The Broken Circle
A Memoir of Escaping Afghanistan
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Narrated by:
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Lameece Issaq
About this listen
An emotional and sweeping memoir of love and survival - and of a committed and desperate family uprooted and divided by the violent, changing landscape of Afghanistan in the early 1980s.
Before the Soviet invasion of 1980, Enjeela Ahmadi remembers her home - Kabul, Afghanistan - as peaceful, prosperous, and filled with people from all walks of life. But after her mother, unsettled by growing political unrest, leaves for medical treatment in India, the civil war intensifies, changing young Enjeela’s life forever. Amid the rumble of invading Soviet tanks, Enjeela and her family are thrust into chaos and fear when it becomes clear that her mother will not be coming home.
Thus begins an epic, reckless, and terrifying five-year journey of escape for Enjeela, her siblings, and their father to reconnect with her mother. In navigating the dangers ahead of them, and in looking back at the wilderness of her homeland, Enjeela discovers the spiritual and physical strength to find hope in the most desperate of circumstances.
A heart-stopping memoir of a girl shaken by the brutalities of war and empowered by the will to survive, The Broken Circle brilliantly illustrates that family is not defined by the borders of a country but by the bonds of the heart.
©2019 Enjeela Ahmadi-Miller (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Poems by Hafiz translated into English by the author.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Remember Us is a look back at the lost world of the shtetl: a wise Zayde offering prophetic and profound words to his grandson, the rich experience of Shabbos, and the treasure of a loving family. All this is torn apart with the arrival of the Holocaust, beginning a crucible fraught with twists and turns so unpredictable and surprising that they defy any attempt to find reason within them. Through the eyes of 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Martin Small, we learn that these priceless memories that are too painful to remember are also too painful to forget.
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A Tragic and Rich Life, With Lessons For All
- By still reading on 03-17-16
By: Vic Shayne, and others
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Something Fierce
- Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter
- By: Carmen Aguirre
- Narrated by: Carmen Aguirre
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Carmen Aguirre was six-year-old when she and her family fled to Canada following General Augusto Pinochet’s violent 1973 coup in Chile. She was only eleven-years-old when her mother and stepfather joined the resistance movement and returned to South America, taking Carmen and her sister went with them. As their mother and stepfather set up a safe house for resistance members in La Paz, Bolivia, the girls' own double lives began. At 18, Carmen became a militant herself, plunging further into a world of terror, paranoia and euphoria.
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revolutionary read
- By David Brown on 04-05-18
By: Carmen Aguirre
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Stars Between the Sun and Moon
- One Woman's Life in North Korea and Escape to Freedom
- By: Lucia Jang, Susan McClelland
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Born in 1970s North Korea, Lucia Jang grew up in a typical household - her parents worked in the factories, and the family scraped by on rations. Nightly she bowed to her photo of Kim Il-Sung. It was the beginning of a chaotic period with a decade-long famine. Jang married an abusive man who sold their baby. She left him and went home to help her family by illegally crossing the river to China to trade goods. She was caught and imprisoned twice.
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Fantastic story. Well read.
- By Jfm on 02-20-16
By: Lucia Jang, and others
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The Orphan Keeper
- By: Camron Wright
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Seven-year-old Chellamuthu's life - and his destiny - is forever changed when he is kidnapped from his village in Southern India and sold to the Lincoln Home for Homeless Children. His family is desperate to find him, and Chellamuthu anxiously tells the Indian orphanage that he is not an orphan, he has a mother who loves him. But he is told not to worry, he will soon be adopted by a loving family in America.
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5 Star Worthy
- By Kari on 10-26-16
By: Camron Wright
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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 War Girls
- By: V. S. Alexander
- Narrated by: Kelli Tager
- Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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It's not just a thousand miles that separates Hanna Majewski from her younger sister, Stefa. There is another gulf—between the traditional Jewish ways that Hanna chose to leave behind in Warsaw, and her new, independent life in London. But as autumn of 1940 draws near, Germany begins a savage aerial bombing campaign in England, killing and displacing tens of thousands. Hanna, who narrowly escapes death, is recruited as a spy in an undercover operation that sends her back to her war-torn homeland.
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Courageous Sisters
- By Sara on 08-10-22
By: V. S. Alexander
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The Song Poet
- A Memoir of My Father
- By: Kao Kalia Yang
- Narrated by: Kao Kalia Yang
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Bee lost his father as a young boy and keenly felt his orphanhood. He would wander from one neighbor to the next, collecting the things they said to each other, whispering the words to himself at night until one day a song was born. Bee sings the life of his people through the war-torn jungle and a Thai refugee camp. But the songs fall away in the cold, bitter world of a Minneapolis housing project and on the factory floor until, with the death of Bee's mother, the songs leave him for good.
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Beautiful, full of sadness, power, and heart.
- By Melissa L. Magana on 04-27-17
By: Kao Kalia Yang
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The Glass Palace
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose love will shape his life. He cannot forget her, and years later, as a rich man, he goes in search of her.
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I struggled to finish... enough said.
- By Ty on 05-02-10
By: Amitav Ghosh
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The Girl in the Blue Beret
- A Novel
- By: Bobbie Ann Mason
- Narrated by: Fred Sullivan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Inspired by a true story, the best-selling author of In Country offers a gorgeous, haunting novel about an airline pilot coming to terms with his past, and searching for the people who saved him during World War II. After Marshall Stone's B-17 bomber was shot down in occupied Europe in 1944, people in the French Resistance helped him escape to safety.
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Needs a woman narrator for female characters
- By Patricia A Gallagher on 02-23-21
By: Bobbie Ann Mason
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The Hundred-Year Walk
- An Armenian Odyssey
- By: Dawn Anahid MacKeen
- Narrated by: Neil Shah, Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In the heart of the Ottoman Empire as World War I rages, Stepan Miskjian's world becomes undone. He is separated from his family as they are swept up in the government's mass deportation of Armenians into internment camps. Gradually realizing the unthinkable - that they are all being driven to their deaths - he fights, through starvation and thirst, not to lose hope.
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Everything a memoir should be. You will enjoy it!
- By Jakk on 02-19-18
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First They Killed My Father
- A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
- By: Loung Ung
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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One of seven children of a high-ranking government official, Loung Ung lived a privileged life in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh until the age of five. Then, in April 1975, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into the city, forcing Ung's family to flee and, eventually, to disperse. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, her siblings were sent to labor camps, and those who survived the horrors would not be reunited until the Khmer Rouge was destroyed.
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Brutal, Heartbreaking
- By Gillian on 01-27-15
By: Loung Ung
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The Masked Rider
- Cycling in West Africa
- By: Neil Peart
- Narrated by: Brian Sutherland
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The prolific drummer for the rock band Rush travels through African villages, both large and small, and relates his story through journal entries and tales of adventure, while simultaneously addressing issues such as differences in culture, psychology, and labels. Literary and artistic sidekicks such as Aristotle, Dante, and Van Gogh join Peart and his cycling companions, reminding the listener that this is not just another travel book - it is a story of both external and introspective discovery and adventure.
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Fascinating Trip Across Cameroon
- By Diann Sedam on 11-26-19
By: Neil Peart
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Someone Named Eva
- By: Joan M. Wolff
- Narrated by: Rachel Botchan
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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M. Wolf traveled to the Czech Republic, birthplace of her great-grandmother, for further insight into this remarkable story. Someone Named Eva is the devastating tale of a young girl whose identity is threatened by the allconsuming sweep of Nazi aggression. Before she loses everything, Milada is a normal, happy girl. But then come the Nazis, tearing her from her family’s arms and leaving her with little but her grandmother’s lingering words: “Remember who you are.”
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It was good
- By S. R. Jordan on 02-20-24
By: Joan M. Wolff
What listeners say about The Broken Circle
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ginny G
- 06-05-21
worth the time to listen
it is a well written story of escape from Afganistan. we can never bvb really know what they endured
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- H. Painter
- 03-23-22
Wonderful Story!
I really loved this story, from start to finish! It centered around a very strong family who faced unbelievable hardships, to escape a war-torn Afghanistan. I loved all of the characters, and it was very well-written! The narrator did a fantastic job! A+++
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- Poriotis
- 08-12-19
Amazing story
This is an amazing story. It will keep you listening.
I didn't like the ending though and I was close to giving it 3 stars but I decided that it's worth more. I believe the author could have spent another chapter to summarize the remaining of her life's journey. This leads me to believe there might be a second book in the works.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Skye
- 09-23-20
Hidden treasure
I was unsure of this book when I started but I’m so glad I got it and listened. The performance was wonderfully done and the story is incredible. I thought I knew the history of the USSR in Afghanistan but I did not. Not only is this a great story about survival but it’s also about how family can make all the difference in the world.
There are a lot of lessons to learn in this story. I know that I probably missed some & will need to listen again to it.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Bethany Beekly
- 05-23-21
some things I'd change; still very worth my time
I'm glad I got to experience this book. It gave me insight into cultures and a slice of history that I feel my education did a woefully inadequate job of exposing me to, and there were moments of remarkable beauty and poignancy that really moved me. At times the story felt like it wanted for editing. Enjeelah would go back and forth between opposing ideas without any acknowledgement that this was happening. It MIGHT have been intentional--showing the ways our desires and hopes and opinions can vascillate between wildly different extremes--but to me it didn't feel intentional, it felt somewhat disorganized. The ending also felt a little half-baked, like the author got tired of telling the story and just cut it off abruptly with some cliches about things eventually working out. Even if she didn't detail the journey to America, it would have been nice to at the very least flash back to the scene from the first chapter and remind us of where she is now, reflect on how the memories of her childhood and this harrowing journey fit into her identity in America as an adult, etc. I had been looking forward to such a reflection the entire book and it just never came. I also didn't love the narrator, I found she paused or drew out words in a way that felt very random and strange, and I kind of wish I had read this instead of listening to it. Despite this negativity though I do have to say I enjoyed the book and am really glad I got to experience it as the title of my review says. I'm looking forward forward learning more about this time/place in history.
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- Patticake
- 03-04-22
A special family.
I did not feel this was indicative of the normal people fleeing Afghanistan. They had money to fund their trip.
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-20-20
Book ok; irritating pronunciation errors
Narrator should have checked her pronunciations.
Examples: Zuleikha, Peshawar, Mujahideen (pronounced as muhajideen in half the narration), even plait!
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- Giselle G
- 03-06-24
the emotions were so realistic in the story
The story kept me guessing and I loved hearing the emotions and feelings of the narrator
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- Lindy68
- 06-13-21
Definitely Not a Favorite Reader
Struggled to finish. might have enjoyed more if I had read in book format. The reader's performance was too lilting and "sing song" for such a serious subject. it was all I could do to make myself finish the book.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-19-21
The Broken Circle is a must-listen!
First of all, sometimes the voice of the reader can make or break an audiobook. This woman who performed the book was spectacular. The story was so good. You really got to know the characters and you care for this young girl who saw the world through such innocent eyes. I loved her telling of it. I also appreciated that it told just enough for you to understand the hardships but not so much that it wouldn’t be appropriate for younger audiences. I also liked that it was clean with only the slightest bit of cussing toward the end. I appreciated learning a little bit more about Afghanistan, India, Hindus, and Muslims. I would recommend this book to anyone of any age.
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