A mesmerizing story of a brave woman seeking the freedom and independence to write heartfelt and brilliant poetry
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
SUMMARY
Song of a Captive Bird is a fictional account of Iran’s most infamous and iconic woman poet, Forugh Farrokhzad. She was a literary sensation, and acclaimed filmmaker, who was both loved and hated within her country. A country she loved and would never leave. The book follows her turbulent life, from her controlled and abusive childhood, though her oppressive teenage marriage, the birth of her son, her passionate literary career, her affairs of the heart and her death in a car crash in 1967. Forugh came of age in the 1940’s and 1950’s, at a time of upheaval in Iranian history.
The novels opens one morning, with her mother forcing a bruised and battered Forugh to a clinic in the poorest and dirtiest district of Tehran, the bottom of the city, for a virginity test. It’s an experience which leaves the sixteen-year-old Forugh shaken and forever changed. ‘It was the end of her girlhood and the true beginning of her life’. She begins writing poetry to capture her father’s attention, who at first is amused by his daughters efforts. But as Forugh continues writing her black-eyed father withdraws his support, and he marries her off to Parviz, who rejects her on their wedding night. She is unhappy in the marriage, and in living under the roof of her domineering mother-in-law. Shortly after her son is born she sneaks back to Tehran in an naive effort to have her sensuous poetry published. Her first poem “Sin” is published under her own name, which set off an avalanche of life altering events.
“When I left my father and then my husband I lost my name and I was no one. But there was freedom in this, to be a woman on my own, it made me strong and it made me the poet I wanted to be. I knew many poets whose lives have nothing to do with their poetry. They were only poets when they sat down to write. They would finish a poem and then turn back into greedy, shortsighted, miserable, envious people. Well I could never believe in their poetry because I could never believe in them.”
REVIEW
Forugh’s character was so well-developed that you can’t help but have empathy for her. You could feel the pain from her father’s kicks, you can feel her dank and sweaty sheets in the hospital, and you could feel her heart racing as she ran from the machine gun spray. This story of Forugh’s quest for independence is both breathtaking and admirable. The writing is beautifully lyrical and captivatingly descriptive. It is a breathless ride that skillfully transports us not only through the story, but specifically to that time in history, and to a house in Tehran with a garden full of lush roses, jasmine, honeysuckle, and dahlia blossoms.
Lovers of feminist, literary and historical fiction will appreciate this book about a female poet whose name in Persian means ‘eternal light.’ The author, Jasmin Darznik used Forugh’s poetry, letters and films to create this powerful fictional account of a rebellious but brave woman. Darznik is a professor of English and creative writing at California College of the Arts. She came to America from Iran in 1978 when she was three years old. She is also the author of The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother’s Hidden Life. Publisher Ballantine. Publication Date February 13, 2018.
“ Remember its flight, for the bird is mortal.” Forugh Farrokhazd
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2 people found this helpful
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- Shane
- 05-27-18
EXCELLENT!
This is an outstanding and thoughtfully written novel about a lonely, troubled, wonderful poet! Drawn from the poet's own words and experiences, this book evokes Iran during a very volatile time in its history! That's all I will say, just read it!
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- Kindle Customer
- 09-04-21
This book was so beautifully written
This book was so beautifully written. The narrator did a perfect job bringing the story to life
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- Miamim
- 09-08-19
Wonderful book
Loved the writing and story line of a young poetess in a world unsupportive of strong intellectual women.
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