
Sparks Like Stars
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Mozhan Marno
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By:
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Nadia Hashimi
About this listen
“Suspenseful…emotionally compelling. I found myself eagerly following in a way I hadn’t remembered for a long time, impatient for the next twist and turn of the story."—NPR
An Afghan American woman returns to Kabul to learn the truth about her family and the tragedy that destroyed their lives in this brilliant and compelling novel from the bestselling author of The Pearl That Broke Its Shell, The House Without Windows, and When the Moon Is Low.
Kabul, 1978: The daughter of a prominent family, Sitara Zamani lives a privileged life in Afghanistan’s thriving cosmopolitan capital. The 1970s are a time of remarkable promise under the leadership of people like Sardar Daoud, Afghanistan’s progressive president, and Sitara’s beloved father, his right-hand man. But the ten-year-old Sitara’s world is shattered when communists stage a coup, assassinating the president and Sitara’s entire family. Only she survives.
Smuggled out of the palace by a guard named Shair, Sitara finds her way to the home of a female American diplomat, who adopts her and raises her in America. In her new country, Sitara takes on a new name—Aryana Shepherd—and throws herself into her studies, eventually becoming a renowned surgeon. A survivor, Aryana has refused to look back, choosing instead to bury the trauma and devastating loss she endured.
New York, 2008: Thirty years after that fatal night in Kabul, Aryana’s world is rocked again when an elderly patient appears in her examination room—a man she never expected to see again. It is Shair, the soldier who saved her, yet may have murdered her entire family. Seeing him awakens Aryana’s fury and desire for answers—and, perhaps, revenge. Realizing that she cannot go on without finding the truth, Aryana embarks on a quest that takes her back to Kabul—a battleground between the corrupt government and the fundamentalist Taliban—and through shadowy memories of the world she loved and lost.
Bold, illuminating, heartbreaking, yet hopeful, Sparks Like Stars is a story of home—of America and Afghanistan, tragedy and survival, reinvention and remembrance, told in Nadia Hashimi’s singular voice.
©2021 Nadia Hashimi (P)2021 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Obayda's family is in need of some good fortune, and her aunt has an idea to bring the family luck - dress Obayda, the youngest of four sisters, as a boy, a bacha posh. Life in this in-between place is confusing, but once Obayda meets another bacha posh, everything changes. Their transformation won't last forever, though - unless the two best friends can figure out a way to make it stick and make their newfound freedoms endure.
By: Nadia Hashimi
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The Color of Our Sky
- A Novel
- By: Amita Trasi
- Narrated by: Zehra Jane Nacqvi, Sneha Mathan
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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India, 1986: Mukta, a 10-year-old village girl from the lower-caste Yellama cult, has come of age and must fulfill her destiny of becoming a temple prostitute, as her mother and grandmother did before her. In an attempt to escape her fate, Mukta is sent to be a house girl for an upper-middle class family in Mumbai. There she discovers a friend in the daughter of the family, high-spirited eight-year-old Tara, who helps her recover from the wounds of her past.
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Fast moving ,gripping ,emotional ,well depicted.
- By Amazon CustomerAmeeta Adur on 10-09-17
By: Amita Trasi
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The Light of Days
- The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos
- By: Judy Batalion
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the most important stories of World War II, already optioned by Steven Spielberg for a major motion picture: a spectacular, searing history that brings to light the extraordinary accomplishments of brave Jewish women who became resistance fighters - a group of unknown heroes whose exploits have never been chronicled in full, until now.
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A profoundly moving book
- By Brian R Smith on 04-18-21
By: Judy Batalion
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The Magician
- A Novel
- By: Colm Toibin
- Narrated by: Gunnar Cauthery
- Length: 16 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The Magician opens in a provincial German city at the turn of the 20th century, where the boy, Thomas Mann, grows up with a conservative father, bound by propriety, and a Brazilian mother, alluring and unpredictable. Young Mann hides his artistic aspirations from his father and his homosexual desires from everyone. He is infatuated with one of the richest, most cultured Jewish families in Munich, and marries the daughter Katia. They have six children. On a holiday in Italy, he longs for a boy he sees on a beach and writes the story Death in Venice.
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Terrific listening experience
- By M. Mead on 09-17-21
By: Colm Toibin
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Independence
- A Novel
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Set during the partition of British India in 1947, a time when neighbor was pitted against neighbor and families were torn apart, award-winning author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s novel brings to life the sweeping story of three sisters caught up in events beyond their control, their unbreakable bond, and their incredible struggle against powerful odds.
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A very interesting story, good but a tad flat
- By Naturegirl09 on 06-25-23
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The Book of Longings
- A Novel
- By: Sue Monk Kidd
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò, Sue Monk Kidd
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In her mesmerizing fourth work of fiction, Sue Monk Kidd takes an audacious approach to history and brings her acclaimed narrative gifts to imagine the story of a young woman named Ana. Raised in a wealthy family with ties to the ruler of Galilee, she is rebellious and ambitious, with a brilliant mind and a daring spirit. She engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes narratives about neglected and silenced women. Ana is expected to marry an older widower, a prospect that horrifies her. An encounter with 18-year-old Jesus changes everything.
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Made me cringe
- By Joan on 05-08-20
By: Sue Monk Kidd
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The Bright Years
- By: Sarah Damoff
- Narrated by: Ferdelle Capistrano, Joy Osmanski, Lee Osorio
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Told from three intimate points of view, The Bright Years is a tender, true-to-life novel that explores the impact of each generation in a family torn apart by tragedy but, over time, restored by the power of grace and love.
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Perfection
- By Andrea Judd on 05-10-25
By: Sarah Damoff
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Great Circle
- A Novel
- By: Maggie Shipstead
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Alex McKenna
- Length: 25 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute uncle in Missoula, Montana. There—after encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanes—Marian commences her lifelong love affair with flight. At fourteen she drops out of school and finds an unexpected and dangerous patron in a wealthy bootlegger who provides a plane and subsidizes her lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her for the rest of her life, even as it allows her to fulfill her destiny: circumnavigating the globe.
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So glad I was drawn to this book.
- By timbo on 05-23-21
By: Maggie Shipstead
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The Golden Doves
- A Novel
- By: Martha Hall Kelly
- Narrated by: Jeremy Carlisle Parker, Saskia Maarleveld, Martha Hall Kelly
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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American Josie Anderson and Parisian Arlette LaRue are thrilled to be working in the French resistance, stealing so many Nazi secrets that they become known as the Golden Doves, renowned across France and hunted by the Gestapo. Their courage will cost them everything. When they are finally arrested and taken to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, along with their loved ones, a reclusive Nazi doctor does unspeakable things to Josie’s mother, a celebrated Jewish singer who joined her daughter in Paris when the world seemed bright. And Arlette’s son is stolen from her, never to be seen again.
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Wanted to like it more than I did
- By Nicole on 04-19-23
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Transcendent Kingdom
- A novel
- By: Yaa Gyasi
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.
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Would have benefited from a different narrator
- By Richard Stewart on 09-11-20
By: Yaa Gyasi
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The Kitchen House
- A Novel
- By: Kathleen Grissom
- Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Orphaned during her passage from Ireland, young, white Lavinia arrives on the steps of the kitchen house and is placed, as an indentured servant, under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate slave daughter. Lavinia learns to cook, clean, and serve food while guided by the quiet strength and love of her new family. In time Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, caring for the master's opium-addicted wife and befriending his dangerous yet protective son. She attempts to straddle the worlds of the kitchen and big house, but her skin color will forever set her apart.
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Captivating read!
- By Gottalookgoodwhenyouwkout on 10-18-17
By: Kathleen Grissom
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The Lion Women of Tehran
- By: Marjan Kamali
- Narrated by: Mozhan Navabi, Nikki Massoud
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation. Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.”
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Wonderful story Awful Narration
- By Sogol on 08-14-24
By: Marjan Kamali
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As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
- By: Zoulfa Katouh
- Narrated by: Rasha Zamamiri
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents and her big brother; she still had her home. She had a normal teenager’s life. Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion.
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Tell me something good
- By Michel on 02-11-24
By: Zoulfa Katouh
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A Gentleman in Moscow
- A Novel
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 17 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.
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A Reprieve Amidst Ugly News, Relentless Negativity
- By Cathy Lindhorst on 08-27-17
By: Amor Towles
What listeners say about Sparks Like Stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-23-22
Wow
AmazIng, beautifully written. I’m so glad I found this amazing author. Her words and the story take you to another place.
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2 people found this helpful
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- T. Weiss
- 02-22-22
Wonderful, heartbreaking, hopeful
Wonderful, heartbreaking, hopeful! Loved the gorgeous writing and storytelling. Takes a tragic moment and builds suspense. So interesting to learn about history and “see” the beauty of Afghanistan.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mary
- 03-19-22
Wrapped Up in a Bow?
The story was good. Some elements of the plot were a little far-fetched but then it's a novel. Narrator was good.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Virginia Lamothe
- 01-19-25
Beautifully written.
An incredible account of Afgan history both ancient and recent. It is told by a young Afgan woman coming to terms with her grief.
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- Kelly Lange
- 06-05-21
Outstanding!
I was quickly lost in the story’s search for history and meaning, and the narrator’s voices made this outstanding in audio. My favorite book of the year!
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-25-21
exceptional!
especially given current times with the withdrawal from Afghaniston, it was so good to get a look at the history and the heart of the culture and history off the people . not in a strictly documentary way but through the lives of this books believable characters.
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1 person found this helpful
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- jsanborn
- 06-08-23
Beautiful Verse
Beautiful written verse and wonderfully told story. Grateful to have been enlightened by it as I enjoy historical fiction.
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- MAC
- 07-07-23
Quite the story
An amazing story that somehow managed not to stretch credulity. You can feel every character and their stories. Beautiful. Will recommend to others.
Great narration as well.
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- Harriette S Heibel
- 12-22-21
A very different Afghanistan
The book captured me almost immediately. The reading performance was first class and made a big difference in how easy it was to get into the story. I look forward to reading more by this author.
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- Linda
- 03-24-22
Incredible read
This is a compelling story and the narrator is phenomenal. I felt as if I were there throughout the entire book.
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