The Buried Giant
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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David Horovitch
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By:
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Kazuo Ishiguro
About this listen
An extraordinary new novel from the author of Never Let Me Go and the Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day.
"You've long set your heart against it, Axl, I know. But it's time now to think on it anew. There's a journey we must go on, and no more delay..."
The Buried Giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen in years.
Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel in nearly a decade is about lost memories, love, revenge, and war.
©2015 Kazuo Ishiguro (P)2014 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Editorial reviews
Featured Article: The top 100 fantasy listens of all time
When compiling our list of the best fantasy listening out there, we immediately came up against the age-old question: Is this fantasy or science fiction? The distinction is not as clear as you may think. Dragons, elves, and wizards are definitely fantasy, but what about wizards that also fly space ships? (Looking at you, Star Wars.) For the sake of fantasy purity, the top 100 fantasy listens include the best audio works in all manner of fantasy subgenres.
Editor's Pick
The mists of memory
"Buried Giant is a languid, masterful study of characterization, language, and memory. There’s lots of walking and talking in this listen, but I never found myself bored because the characters—oh, my word, the characters—resound with personality, desires, and mysterious motivations. The listening experience feels like a chess match being played in the fog, where the board itself has hills and valleys which may or may not conceal a slumbering monster from another age. This is patient, literary fiction at its finest."
—Sean T., Audible Editor
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- Narrated by: Stephen Largay, Sarah Ellis
- Length: 21 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Women rule the world in this suspenseful love story set in a post-nuclear future. Having expelled men from their vast walled cities to a lower-class wilderness, the women in this futuristic universe dictate policy and chart the future through control of scientific and technological advances. Among their laws are the rules for reproductive engagement, an act now viewed as a means of procreation rather than an act of love.
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Gripping narration in Audible format
- By Fergus on 05-07-13
By: Pamela Sargent
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The Legend of Huma
- Dragonlance: Heroes, Book 1
- By: Richard A. Knaak
- Narrated by: Richard Topol
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Only fragments of the account of Huma survived the Cataclysm that broke the world of Krynn. The fullness of his tale has never been told – until now. One man took up the call to defend the world against the Queen of Darkness. He was the first Hero of the Lance, driven by his devotion to the Oath and the Measure and his love for a silver dragon. His life made him a hero. Here is the tale that made him a legend….
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poor performance, good story
- By Tim & Michelle on 10-25-16
By: Richard A. Knaak
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The Naming
- The First Book of Pellinor
- By: Alison Croggon
- Narrated by: Eloise Oxer
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Maerad is a slave in a desperate and unforgiving settlement, taken there as a child when her family is destroyed in war. She doesn’t yet know she has inherited a powerful gift, one that marks her as a member of the noble School of Pellinor and enables her to see the world as no other can. It is only when she is discovered by Cadvan, one of the great Bards of Lirigon, that her true identity and extraordinary destiny unfold.
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absolutely enchanting
- By Athemea on 09-05-15
By: Alison Croggon
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The Serpent Sword
- The Bernicia Chronicles, Book 1
- By: Matthew Harffy
- Narrated by: Barnaby Edwards
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Beobrand is compelled by his brother's almost-certain murder to embark on a quest for revenge in the war-ravaged kingdoms of Northumbria. The land is rife with danger, as warlords vie for supremacy and dominion. In the battles for control of the region, new oaths are made and broken, and loyalties are tested to the limits. With no patronage and no experience, Beobrand must form his own allegiances and learn to fight with sword and shield. Relentless in pursuit of his enemies, he faces challenges which transform him from a boy to a man.
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Amazing story, needs a warning in the description.
- By Lisa Schilling on 04-12-17
By: Matthew Harffy
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Magdalen Rising
- The Beginning
- By: Elizabeth Cunningham
- Narrated by: Heather O'Neill
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Young Magdalen and Jesus, brimming with youthful charm and arrogance, find each other and fall in love, forging a bond that is stronger than death. Their pleasure is overshadowed by a brilliant but unbalanced druid who knows a perilous secret about Maeve's past. The prequel to The Passion of Mary Magdalen.
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The Story as Maeve meant you to hear it!
- By Elizabeth Cunningham on 07-27-15
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The Silmarillion
- By: J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien
- Narrated by: Andy Serkis
- Length: 19 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor. Included on the recording are several shorter works. The Ainulindalë is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. The Akallabêth recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Númenor at the end of the Second Age, and Of the Rings of Power tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age.
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TIPS when reading this book:
- By Anonymous User on 06-29-23
By: J. R. R. Tolkien, and others
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Son of Avonar
- Bridge of D'Arnath, Book 1
- By: Carol Berg
- Narrated by: Angele Masters
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Magic is forbidden throughout the Four Realms. For decades, sorcerers and those associating with them were hunted to near extinction.But Seri, a Leiran noblewoman living in exile, is no stranger to defying the unjust laws of her land. She is sheltering a wanted fugitive who possesses unusual abilities-a fugitive with the fate of the realms in his hands...
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Great Series!
- By Bob-o on 08-30-16
By: Carol Berg
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The Eagle of the Ninth
- By: Rosemary Sutcliff
- Narrated by: Charlie Simpson
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Abridged
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Marcus Flavius Aquila, a young centurion in Roman Britain, is forced into retirement after receiving a wound in his first major engagement against a rebel British tribe. It allows him the freedom to embark upon a dangerous mission to find out what happened to the Ninth Legion, which, years before, disappeared in the savage lands of the Picts. Will he find out what happened to the men, led by his father, who never returned? And will he recover the Eagle, the symbol of Roman dominance and power?
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Give it to us unabridged!
- By C. Liddiard on 01-12-11
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Only the Stones Survive
- By: Morgan Llywelyn
- Narrated by: Michael Healy
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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For centuries the Túatha Dé Danann lived in peace on an island where time flowed more slowly and the seasons were gentle - until that peace was shattered by the arrival of invaders. The Gaels, the Children of Milesios, came looking for easy riches and conquest, following the story of an island to the west where their every desire could be granted. They had not anticipated that it would already be home to others, and against the advice of their druids, they began to exterminate the Túatha Dé Danann.
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Preferred audio to print
- By Heather Cooper on 02-09-17
By: Morgan Llywelyn
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Forge of Darkness
- Kharkanas Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Steven Erikson
- Narrated by: Daniel Philpott
- Length: 31 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Forge of Darkness takes listeners to Kurald Galain, the warren of Darkness, and tells of a realm whose fate plays a crucial role in the fall of the Malazan Empire and surrounds one of the Malazan world’s most fascinating and powerful characters, Anomander Rake. It’s a conflicted time in Kurald Galain, where Mother Dark reigns above the Tiste people. But this ancient land was once home to many a power...and even death is not quite eternal. The commoners’ great hero, Vatha Urusander, longs for ascendency and Mother Dark’s hand in marriage, but she has taken another Consort, Lord Draconus.
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A Precursor Epic Fantasy - A Rewarding Beginning!
- By Michael on 11-08-12
By: Steven Erikson
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The Lord Is My Shepherd
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"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." So begins the psalm that, for millennia, has been a source of comfort in grief and of courage in fear. Now Harold Kushner discovers what it has to teach us about living our day-to-day lives. Each chapter discusses one line of the psalm in the context of both the time when it was written and the present day, and illuminates the life lessons it contains.
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Sensational Masterpiece of Explanation
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The Nobel Lecture in Literature, delivered by Kazuo Ishiguro ( The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans) at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 7, 2017. In the eloquent and candid lecture he delivered upon accepting the award, Ishiguro reflects on the way he was shaped by his upbringing, and on the turning points in his career.
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It all starts with the radio. Dorothy's husband has left for work, and she is at the kitchen sink washing the dishes, listening to classical music. Suddenly, the music fades out and a soft, close, dreamy voice says, "Don't worry, Dorothy." A couple weeks later, there is a special interruption in regular programming. The announcer warns all listeners of an escaped sea monster. That afternoon, the seven-foot-tall lizard man walks through Dorothy's kitchen door. She is frightened at first, but there is something attractive about the monster, and the two begin a tender, clandestine affair.
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BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Six Tragedies
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A collection of BBC Radio 3's iconic Shakespeare productions: six tragedies with all star casts including Michael Sheen, Juliet Stevenson, Kenneth Cranham, Corin Redgrave, Ken Stott, Geraldine James, Bill Wallis, Siân Phillips and Sophie Dahl.
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missing important parts
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A Thousand Trails Home
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A stunningly lyrical firsthand account of a life spent hunting, studying, and living alongside caribou, A Thousand Trails Home encompasses the historical past and present day, revealing the fragile intertwined lives of people and animals surviving on an uncertain landscape of cultural and climatic change sweeping the Alaskan Arctic. Author Seth Kantner vividly illuminates this critical story about the interconnectedness of the Iñupiat of Northwest Alaska, the Western Arctic caribou herd, and the larger Arctic region.
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The Innocent
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War-weary Berlin has much to offer Leonard Markham, a young, naive postal engineer: first the arts of sophisticated intrigue, then the delights of sexual pleasure. But Leonard's new knowledge carries a heavy price, dragging him and the listener into a new type of story that is exhaustively suspenseful and utterly irresistible.
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A little gem
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Saturday
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New York Times best-selling author Ian McEwan's novels have inspired sweeping critical acclaim and won such prestigious awards as the Booker Prize for Amsterdam and the National Book Critics Circle Award for his modern masterpiece, Atonement. With Saturday, McEwan has crafted perhaps his most unique achievement to date.
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Extraordinary
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What listeners say about The Buried Giant
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Dumbfounded consumer
- 07-07-15
Fiercely sublime
Would you listen to The Buried Giant again? Why?
Definitely. Partly to revisit the characters and get some of the nuance of the story that I'm sure I missed the first go around - mostly for Horovitch.
What did you like best about this story?
It's constant pace. It's doesn't have to hit you in the face. Axl and Beatrice are on a journey, the subtext of the journey is delivered subtly and on the way. It's not flight butressed by essays, but a nice walk; a full and satisfying walk.
What about David Horovitch’s performance did you like?
He's a master. If you want to learn about yourself if you're the kind of person who'd like audiobooks, start with this; If you don't, you won't. It doesn't get better than this. The character changes are effortless and real. I've started to search for books to try not by author, but by clicking on this narrator.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Every ounce of dialog from Axl. Start to finish.
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20 people found this helpful
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- Moe
- 03-10-15
Heartfelt and enchanting.
The narrator was on point. The tale met my expectations as an Ishiguro classic. A world of good old fashioned ogres, dragons, pixies and the like. A world filled with chivalry and hostility. Wonderfully setting off the characters. I feel like was the haunting ending. Very much recommended. A world I will be happy to return to many times.
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18 people found this helpful
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- Bonny
- 03-28-15
Not particularly successful
This book is often referred to as a fantasy novel, but in my opinion it bears very little resemblance to fantasy. I'd describe it as a philosophical novel with a few fantastic and mythical elements. The concept is good, the questions asked are valuable, but the execution, while often beautifully written, is so labored and dialogue-heavy that it only occasionally gets off the ground.
So much of the book is in dialogue, and there is so much repetition, that although events are happening to the characters, it feels as though nothing is happening. The fantastic elements have little weight and are almost beside the point. The book's truth could have been discovered as well if it had concerned an elderly couple living today, experiencing the memory loss that frequently comes with advanced age.
The author asks good questions: is the love between two people still valid if they can't remember their past? Is peace between peoples desirable or meaningful if it is based on their inability to remember their arguments and their wars? They are excellent questions, but this is a long, labored, roundabout way of exploring them.
The narration is excellent.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Joan D. Wray
- 04-18-15
I missed the meaning of the ending.
Amazing story and performance. What happened at the end? Am I just lame? Help me out here, someone. Appreciate it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Christopher Juliano
- 04-04-18
sad but beautiful story.
the ending is rather dark which leaves me appreciative and yet saddened. I loved it, even as it has depressed me. well acted by the narrator.
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- Orca
- 03-30-15
Chaucerian allegory to summon in the Saxon Age
This is an intriguing novel, lyrical and repetitive in the telling. I can understand the comparisons to Tolkein's intentions. Old England and its lore is a deep study and there's fascinating aspects and allegories throughout the book. But as a whole it also suffers from its repetitive style and placing vagueness intentionally at the core of its plot.
A sad, evocative and faulty work, at the same time an endearing and sentimental journey. A road trip that's in some ways reminiscent of the Canterbury Tales.
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- 6ftSophia
- 12-11-19
An average fairy tale
An old style fairy tale, with dark twists.
All a bit average, in writing and narration.
Didn't like the end.
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- Kathryne
- 06-24-20
Good narration, OK story.
Narrator Review: I'm an American, so, any time a guy with a British accent reads something, I think it's top notch. Mr. Horovitch's accent did not disappoint. His cadence and varied voices (without using a falsetto to read the women's parts) made the story easy to follow. The performance and reading itself was unassailable. However, Mr. Horovitch was born in 1945, which means he is probably *just* a bit younger than our very forgetful main characters. Since I struggled with the characters and the plot already (see below), for me, the voice added a layer on top of it like when your grandpa is telling a story with EXTRA. irrelevant background. Again - not his fault, he can only read the words on the paper. But, it just contributed to my overall dissatisfaction.
Spoiler free story review: The problem with writing a story about folks who have lost their memory is that it is very difficult to craft a narrative wherein those people have anything to say. Our main characters are an elderly couple struggling in a nation where everyone is affected by some bizarre memory loss. The plot meanders (since all the characters are suffering from some degree of memory loss), words and phrases are repeated, and much of the book is spent with the characters explaining things to other characters. A lot of the time, these things are things the reader already understands - unless he or she also suffers from magical memory loss.
It makes for a dreary story that feels stilted, unsettled, and, well, unfinished. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end to this story and, for that, I will give it two stars. But, I found myself checking for how much was left of this book quite a bit.
Last point: Does anyone have a count of how many times Axl says "Princess"? I get that we have pet names for our loved ones, but, this felt over the top.
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- Mimijo
- 12-27-17
Enigmatic fable of ancient England
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
David Horovitch's performance is wonderful, really brings the story to life. I am not a fan of fantasy, but was enthralled by immersion in this world of dragons, pixies, knights and strange mists that cause memory loss. I have been bingeing on Ishiguro lately -- loved The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, didn't much like When We Were Orphans. This I would put in the "like" category. It is vividly described and the characters are well-drawn and sympathetic (though, as other readers have noted, Axl's incessant use of "Princess" every time he addresses his wife Beatrice gets very tiresome).
If you’ve listened to books by Kazuo Ishiguro before, how does this one compare?
It is beautifully narrated, as were The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, though by different performers.
What about David Horovitch’s performance did you like?
I liked his different accents for the Britons and the Saxons (Wistan sounds Swedish, as befits the Nordic Saxons). And his different vocal qualities for the various characters, male and female, were well done.
If you could rename The Buried Giant, what would you call it?
The Mist of Forgetting
Any additional comments?
I am pondering the ending. It dropped off a cliff and left me dangling. There is a great and building sense of melancholy as the novel moves into its last phase. At the end I was not sure whether to trust the boatman's promises, his reassurances. Clearly Axl seems to profoundly doubt. I think this is one I will reread in print, to study the clues to its overall meaning that I'm sure Ishiguro has carefully planted.
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- ReaderReader
- 04-25-15
Not what I expected
This reads like an allegory rather than a fantasy. There's a lot of exposition and telling of what the characters are doing. And the man in the book calls his wife "princess" so often that it becomes
annoying and overdone and a little bit off putting. Not my favorite of his books.
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