The Chai House
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Narrated by:
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Deepti Gupta
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By:
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Priti Srivastava
About this listen
Narrated by Deepti Gupta, 2022 Audie Award winner for Best Female Narrator, The Chai House is a haunting debut novel that explores the complexity of community when individuals are unaware of their own roles in upholding systems of oppression.
Swati has spent her entire life trying to live up to her family’s expectations of her. She has learned it is easiest to just do what is asked of her, without resistance; a skill that has helped her survive in the early years of the Knights, an authoritarian regime. When her mother has a request for Swati, she agrees to it as it is the only way to help her young niece have some sort of future.
An emotional listen, The Chai House examines the desire to be true to yourself in a world where familial, cultural, societal, and political values direct you to stay small and stay silent.
©2020 Jamie Gratrix (P)2022 Jamie GratrixListeners also enjoyed...
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Heloise considers it a blessing to be a person who seldom attracts attention. In her suburb, she's just a mom, the young widow with the forgettable job, who somehow never misses a soccer game. In the state capital, she's the redheaded lobbyist with a good cause and a mediocre track record. But in discreet hotel rooms throughout the area, she's the woman of your dreams - if you can afford the hourly fee. For more than a decade, Heloise believed she was safe, managing to keep up this rigidly compartmentalized life. But her secret life is under siege. One county over, another so-called suburban madam has been found dead in her car, an apparent suicide.
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And When She Was Bad...
- By Carole T. on 08-18-12
By: Laura Lippman
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After I'm Gone
- A Novel
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Linda Emond
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Dead is dead. Missing is gone. When Felix Brewer meets nineteen-year-old Bernadette "Bambi" Gottschalk at a Valentine's Day dance in 1959, he charms her with wild promises, some of which he actually keeps. Thanks to his lucrative - if not all legal - businesses, she and their three little girls live in luxury. But on the Fourth of July in 1976, Bambi's comfortable world implodes when Felix, facing prison, vanishes. Though Bambi has no idea where her husband - or his money - might be, she suspects one woman does: his devoted young mistress, Julie.
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Cannot rate this highly enough!
- By C. Vincent on 03-05-14
By: Laura Lippman
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Veil of Roses
- By: Laura Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Angela Dawe
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Tamila Soroush wanted it all. But in the Islamic Republic of Iran, dreams are a dangerous thing for a girl. Tami abandons them…until her twenty-seventh birthday, when her parents give her a one-way ticket to America, hoping she will “go and wake up her luck.” If they have their way, Tami will never return to Iran…which means she has three months to find a husband in America.
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Rooting for freedom
- By Newman on 07-10-13
By: Laura Fitzgerald
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Between Two Worlds
- Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam
- By: Zainab Salbi, Laurie Becklund
- Narrated by: Josephine Bailey
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Zainab Salbi was 11-years-old when her father was chosen to serve as Saddam Hussein's personal pilot, her family often forced to spend weekends with Saddam where he watched their every move. As a palace insider, Zainab offers a singular glimpse of what it is like to come of age under a dictator and provides an intimate portrait of the man she was taught to call "uncle". She watched as Saddam pitted friends, spouses, and even children against each other to compete for his approval.
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An excellent history lesson
- By Ella on 12-01-09
By: Zainab Salbi, and others
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Nearly Normal
- Surviving the Wilderness, My Family and Myself
- By: Cea Sunrise Person
- Narrated by: Cea Sunrise Person
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In her best-selling memoir North of Normal, Cea wrote with grace about her unconventional childhood - her early years living in a tipi in Alberta with her pot-smoking, free-loving counterculture family. But her struggles do not end when she leaves her family at the age of 13 to become a model. Honest and daring, Nearly Normal reveals the many ways that Cea's unconventional childhood continues to reverberate through the years.
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This one is just not for me
- By Pamela Plimpton on 03-15-19
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A Necessary End: A Novel
- By: Holly Brown
- Narrated by: Khristine Hvam, James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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At nineteen Leah bears a remarkable resemblance to the young woman Adrienne once was. Which is why Adrienne knows the baby Leah is carrying is meant to be hers. But Leah's got ideas of her own: Her baby's going to get a life in California; why shouldn't she? All she wants is to live in Adrienne's house for a year after the baby's born and get a fresh start. It seems like a small price for Adrienne to pay to get their baby. And with Gabe suddenly onboard, what could possibly go wrong?
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Long time audible listener.
- By Cherith DuBois on 07-11-15
By: Holly Brown
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The Last Rescue
- How Faith and Love Saved a Navy SEAL Sniper
- By: Howard Wasdin
- Narrated by: Daniel Butler
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The Last Rescue is an unforgettable tale of brokenness and healing, going deep into the firing line of modern warfare, through the agony of broken marriages, and onto a path of redemption and love. With a clear-eyed view of the inevitability of heartache and the power of God's faithfulness, Howard and Debbie remind us that no matter what our circumstances, we should never, ever, give up hope.
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Narrators
- By Trey Lewis on 03-27-15
By: Howard Wasdin
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Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight?
- Confessions of a Gay Dad
- By: Dan Bucatinsky
- Narrated by: Dan Bucatinsky
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2005, Dan Bucatinsky and his partner, Don Roos, found themselves in an L.A. delivery room, decked out in disposable scrubs from shower cap to booties, to welcome their adopted baby girl - launching their frantic yet memorable adventures into fatherhood. Two and a half years later, the same birth mother - a heroically generous, pack-a-day teen with a passion for Bridezilla marathons and Mountain Dew - delivered a son into the couple’s arms.
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A Parenting Book with Humor and Heart
- By The Reading Date on 02-05-14
By: Dan Bucatinsky
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Confessions of a Video Vixen
- Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits
- By: Karrine Steffans
- Narrated by: Karrine Steffans
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Confessions of a Video Vixen is the widely anticipated memoir of Karrine Steffans, the once-sought-after sexy siren who appeared in the music videos of multiplatinum hip hop artists such as Jay-Z, R. Kelly, and LL Cool J. A top-paid video dancer, Karrine transitioned to film when acclaimed director F. Gary Gray picked her to costar in his film A Man Apart, starring Vin Diesel.
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It ishard to stop listening to this one
- By Lito Da Critic on 07-11-05
By: Karrine Steffans
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The Wanderer
- Thunder Point, Book 1
- By: Robyn Carr
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Nestled on the Oregon coast is a small town of rocky beaches and rugged charm. Locals love the land’s unspoiled beauty. Developers see it as a potential gold mine. When newcomer Hank Cooper learns he’s been left an old friend’s entire beachfront property, he finds himself with a community’s destiny in his hands. Cooper has never been a man to settle in one place, and Thunder Point was supposed to be just another quick stop. But Cooper finds himself getting involved with the town. And with Sarah Dupre, a woman as complicated as she is beautiful.
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4.5 The Wanderer Stars
- By whatcha.listening.to on 11-09-17
By: Robyn Carr
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The Southern Education of a Jersey Girl
- Adventures in Life and Love in the Heart of Dixie
- By: Jaime Primak Sullivan
- Narrated by: Jaime Primak Sullivan
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Jaime Primak Sullivan, a Jersey-bred, tough-as-nails PR maven - and unlikely transplant in an upscale suburb of Birmingham, Alabama - has spent her entire life crossing the line: whether she's pushing the boundaries of what proper Southern ladies consider to be "polite behavior" or literally traversing the Mason-Dixon line in the name of love. She isn't afraid to say what everyone is thinking when it comes to love, sex, friendship, and many other topics that are all too often sugar-coated in polite Southern company.
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Awesome book
- By Gwendolyn on 09-23-16
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Wedding Ring
- A Shenandoah Album Novel
- By: Emilie Richards
- Narrated by: Isabel Keating
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Needing time to contemplate her troubled marriage, Tessa MacRae agrees to spend the summer helping her mother and grandmother clean out the family home in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. But the three women have never been close.
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Loved it All Over Again
- By Kathryn @theBookDate on 03-26-16
By: Emilie Richards
What listeners say about The Chai House
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Christina McKee
- 03-28-22
Compelling and Chilling Story
Wow! What a beautifully written, troubling, and compelling story. The characters were so human, so flawed. I could not stop listening. I'll be thinking about this for a long time. Brava!
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- Nicole Ann Isaacs
- 11-28-22
Intriguing and Insightful!
Multiple layers of plot weave together a speculative and dystopian landscape that is not in fact as speculative as we’d like to believe. Family and community relationship dynamics combine explosively with politics and leave us asking how can we all make it toward the Borderlands. The actions of Swati and her Amma lead to an ultimate act of love and hope.
A fantastic opening debut, I’m more than excited to read more of The Chai House Novellas!
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- Hall Ways
- 10-21-22
A strong debut
3.5 STARS.
“Assimilate now, assimilate once we break you, or assimilate when you die. The choice is up to you.”
In the vein of The Handmaid’s Tale, in The Chai House, Priti Srivastava gives readers a dystopian America where women are subjugated – for their own good, of course. To protect women, the most precious commodity, Knight and his authoritarian regime have taken over part of a split nation and created rules that remove rights for females while giving permission to men to be beasts. Women can’t receive an education and have curfews. Knowledge is power, and they can’t be out at night, you see, because it’s not safe…because of men. Oh, and if they were out in the evenings, gallivanting about, they wouldn’t be in their homes cooking dinner for their Knights and doing their chores. A Queen might have it a little better with her arranged marriage and purity intact (prior to arranged marriage, naturally), because those impure women, the worker wives (who do the scullery), and the loaner wives (available because men need companionship when traveling, bless their hearts), allow a Queen to have a modicum of freedom...from the men and their rules.
While Srivastava doesn’t give the specifics of what got the world to this point, it’s implied that the nation split, and possibly chemical warfare ensued. There’s reference to the Mideastern wastelands and fumes that cause hallucinations and sterility in men, making it a perfect place to send those noncompliant men. There are also references of continuing battles to win or win back cities and territories from Knights, who seem to be primarily white.
“I was out of my head. Or too into it. You know how that is.”
Our main character and narrator, Swati, is a strong-willed and intelligent young Indian American woman who sums up her world early on by saying she had a good life until the Fascists came. Her relationship with her mother, Amma, is complicated, and according to Swati, Amma “will never understand love. She only understands duty. She only understands rules.” But as happens when children mature or are forced to grow up early, Swati begins to understand her mother’s actions and realizes there is more to Amma’s behaviors than meets the eye, and Amma’s warning of being cautious of powerful white men is a piece of advice to take seriously.
“I came here for a better life for my daughter and instead both my daughter, and my granddaughter will have less freedom than I ever did.”
Running parallel to Swati’s story is a second one that seems intrusive and out of place initially. Readers get brief snippets into the nomadic life of Cindy and her young daughter, Jenny. These characters are voiced with a syrupy Southern accent, and they seem to be white females who are rebels trying to survive and on the run from Knight. The author shows the tenderness between this mother and daughter, but then juxtaposes that with the things they must do to survive. There are alarming scenes that are powerful in their irony, as in how Cindy considers herself a good parent and the concern of Jenny that Cindy’s kindness could get them killed.
While the two separate plots seem incongruous, Srivastava moves each forward and eventually connects them in a most surprising and horrific way, leaving readers with a jaw-dropping ending that had this one exclaiming, “WAIT! WHAAAAATTTT?!”
The Chai House is a novella-length story (127 pages) that I think could do with a developmental edit to fill the considerable holes and gaps in the stories. Granted, in listening to a story instead of reading one, it’s easy to miss a quick but vital piece of information. However, there were fine details that seemed significant in their mention but where never explained or connected anywhere else. Srivastava provides rich descriptions of scenes and situations, but often there’s a lack of providing the why behind them. The result is that after I finished the book, I had quite a “but what was X about?” list in my notes.
ABOUT THE NARRATION: Deepti Gupta is a great narration choice, and her voicing of the Indian character – young and old, male and female -- perfectly complemented Srivastava’s text. Her pacing is slow but even, and while her Southern accent was a bit over the top, it left no doubt as to who was speaking in those sections. I listened at 1.25x on Audible, which was a little faster than I’d like, but better than 1x. (Audible really needs to align with other platforms that allow finer tuning of speed.)
Overall, The Chai House is an excellent debut, and I plan on reading the eBook to re-visit the story. The author is a gifted storyteller and this world they have created clearly has more stories to be told. I will absolutely will pick up the next book they write.
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