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The Ballad of the Sad Café
- Narrated by: David Ledoux, Joe Barrett, Therese Plummer, Kevin Pariseau, Suzanne Toren, Edoardo Ballerini, Barbara Rosenblat
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
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Publisher's summary
Audie Award Finalist, Short Stories/Collections, 2014
A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers' best stories, including her beloved novella The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose cafe serves as the town's gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes "Wunderkind", McCullers' first published story, written when she was only 17, about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist.
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Story
Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age - and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. But years later, she learns about love for herself and the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors.
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Emotional & Powerful
- By Miss Toni on 06-30-13
By: Maya Angelou
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We the Living
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Mary Woods
- Length: 18 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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We the Living portrays the impact of the Russian Revolution on three people who demand the right to live their own lives. At its center is a girl whose passionate love is her fortress against the cruelty and oppression of a totalitarian state. Rand said of this book: "It is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write."
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Emotionally intense, historically authentic
- By Geoffrey on 08-14-08
By: Ayn Rand
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The Blind Assassin
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Margot Dionne
- Length: 18 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
For the past twenty-five years, Margaret Atwood has written works of striking originality and imagination. In The Blind Assassin, she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious. The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental.
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Good book, TERRIBLE audio!
- By Whitney on 04-27-09
By: Margaret Atwood
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The Street
- By: Ann Petry, Tayari Jones - introduction
- Narrated by: Danielle Deadwyler
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
The classic urban tale of a young Black woman's struggle to raise her son alone amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of 1940s Harlem.
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The ending
- By KASH on 11-04-24
By: Ann Petry, and others
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Miss Lonelyhearts
- By: Nathanael West
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser, Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Miss Lonelyhearts is an unnamed male newspaper columnist writing an advice column, which is viewed by the newspaper as a joke. As "Miss Lonelyhearts" reads letters from desperate New Yorkers, he feels terribly burdened and falls into a cycle of deep depression, accompanied by heavy drinking and occasional barfights. The novel is essentially a black comedy and is characterized by an extremely dark but clever sense of humor and irony.
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Charged with Meaning, and Far Leftist Leaning
- By W Perry Hall on 01-27-16
By: Nathanael West
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A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
- By: Flannery O'Connor
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The collection that established O’Connor’s reputation as one of the American masters of the short story. The volume contains the celebrated title story, a tale of the murderous fugitive "The Misfit", as well as “The Displaced Person” and eight other stories.
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Meater story teller
- By Gary Hunt on 02-04-20
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The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
- By: Carson McCullers
- Narrated by: Cherry Jones
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Carson McCullers was all of 23 when she published her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. She became an overnight literary sensation, and soon such authors as Tennessee Williams were calling her "the greatest prose writer that the South [has] produced." The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter tells an unforgettable tale of moral isolation in a small southern mill town in the 1930s.
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Do yourself a favor
- By Barbara on 06-08-05
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The Member of the Wedding
- By: Carson McCullers
- Narrated by: Susan Sarandon
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The best way to experience this classic of the American South is by joining five-time Academy Award nominee and Best Actress winner Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking, Thelma & Louise) as she guides the listener on a journey through the anguish of adolescence and isolation.
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It's a Classic People
- By FanB14 on 05-14-12
By: Carson McCullers
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Carson McCullers
- A Life
- By: Mary V. Dearborn
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
She was born Lula Carson Smith in Columbus, Georgia. Her dream was to become a concert pianist, though she’d been writing since she was sixteen and the influence of music was evident throughout her work. Her first novel—The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter—was published in 1940 when she was twenty-three and overnight, Carson McCullers became the most widely talked-about writer of the time. Mary Dearborn gives us the first full picture of one of America’s greatest writers, a complex artist who was decades ahead of her time, a writer who understood—and captured, the heart and longing of the outcast.
By: Mary V. Dearborn
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Reflections in a Golden Eye
- By: Carson McCullers
- Narrated by: Christopher Kipiniak
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Set on a Southern army base in the 1930s, Reflections in a Golden Eye tells the story of Captain Penderton, a bisexual whose life is upset by the arrival of Major Langdon, a charming womanizer who has an affair with Penderton's tempestuous and flirtatious wife, Leonora. Upon the novel's publication in 1941, reviewers were unsure of what to make of its relatively scandalous subject matter.
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Square pegs and round holes
- By Darwin8u on 02-01-20
By: Carson McCullers
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The Violent Bear It Away
- By: Flannery O’ Connor
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The orphaned Francis Marion Tarwater and his cousin, Rayber, defy the prophecy of their dead uncle - that Tarwater will become a prophet and will baptize Rayber's young son, Bishop. A series of struggles ensue, as Tarwater fights an internal battle against his innate faith and the voices calling him to be a prophet, while Rayber tries to draw Tarwater into a more “reasonable” modern world. Both wrestle with the legacy of their dead relatives and lay claim to Bishop's soul.
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Biblical, American and Absolutely Brutal
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-12
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A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
- By: Flannery O'Connor
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The collection that established O’Connor’s reputation as one of the American masters of the short story. The volume contains the celebrated title story, a tale of the murderous fugitive "The Misfit", as well as “The Displaced Person” and eight other stories.
-
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Meater story teller
- By Gary Hunt on 02-04-20
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The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
- By: Carson McCullers
- Narrated by: Cherry Jones
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carson McCullers was all of 23 when she published her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. She became an overnight literary sensation, and soon such authors as Tennessee Williams were calling her "the greatest prose writer that the South [has] produced." The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter tells an unforgettable tale of moral isolation in a small southern mill town in the 1930s.
-
-
Do yourself a favor
- By Barbara on 06-08-05
By: Carson McCullers
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The Member of the Wedding
- By: Carson McCullers
- Narrated by: Susan Sarandon
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The best way to experience this classic of the American South is by joining five-time Academy Award nominee and Best Actress winner Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking, Thelma & Louise) as she guides the listener on a journey through the anguish of adolescence and isolation.
-
-
It's a Classic People
- By FanB14 on 05-14-12
By: Carson McCullers
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Carson McCullers
- A Life
- By: Mary V. Dearborn
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
She was born Lula Carson Smith in Columbus, Georgia. Her dream was to become a concert pianist, though she’d been writing since she was sixteen and the influence of music was evident throughout her work. Her first novel—The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter—was published in 1940 when she was twenty-three and overnight, Carson McCullers became the most widely talked-about writer of the time. Mary Dearborn gives us the first full picture of one of America’s greatest writers, a complex artist who was decades ahead of her time, a writer who understood—and captured, the heart and longing of the outcast.
By: Mary V. Dearborn
-
Reflections in a Golden Eye
- By: Carson McCullers
- Narrated by: Christopher Kipiniak
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set on a Southern army base in the 1930s, Reflections in a Golden Eye tells the story of Captain Penderton, a bisexual whose life is upset by the arrival of Major Langdon, a charming womanizer who has an affair with Penderton's tempestuous and flirtatious wife, Leonora. Upon the novel's publication in 1941, reviewers were unsure of what to make of its relatively scandalous subject matter.
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Square pegs and round holes
- By Darwin8u on 02-01-20
By: Carson McCullers
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The Violent Bear It Away
- By: Flannery O’ Connor
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The orphaned Francis Marion Tarwater and his cousin, Rayber, defy the prophecy of their dead uncle - that Tarwater will become a prophet and will baptize Rayber's young son, Bishop. A series of struggles ensue, as Tarwater fights an internal battle against his innate faith and the voices calling him to be a prophet, while Rayber tries to draw Tarwater into a more “reasonable” modern world. Both wrestle with the legacy of their dead relatives and lay claim to Bishop's soul.
-
-
Biblical, American and Absolutely Brutal
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-12
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A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
- By: Flannery O'Connor
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The collection that established O’Connor’s reputation as one of the American masters of the short story. The volume contains the celebrated title story, a tale of the murderous fugitive "The Misfit", as well as “The Displaced Person” and eight other stories.
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Meater story teller
- By Gary Hunt on 02-04-20
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Wise Blood
- By: Flannery O’Connor
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Flannery O’Connor’s astonishing and haunting first novel is a classic of 20th-century literature. It is the story of Hazel Motes, a 22-year-old caught in an unending struggle against his innate, desperate faith. He falls under the spell of a “blind” street preacher named Asa Hawks and his degenerate fifteen-year-old daughter. In an ironic, malicious gesture of his own non-faith, and to prove himself a greater cynic than Hawks, Hazel founds The Church of God Without Christ but is still thwarted in his efforts to lose God.
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Grotesque Southern Gothic Masterpiece
- By Darwin8u on 10-18-12
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Everything That Rises Must Converge
- By: Flannery O’Connor
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot, Karen White, Mark Bramhall, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
This collection of nine short stories by Flannery O'Connor was published posthumously in 1965. The flawed characters of each story are fully revealed in apocalyptic moments of conflict and violence that are presented with comic detachment.
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Pride goeth before the fall
- By Ryan on 08-14-13
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Mama Day
- By: Gloria Naylor
- Narrated by: uncredited
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Miranda Day, known as "Mama Day", is the elderly matriarch of Willow Springs, a small sea island off the southeast coast of the United States. Mama Day finds herself pitted in mortal combat with dark forces that threaten the body and soul of her beloved great-niece, Cocoa, who has gone "mainside" and married an urban Northerner.
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A Classic
- By Gina on 10-22-08
By: Gloria Naylor
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Sula
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Nel and Sula's devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the black community and Sula has become a pariah. But their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal—or does it end? Terrifying, comic, ribald and tragic, Sula is a work that overflows with life.
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Good against evil and a riotous story to boot
- By Karen on 04-11-11
By: Toni Morrison
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Chronicle of a Death Foretold
- A Novel
- By: Gabriel García Márquez
- Narrated by: Bernardo de Paula
- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A man returns to the town where a baffling murder took place 27 years earlier, determined to get to the bottom of the story. Just hours after marrying the beautiful Angela Vicario, everyone agrees, Bayardo San Roman returned his bride in disgrace to her parents. Her distraught family forced her to name her first lover; and her twin brothers announced their intention to murder Santiago Nasar for dishonoring their sister. Yet if everyone knew the murder was going to happen, why did no one intervene to stop it?
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a straightforward tale
- By Felix on 09-29-23
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The God of Small Things
- By: Arundhati Roy
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Likened to the works of Faulkner and Dickens when it was first published 20 years ago, this extraordinarily accomplished debut novel is a brilliantly plotted story of forbidden love and piercing political drama, centered on the tragic decline of an Indian family in the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India. Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, the twins Rahel and Esthappen fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family.
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Worthy Booker winner!
- By Saman on 08-10-17
By: Arundhati Roy
What listeners say about The Ballad of the Sad Café
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- faye brown
- 06-20-24
Carson McCullers at her best
The characters are created with such depth. After all these years, they still ring true
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- Donald
- 04-18-13
Charming
an interesting group of short stories with color and character.
they are not all perfect but enjoyable
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3 people found this helpful
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- Marily
- 01-05-15
Unrest, a thinker.
A group of stories. Some catch you unaware with abrupt endings. Enjoyed but, left me thinking about what was being presented, Was there a message here? It held me to the end., but left me in the air, feeling unfinished.
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1 person found this helpful
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Story
- RueRue
- 02-23-16
Literate short stories
A beautifully narrated collection of literary short stories. Listen to them for the precise, evocative prose. These are character studies, not plot driven narratives. All of the readers are superior !
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4 people found this helpful
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- Lucy
- 04-05-14
A moment of greatness and then . . . Blah!
I'm torn on my feelings about this one. I loved the first story, but the rest did very little for me. The first story, while tragic, was relatable, entertaining. and flowed well; the others were simply bleak and quite flat. The first had a wonderful sense of lyricism, while the other stories simply over used the word "fugue". If there was a musical metaphor to be dragged throughout the stories it was lost on me.
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- Shamy
- 05-18-15
Disappointed
The characters were complex and unknowable. The stories were of unrequited or disappointing love and separation. This was overall a collection of very melancholy stories.
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1 person found this helpful