The Blue Period
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Angela Dawe
About this listen
A riveting novel about the tragic romance that nearly destroyed a young Pablo Picasso - while granting him his first flight of creative genius.
From rowdy Barcelona barrooms to the incandescent streets of turn-of-the-century Paris, Pablo Picasso experiences the sumptuous highs and seedy lows of bohemian life alongside his rebellious poet friend with a shadowy past, Carles Casagemas.
Fleeing family misfortune and their parents’ expectations, the two young artists seek their creative outlet while chasing inspiration in drugs, decadence, and the liberated women of Montmartre - creatures far different from the veiled ones back home.
The new life feels like bliss, and nothing can come between them…until a dark-haired, enigmatic muse enters the picture. The two artists’ passion for Germaine will lead to a devastating turn. Amid soul-searching and despair, however, Picasso discovers a color palette in which to render his demons and paint himself into lasting history.
Bringing the exuberance of the era vividly to life, this richly imagined portrait of Picasso’s coming of age intertwines the love, death, lust, and friendships that inspired the immortal works of a defiant master.
©2019 Luke Jerod Kummer. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“In rich, color-infused passages…Kummer’s descriptions of Paris at the turn of the century and the emotional turmoil within fame-destined Pablo create a quixotic tone that fans of lush biographical fiction will find especially alluring.” --Booklist
“The Blue Period takes the reader from the alleys and soot-covered buildings of Barcelona to the four-story beige-brick #49 on Rue Gabrielle and the studio that housed Picasso, Casagemas, Gargallo and other women, adding architectural and atmospheric detail along the way.” --Historical Novel Society
“Luke Jerod Kummer’s tenderly crafted portrait of Picasso as a young artist, just starting out in a foreign country and grieving a great loss, cuts through the stereotypical bravado so often associated with the artist to add richly shaded layers of emotion, insight, and smartly noticed detail.” --Rachel Corbett, author of You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin
“Lusciously written and deeply imaginative, Kummer’s debut is an edgy, elegant reimagining of a period in Picasso’s life that forever changed the art world. It takes readers from the heat of Spain to the underbelly of Paris, as we follow the artist through friendship, dizzying infatuation, sex, and tragedy as he tries to claw his way to success. A book that feels as passionate and bold as Picasso himself.” --Karin Tanabe, author of The Gilded Years
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brilliant novel based on shocking truth
- By Rochelle Jewel Shapiro on 07-05-20
By: Talia Carner
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The Parisian
- By: Isabella Hammad
- Narrated by: Fiona Button
- Length: 20 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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A masterful debut novel by Plimpton Prize winner Isabella Hammad, The Parisian illuminates a pivotal period of Palestinian history through the journey and romances of one young man, from his studies in France during World War I to his return to Palestine at the dawn of its battle for independence.
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Overly ambitious
- By Placeholder on 06-16-19
By: Isabella Hammad
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The Traitor
- By: V.S. Alexander
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1942, as war rages across Europe, a series of anonymous leaflets appears around the University of Munich, speaking out against escalating Nazi atrocities. The leaflets are hidden in public places, or mailed to addresses selected at random from the phone book. Natalya Petrovich, a student, knows who is behind the leaflets - a secret group called the White Rose, led by siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friends. As a volunteer nurse on the Russian front, Natalya witnessed the horrors of war first-hand. She willingly enters the White Rose's circle....
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Not all the Germans are guilty.
- By Judy Harley on 09-18-20
By: V.S. Alexander
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The Golden Hour
- A Novel
- By: Beatriz Williams
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 16 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The Bahamas, 1941. Newly widowed Leonora “Lulu” Randolph arrives in Nassau to investigate the governor and his wife for a New York society magazine. After all, American readers have an insatiable appetite for news of the duke and duchess of Windsor, that glamorous couple whose love affair nearly brought the British monarchy to its knees five years earlier. What more intriguing backdrop for their romance than a wartime Caribbean paradise, a colonial playground for kingpins of ill-gotten empires? Or so Lulu imagines.
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Stick with it!
- By Colleen on 07-17-19
By: Beatriz Williams
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The Stolen Lady
- A Novel of World War II and the Mona Lisa
- By: Laura Morelli
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan, Caroline Hewitt, Paul Woodson
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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From the acclaimed author of The Night Portrait comes a stunning historical novel about two women, separated by 500 years, who each hide Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa - with unintended consequences.
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hard to finish
- By jeannetteW on 01-05-22
By: Laura Morelli
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Girl in Hyacinth Blue
- By: Susan Vreeland
- Narrated by: Loren Lester, Sheryl Bernstein
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
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A professor shows a colleague a painting that he has kept secret for decades. The professor swears it is a Vermeer - but why has he hidden this important work for so long? The reasons unfold in a series of stories that trace ownership of the painting back to World War II and Amsterdam, and still further back to the moment of the work's inspiration.
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wonderful
- By Sybil on 04-07-03
By: Susan Vreeland
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The Magician of Lublin
- By: Isaac Bashevis Singer
- Narrated by: Larry Keith
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The Magician can dazzle the crowds with his sleight of hand, climb to any height, open any lock. Fearlessly, he does death-defying tricks in theaters all over Poland. At home, his sweet Jewish wife waits for him to return from the city. In the city, his adoring mistresses wait for him to return from home. He holds the key to all hearts, but his own is beset with confusion.
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Complex Masterpiece
- By Evan on 09-11-08
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Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All
- By: Laura Ruby
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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When Frankie’s mother died and her father left her and her siblings at an orphanage in Chicago, it was supposed to be only temporary - just long enough for him to get back on his feet and be able to provide for them once again. That’s why Frankie's not prepared for the day that he arrives for his weekend visit with a new woman on his arm and out-of-state train tickets in his pocket. Now, Frankie and her sister, Toni, are abandoned alongside so many other orphans - two young, unwanted women doing everything they can to survive.
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Boring, boring, boring
- By Marie J. on 08-20-21
By: Laura Ruby
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Nausea (New Directions Paperbook)
- By: Jean-Paul Sartre
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Sartre's greatest novel and existentialism's key text, now introduced by James Wood, and read by the inimitable Edoardo Ballerini. Nausea is the story of Antoine Roquentin, a French writer who is horrified at his own existence. In impressionistic, diary form, he ruthlessly catalogs his every feeling and sensation.
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Glad to have existed to enjoy reading this book!
- By mohammed on 08-11-21
By: Jean-Paul Sartre
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Fifteen Postcards
- The Old Curiosity Shop, Book 1
- By: Kirsten McKenzie
- Narrated by: Tracey Llewelyn
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Determined to save the antiques store she has inherited from ruin after the unexplained disappearance of her parents, Sarah Lester discovers a jumbled collection of vintage postcards that leads her on a journey through time. Unprepared for the story the postcards weave about their reclusive former owner, Sarah’s life is thrown into disarray as she is transported to Victorian London, colonial New Zealand, and to the British Raj in 19th-century India.
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Disappointing and disorganized
- By Miranda on 03-16-22
By: Kirsten McKenzie
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Cocaine Blues
- By: Kerry Greenwood
- Narrated by: Stephanie Daniel
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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It's the end of the roaring twenties, and the exuberant and Honourable Phryne Fisher is dancing and gaming with gay abandon. But she becomes bored with London and the endless round of parties. In search of excitement, she sets her sights on a spot of detective work in Melbourne, Australia. And so mystery and the beautiful Russian dancer, Sasha de Lisse, appear in her life. From then on it's all cocaine and communism until her adventure reaches its steamy end in the Turkish baths of Little Lonsdale Street.
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A series that just gets better
- By Barbara Kindle Customer on 02-01-11
By: Kerry Greenwood
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Lady Oracle
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Lorelei King
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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From fat girl to thin, from red hair to mud brown, from London to Toronto, from Polish count to radical husband - Joan Foster is utterly confused by her life of multiple identities. She decides to escape to an Italian hill town to take stock of her life. But first, she must organize her own death.
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A Feminist Romp
- By annkpowers on 07-02-22
By: Margaret Atwood
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Light Years
- By: James Salter
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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This exquisite, resonant novel by PEN/Faulkner winner James Salter is a brilliant portrait of a marriage by a contemporary American master. It is the story of Nedra and Viri, whose favored life is centered around dinners, ingenious games with their children, enviable friends, and near-perfect days passed skating on a frozen river or sunning on the beach.
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Unfathomable Font of Blue: Life's Serial Goodbyes
- By W Perry Hall on 04-18-19
By: James Salter
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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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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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Herzog
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Winner of the National Book Award when it was first published in 1964, Herzog traces five days in the life of a failed academic whose wife has recently left him for his best friend. Through the device of letter writing, Herzog movingly portrays both the internal life of its eponymous hero and the complexity of modern consciousness.
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Grows Within You
- By Chris Reich on 08-06-11
By: Saul Bellow
What listeners say about The Blue Period
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Tunia
- 03-22-20
Great story about a complicated man.
The book made me appreciate the artist in a totally new way. As a human, a man, a person struggling and triumphing. Nice and fun read.
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3 people found this helpful
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- bottles of
- 09-17-19
Sorry
Could not get into the book. I'm sure it's a good read but not for me
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- Anonymous User
- 03-16-22
Enjoyed It!
An interesting picture of the artist, shown from a side I didn’t expect. Worth listening to!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ana Manwaring
- 06-05-20
A story painted in words
Luke Jerod Kummer’s The Blue Period is a lyrical depiction of Picasso’s blue period. Picasso is shown as a sensitive, prolific and confused painter. He isn’t of this world, but Kummer’s beautiful prose captures his anguish and determination equally well as it describes Picasso’s early work during the years he bounced between Barcelona and Paris. Picasso isn’t my favorite, but now that I’ve read the book, I’m going to take another look. I can’t get the haunting description of “Life” out of my mind. Thanks for a wonderful read and Angela Dawe, a stellar performance.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 07-28-19
Beautiful Narration
A beautiful journey. The audio book is expertly done, her works makes the story even richer.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 10-24-21
An artist’s complicated, convoluted life journey, a well -researched account of it
Picasso’s arduous climb to the top of the art world is not revealed in The Blue Period. On the contrary, it’s his rough and tumble beginnings and his complex emotional reactions to his environment and his relationships that are explored in this meticulously-researched and abundantly described account of just a few of the first years of Picasso’s endeavors to support himself and his passion for painting.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Ms Shells
- 09-04-19
Good but with flaws
The story was difficult to get immersed in primarily because of narrator. The information is choppy, and in order to understand the background elements, I had to do research. I did enjoy the last chapter a good deal.
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1 person found this helpful
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- L S
- 01-09-20
Could be interesting history
Couldn't get past the bored sounding narration. Maybe the author didn't write it well but struggled, then just have up.
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- Carol Woodbury
- 05-02-20
Want to Be VERY, VERY, Blue, this book is for you.
I did not like this book at all. It was unnecessarily graphic in some areas. I thought it would discuss Picasso's art more during the "Blue Period", but it chose to portray the debauchery, degradation, depression and outright poverty of his early life. It is a book of fiction. Who knows how much of the story is correct. Had it not been one our book club books, I would have never finished it, even on Audible. Most of the people in the club didn't finish it because they found it beyond, beyond.
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1 person found this helpful