Songs of Willow Frost
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Ryan Gesell
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By:
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Jamie Ford
About this listen
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From Jamie Ford, author of the beloved Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, comes a much-anticipated second novel. Set against the backdrop of Depression-era Seattle, Songs of Willow Frost is a powerful tale of two souls—a boy with dreams for his future and a woman escaping her haunted past—both seeking love, hope, and forgiveness.
Twelve-year-old William Eng, a Chinese American boy, has lived at Seattle’s Sacred Heart Orphanage ever since his mother’s listless body was carried away from their small apartment five years ago. On his birthday—or rather, the day the nuns designate as his birthday—William and the other orphans are taken to the historical Moore Theatre, where William glimpses an actress on the silver screen who goes by the name of Willow Frost. Struck by her features, William is convinced that the movie star is his mother, Liu Song.
Determined to find Willow and prove that his mother is still alive, William escapes from Sacred Heart with his friend Charlotte. The pair navigate the streets of Seattle, where they must not only survive but confront the mysteries of William’s past and his connection to the exotic film star. The story of Willow Frost, however, is far more complicated than the Hollywood fantasy William sees onscreen.
Shifting between the Great Depression and the 1920s, Songs of Willow Frost takes readers on an emotional journey of discovery. Jamie Ford’s sweeping novel will resonate with anyone who has ever longed for the comforts of family and a place to call home.
Praise for Songs of Willow Frost
“If you liked Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, you’re going to love Songs of Willow Frost. . . . tender, powerful, and deeply satisfying.”—Lisa Genova
“[A] poignant tale of lost and found love.”—Tampa Bay Times
“Arresting . . . [with] the kind of ending readers always hope for, but seldom get.”—The Dallas Morning News
“[An] achingly tender story . . . a tale of nuance and emotion.”—The Providence Journal
“Ford crafts [a] beautiful, tender tale of love transcending the sins people perpetrate on one another and shows how the strength of our primal relationships is the best part of our human nature.”—Great Falls Tribune
“Remarkable . . . likely to appeal to readers who enjoy the multi-generational novels of Amy Tan.”—Bookreporter
“Jamie Ford is a first-rate novelist, and with Songs of Willow Frost he takes a great leap forward and demonstrates the uncanny ability to move me to tears.”—Pat Conroy
“With vivid detail, Jamie Ford brings to life Seattle’s Chinatown during the Depression and chronicles the high price those desperate times exacted from an orphaned boy and the woman he believes is his mother. Songs of Willow Frost is about innocence and the loss of it, about longing, about the power of remembered love.”—Nancy Horan, author of Loving Frank
“Ford’s boundless compassion for the human spirit, in all its strengths and weaknesses, makes him one of our most unique and compelling storytellers.”—Helen Simonson, author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
“A beautiful novel . . . William’s journey is one you’ll savor, and then think about long after the book is closed.”—Susan Wiggs, author of The Apple Orchard
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Critic reviews
“With vivid detail, Jamie Ford brings to life Seattle’s Chinatown during the Depression and chronicles the high price those desperate times exacted from an orphaned boy and the woman he believes is his mother. Songs of Willow Frost is about innocence and the loss of it, about longing, about the power of remembered love.” (Nancy Horan, author of Loving Frank)
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In Joplin's Ghost, 24-year-old R&B phenomenon Phoenix Smalls is on the cusp of fame and fortune. But she is haunted by the spirit of Jazz legend Scott Joplin. After a series of sultry, erotic encounters with the ghost, and with the pressures of stardom closing in on her, Phoenix begins to fear for her life and career.
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Sweeping--a fabulous read
- By Dinisle on 12-24-06
By: Tananarive Due
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A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
- By: Brigid Pasulka
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The novel opens on the eve of World War II. In the mountain village of Half-Village, a young man nicknamed the Pigeon, under the approving eyes of the entire village, courts the beautiful Anielica Hetmanska. But the war's arrival wreaks havoc in all their lives and delays their marriage for six long years.
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The Old & New Worlds Converge & Transcend Time
- By Sara on 11-22-16
By: Brigid Pasulka
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The Girl from the Savoy
- A Novel
- By: Hazel Gaynor
- Narrated by: Jennifer Jones, Lucy Rayner, Paul Fox
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Dolly Lane is a dreamer, a downtrodden maid who longs to dance on the London stage, but her life has been fractured by the Great War. Memories of the soldier she loved, of secret shame and profound loss, by turns pull her back and spur her on to make a better life. When she finds employment as a chambermaid at London's grandest hotel, The Savoy, Dolly takes a step closer to the glittering lives of the Bright Young Things who thrive on champagne, jazz, and rebellion.
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WONDERFUL‼️❤️❤️❤️
- By Leslie Gail Mnich on 12-05-19
By: Hazel Gaynor
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Hum If You Don't Know the Words
- By: Bianca Marais
- Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a 10-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred...until the Soweto Uprising.
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Completely wrong accents
- By Debbie on 02-12-22
By: Bianca Marais
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Call Me Zelda
- By: Erika Robuck
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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From New York to Paris, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald reigned as king and queen of the Jazz Age, seeming to float on champagne bubbles above the mundane cares of the world. But to those who truly knew them, the endless parties were only a distraction from their inner turmoil and from a love that united them with a scorching intensity.
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If you want to read about Zelda and Scott, move on
- By Leahmgordon on 11-14-17
By: Erika Robuck
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The Secret Keeper
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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England, 1959: Laurel Nicolson is 16 years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.
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Kate Morton (and Caroline Lee) does it again!
- By Maria on 10-20-12
By: Kate Morton
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In the Country
- Stories
- By: Mia Alvar
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu, Don Castro
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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These nine globe-trotting, unforgettable stories from Mia Alvar, a remarkable new literary talent, vividly give voice to the women and men of the Filipino diaspora. Here are exiles, emigrants, and wanderers uprooting their families from the Philippines to begin new lives in the Middle East, the United States, and elsewhere - and sometimes turning back again.
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My introduction to Filipino literature and culture
- By Amazon Customer on 03-28-16
By: Mia Alvar
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The Kite Runner
- By: Khaled Hosseini
- Narrated by: Khaled Hosseini
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Why we think it’s a great listen: Never before has an author’s narration of his fiction been so important to fully grasping the book’s impact and global implications. Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of its monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them.
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A Worhty Read
- By P. C..S. on 08-17-03
By: Khaled Hosseini
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The Red Address Book
- By: Sofia Lundberg, Alice Menzies - translator
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The global fiction sensation - published in 32 countries around the world: Meet Doris, a 96-year-old woman living alone in her Stockholm apartment. She has few visitors, but her weekly Skype calls with Jenny - her American grandniece, and her only relative - give her great joy and remind her of her own youth. In writing down the stories of her colorful past - working as a maid in Sweden, modelling in Paris during the '30s, fleeing to Manhattan at the dawn of the Second World War - she may help Jenny, haunted by a difficult childhood, unlock the secrets of their family....
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narrator was overwrought
- By Janet L. Hamilton on 02-22-19
By: Sofia Lundberg, and others
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Diamond Head
- A Novel
- By: Cecily Wong
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu, Samantha Chen, Angela Lin, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Told through the eyes of the Leongs' secret-keeping daughters and wives and spanning the Boxer Rebellion to Pearl Harbor to 1960s Hawaii, Diamond Head is a breathtakingly powerful tale of tragic love, shocking lies, poignant compromise, aching loss, heroic acts of sacrifice, and miraculous hope.
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- By Gina on 09-06-15
By: Cecily Wong
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Honor
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno, Piter Marik
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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An honor killing shatters and transforms the lives of Turkish immigrants in 1970s London. Internationally best-selling Turkish author Elif Shafak’s new novel is a dramatic tale of families, love, and misunderstandings that follows the destinies of twin sisters born in a Kurdish village. While Jamila stays to become a midwife, Pembe follows her Turkish husband, Adem, to London, where they hope to make new lives for themselves and their children. In London, they face a choice: stay loyal to the old traditions or try their best to fit in.
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Complex but Compelling
- By Cariola on 04-14-13
By: Elif Shafak
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Angel of Harlem
- By: Kuwanna Haulsey
- Narrated by: Brenda Pressley
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Inspired by the extraordinary events of Dr. May Chinn’s life, Angel of Harlem is a deeply affecting story of love and transcendence. Weaving seamlessly scenes from the battlefields of the Civil War, during which her father escaped from slavery, to the Harlem living rooms and kitchen tables where May is sometimes forced to operate on her patients, this fascinating novel lays bare the heart of a woman who changed the face of medicine.
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Really Enjoyed!
- By Amazon Customer on 08-08-19
By: Kuwanna Haulsey
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The Vine of Desire
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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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
- By Mz Shantay on 03-27-21
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Praise Song for the Butterflies
- A Novel
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Abeo Kata lives a comfortable, happy life in West Africa as the privileged nine-year-old daughter of a government employee and stay-at-home mother. But when the Katas' idyllic lifestyle takes a turn for the worse, Abeo's father, following his mother's advice, places the girl in a religious shrine, hoping that the sacrifice of his daughter will serve as atonement for the crimes of his ancestors. Unspeakable acts befall Abeo for the 15 years she is held in the shrine. When she is finally rescued, broken and battered, she must struggle to overcome her past.
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Searing!
- By Susie Bright on 09-05-18
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A Curious Tale of the In-Between
- By: Lauren DeStefano
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Pram Bellamy is special - she can talk to ghosts. She doesn't have too many friends among the living, but that's all right. She has her books, she has her aunts, and she has her best friend, the ghostly Felix. Then Pram meets Clarence, a boy from school who has also lost a parent and is looking for answers. Together they arrive at the door of the mysterious Lady Savant, who promises to help. But this spiritualist knows the true nature of Pram's power, and what she has planned is more terrifying than any ghost.
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Interesting, true care, warm feeling step into spiritual world.
- By chessnut888 on 09-24-15
By: Lauren DeStefano
What listeners say about Songs of Willow Frost
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ellen
- 04-03-14
Interesting era
What made the experience of listening to Songs of Willow Frost the most enjoyable?
What made the experience so enjoyable was the narration in various voices. It made it sound like the main character was rebelling his life story to me.
What other book might you compare Songs of Willow Frost to and why?
None that I had read yet.
What about Ryan Gesell’s performance did you like?
Phew made it easy to listen to and feel involved.
Any additional comments?
This story was very interesting and I would,recommend it to everyone.
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1 person found this helpful
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- shewhoreads
- 07-03-14
Truly wonderful, thoughtful and well researched
Where does Songs of Willow Frost rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
One of my favorite fiction books. I kept going back over and over to listen so I would not miss anything
What did you like best about this story?
The heartfelt human story that was so well researched and presented from the mother's view as well as the young boy's view, I was captive to the story.
Which scene was your favorite?
If I told you I would ruin the story for everyone.
If you could take any character from Songs of Willow Frost out to dinner, who would it be and why?
William. I would want to find out what happens to him. How he matured. What he is doing as an adult.
Any additional comments?
Read it at your leisure. Savor it.
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- Debbie
- 11-14-13
The Chinese Way in the U S of A
This second book from Jamie Ford, who also wrote "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet", is set in Seattle, as his first book is. It is a beautiful, yet sad story that takes place beginning in the early 1920's. I love historical fiction. It never ceases to amaze me that in a nation (America) where we have prided ourselves on freedom, that there was really little "freedom" for some folks . . . even those born on American soil. Less than a century ago, our government turned it's back and turned a blind eye to the welfare of children just because they happened to be (in this case) Chinese. And the abuse of the Chinese men of their own wives and children and their expectation that a woman should accept this abuse without complaint, just turns my stomach. Yet, rarely we saw a man, a husband and father of true character . . . one that inspires his family, long after his death. And a woman, who is allowed to dream and grow, while remaining Chinese. What women of that era were forced to do for love, well, it just blows my mind . . . and women from a foreign culture were bound by an iron clad tradition . . . their marriages were arranged by their parents. More than anything, this is a human story of a very young Chinese girl, who lost both parents, endured horrible abuse by her step-father, and then bore the shame that he caused. Still she fought for her child, gave up every shred of humility, and ultimately did what she had to do in order to protect him from the horror that she had to endure as a child.
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7 people found this helpful
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- The Novel Lady
- 01-16-19
Depressing but well-done
Songs of Willow Frost takes us back and forth in time as memories of Willow's earlier years come to surface. The book is extremely well written and the characters are multi-dimensional, but it is sad. Very, very sad. Downright depressing.
The narration was excellent. If you enjoy a book that pulls you in, that clings to your emotions, that makes your heart sink and your tears on the edge of your eyelid waiting to brim over, you will enjoy this book. For me, although it was an excellent thought-provoking novel, it was depressing. It left me sad. Mainly because I know these injustices existed during this time period.
Although as a society we still have a long way to go, this book helps us to realize just how far we have come.
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- Martha Riley
- 10-23-13
Fantastic Read!
Would you consider the audio edition of Songs of Willow Frost to be better than the print version?
I'm blind. What do I know about the print version?
What was one of the most memorable moments of Songs of Willow Frost?
When William buried the paper and photo.
Have you listened to any of Ryan Gesell’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Always good.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Beautiful and sensitive.
Any additional comments?
Jamie Ford is one of the finest authors I've run across in a long time. I thought "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" was a masterpiece, but this is even better.
By the way, I think your questions are dumb.
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5 people found this helpful
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- DIANE
- 10-02-13
Charming but not "Hotel on the corner "
What did you love best about Songs of Willow Frost?
I felt that the narrator was excellent. I enjoyed the way the story wove back and forth through time allowing the reader to put the past present and future into some sort of order.
I felt that William was a delightful character.
What other book might you compare Songs of Willow Frost to and why?
This book reminded me a little bit of Janet See's books, giving us a glimpse into the life of Chinese families and Chinese culture.
What about Ryan Gesell’s performance did you like?
I felt that the demarkation of the voices was very good and it was clear who was talking at all times.
Who was the most memorable character of Songs of Willow Frost and why?
I would have to say that Wiliam was the most memorable character, overcoming all odds to reunite himself with his lost mother.
Any additional comments?
Definitely worth reading. But it is not Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Sue
- 09-15-13
Wanted to enjoy it more than I did
Let me start out by saying that I really enjoyed Hotel on Bitter and Sweet and was looking forward to this book.
The story never grabbed me at the start. The plot is pretty much set out for you at the very beginning so there are no surprises. That would be ok if the story was rich in character development or setting description. Having just visited Seattle, I was looking forward to hearing about the setting back in the depression era, but there was not enough setting description given for me. i always love books where the descriptions are enough to make me feel like i am there and this one did not do that. The story picked up a little mid way, but slowed down again toward the finish.
The author alternates the story of William and Willow's life interspersed with minor characters who I felt could have added a richness to the story. My favorite character was Charlotte, William's blind friend from the orphanage. But I was left wanting more. I understood her story, but felt that it could have continued throughout the book versus wrapping up earlier.
I felt in many ways that the story was superficial. There was no in depth effort given to the plot, characters, or setting. Seattle's gloomy weather could have added so much more to the story and a greater development of some of the minor characters again would have helped.
The narration was average and did not distract from the book. Overall, I would give it a 2.5.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Ray Stewart
- 10-02-13
Sad Times in Seattle
When I saw that the author of "On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" had a new book out, I grabbed it right away. Set in Seattle, Washington in the 1920's and 30's, it is the story of an orphaned Chinese boy and the first 12 years of his life. The descriptions of both his and his mother's emotions made me feel as if I were with them. Having read many stores about China and its people, the personalities and beliefs of these Chinese-American people were very authentic.
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- EDNA
- 05-05-17
wonderful storytelling
wonderful storytelling should be made into a movie for TV or movie theaters I love the ending it made me cry
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- Raymond Hanson
- 02-17-23
Interesting
A sad story and I just didn’t like the narrator’s voice. It was depressing until the end.
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