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The Concrete Island
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
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Publisher's summary
A chilling novel about our modern world, from the author of Empire of the Sun and Crash.
An architect is driving home from his London offices when a blow-out sends his speeding Jaguar hurtling out of control. Smashing through a temporary barrier he finds himself, dazed and disorientated, on a traffic island below three converging motorways. But when he tries to climb the embankment or flag-down a passing car for help it proves impossible - and he finds himself marooned on the concrete island.
In this twisted version of Robinson Crusoe, our hero must learn to survive - using only what he can find in his crashed car. Concrete Island provides an unnerving study of our modern lives and world. With his alienating, ‘Ballardian’ view of normal events, this is a unique novel from one of our finest writers.
J. G. Ballard was born in 1930 in Shanghai, where his father was a businessman. After internment in a civilian prison camp, he and his family returned to England in 1946. He published his first novel, The Drowned World, in 1961. His 1984 best seller Empire of the Sun won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was later filmed by Steven Spielberg. His memoir Miracles of Life was published in 2008. J.G. Ballard died in 2009.
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After six years in England, Rachel has returned to Kenya and the farm where she spent her childhood, but the beloved home she'd longed for is much changed. Her father's new companion - a strange, intolerant woman - has taken over the household. The political climate in the country grows more unsettled by the day and is approaching the boiling point. And looming over them all is the threat of the Mau Mau, a secret society intent on uniting the native Kenyans and overthrowing the whites.
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IMPERIALISM
- By Haberwoman on 08-02-18
By: Jennifer McVeigh
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Ratlines
- By: Stuart Neville
- Narrated by: Alan Smyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Ireland 1963. As the Irish people prepare to welcome President John F. Kennedy to the land of his ancestors, a German national is murdered in a seaside guesthouse. Lieutenant Albert Ryan, Directorate of Intelligence, is ordered to investigate. The German is the third foreigner to die within a few days, and Minister for Justice Charles Haughey wants the killing to end lest, a shameful secret be exposed: the dead men were all Nazis granted asylum by the Irish government in the years following World War II.
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excellent novel; loses authenticity in narration
- By connie on 01-06-13
By: Stuart Neville
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Life Class
- By: Pat Barker
- Narrated by: Russell Boulter
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In the spring of 1914, a group of young students gather in an art studio for a life-drawing class. Paul Tarrant and Elinor Brooke are two components of a love triangle, and at the outset of the war, they turn to each other. After volunteering for the Red Cross, Paul must confront the fact that life, love, and art will never be the same for him.
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In Love and War
- By Cariola on 07-28-09
By: Pat Barker
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Empire of the Sun
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- Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Shanghai, 1941 -- a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and corpses, a young British boy searches in vain for his parents. Imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, he is witness to the fierce white flash of Nagasaki, as the bomb bellows the end of the war...and the dawn of a blighted world.
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Abridged version kind of ruins it.
- By John S on 06-12-14
By: J. G. Ballard
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A Beautiful Place to Die
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- Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Unfolding in 1952 South Africa, A Beautiful Place to Die is a riveting international mystery that flows from the pen of author Malla Nunn. Police officer Emmanuel Cooper is dispatched to a remote town after a police captain is found murdered in a creek. Even though Cooper judges the crime open and shut, the government's feared Special Branch is summoned, making for an intrigue that will titillate any mystery fan.
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Police Procedural & The Pain Of Apartheid
- By Sara on 09-30-15
By: Malla Nunn
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Haunted
- David Ash Series, Book 1
- By: James Herbert
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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A ghostly twist. Three nights of terror at the house called Edbrook. Three nights in which David Ash, there to investigate a haunting, will be victim of horrifying games. Three nights in which he will face the blood-chilling enigma of his own past. Three hideous nights before Edbrook's dreadful secret will be revealed...And the true nightmare will begin.to the surface, tormenting him, refusing to let him rest. The memory of what he once had been.
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Wait For It-----Wait For It
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-09-13
By: James Herbert
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The Feed
- A Novel
- By: Nick Clark Windo
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett, Nick Clark Windo
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The Feed is accessible everywhere, by everyone, at any time. It instantaneously links us to all information and global events. Tom and Kate use the Feed, but Tom has resisted its addiction. The Feed's collapse, taking modern society with it, leaves people scavenging to survive. Tom and Kate have managed to protect themselves and their family. But then their six-year-old daughter, Bea, goes missing. Who has taken her? How do you begin to look for someone in a world without technology?
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uhhh
- By Michelle on 03-10-20
By: Nick Clark Windo
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Blind Pursuit
- By: Michael Prescott
- Narrated by: Allison McLemore
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In the dead of night, psychologist Erin Reilly is abducted from her Tucson home. Her kidnapper: a serial killer who burns his victims alive. Tormented by his obsession, he wants Erin to cure him before he kills again. If she fails, she'll become his next victim. While Erin's twin sister Annie searches desperately for her, Erin delves into her captor's psyche and his past, discovering a secret guilt...a complex web of crime and betrayal...and an unexpected connection between the killer and herself.
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Turn a Five Hour Car Trip into Minutes
- By jane on 08-21-13
By: Michael Prescott
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Cruel World
- A Novel
- By: Joe Hart
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Hidden away from the world by his famous father, Quinn Kelly strives to find meaning in his life while struggling with a deformity that has kept him from leaving the only home he has ever known. On the eve of his departure a sudden and deadly virus sweeps across the nation, killing nearly all it touches. Within days Quinn is left to fend for himself in an empty world. But there is something still very much alive beyond the walls of his sanctuary.
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BEST post apocalyptic story
- By melinda a rister on 10-02-21
By: Joe Hart
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What listeners say about The Concrete Island
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- josh
- 02-08-17
Interesting. complelingly odd.
Would you listen to The Concrete Island again? Why?
Like an off brand bag of chips that you are still eating for some reason.
The label looked cool on the shelf so you take it home. and then next week there you are buying the strange flavor of chip again. this is J.G. Balard.
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- Lucretia Bell
- 04-23-16
A disgusting protagonist, an okay book
The Concrete Island is a "modern" take on Robinson Crusoe, with dashes of 1970s era offensive terms and mindsets for flavor. If you are looking for a Robinsonade to thrill in the protagonist's ingenuity and will to survive, and you want it with a modern twist, go read The Martian. You won't find that story here. Instead, you will see a mildly unpleasant and very self-centered man deteriorate into a person whose actions made me feel physically ill. In spite of the intensity of disgust and frustration aroused by certain moments, for the most part getting through this book is more task than torture. There are moments of lovely prose, and the unrealized promise of a brilliant satire on the deeply outdated ideals that lurk below the surface in any Robinsonade. The final word on this, though, can only be "ehh".
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1 person found this helpful
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- Viewer
- 02-18-21
An artful miss
There's some marvelous hyperbolic sequences where Ballard is illustrating various shades of Freudian regression in the fully grown. However, apart from these glimmers, the overall limitations of the extremely sparse hyperreal setting drain this novel of the needed illusion and forward velocity that makes books like High Rise and (much of) Crash so oddly and singularly captivating.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-30-20
A story about a jerk who doesn't change
The main character is selfish and lacks empathy from beginning to end. The characters were flat.
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1 person found this helpful