-
The Convert
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $18.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
Finalist for the 2020 National Jewish Book Awards
In this dazzling work of historical fiction, the Man Booker International long-listed author of War and Turpentine reconstructs the tragic story of a medieval noblewoman who leaves her home and family for the love of a Jewish boy.
In 11th-century France, Vigdis Adelaïs, a young woman from a prosperous Christian family, falls in love with David Todros, a rabbi’s son and yeshiva student. To be together, the couple must flee their city, and Vigdis must renounce her life of privilege and comfort. Pursued by her father’s knights and in constant danger of betrayal, the lovers embark on a dangerous journey to the south of France, only to find their brief happiness destroyed by the vicious wave of anti-Semitism sweeping through Europe with the onset of the First Crusade.
What begins as a story of forbidden love evolves into a globe-trotting trek spanning continents, as Vigdis undertakes an epic journey to Cairo and back, enduring the unimaginable in hopes of finding her lost children.
Based on two fragments from the Cairo Genizah - a repository of more than 300,000 manuscripts and documents stored in the upper chamber of a synagogue in Old Cairo - Stefan Hertmans has pieced together a remarkable work of imagination, re-creating the tragic story of two star-crossed lovers whose steps he retraces almost a millennium later. Blending fact and fiction, and with immense imagination and stylistic ingenuity, Hertmans painstakingly depicts Vigdis' terrible trials, bringing the Middle Ages to life and illuminating a chaotic world of love and hate.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Genghis
- Birth of an Empire
- By: Conn Iggulden
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Genghis Khan was born Temujin, the son of a khan, raised in a clan of hunters migrating across the rugged steppe. Shaped by abandonment and betrayal, Temujin endured, driven by a singular fury: to survive in the face of death, to kill before being killed, and to conquer enemies who could come without warning from beyond the horizon. Through a series of courageous raids, Temujin's legend grew until he was chasing a vision: to unite many tribes into one, to make the earth tremble under the hoofbeats of 1,000 warhorses, to subject all nations and empires to his will.
-
-
Simply Extraordinary
- By TR Jensen on 05-17-22
By: Conn Iggulden
-
The Family
- A Read with Jenna Pick (A Novel)
- By: Naomi Krupitsky
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sofia Colicchio is a free spirit, loud and untamed. Antonia Russo is thoughtful, ever observing the world around her. Best friends since birth, they live in the shadow of their fathers’ unspoken community: the Family. Sunday dinners gather them each week to feast, discuss business, and renew the intoxicating bond borne of blood and love. But the disappearance of Antonia’s father drives a whisper-thin wedge between the girls as they grow into women, wives, mothers, and leaders. One fateful night, their loyalty to each other and the Family will be tested.
-
-
Another Hyped up Book Club Pick that didn’t deliver
- By steven testasecca on 11-14-21
By: Naomi Krupitsky
-
The Orphan's Song
- By: Lauren Kate
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Venice, 1736. When fate brings Violetta and Mino together on the roof of the Hospital of the Incurables, they form a connection that will change their lives forever. Both are orphans at the Incurables, dreaming of escape. But when the resident Maestro notices Violetta's voice, she is selected for the Incurables' world famous coro, and must sign an oath never to sing beyond its church doors. After a declaration of love ends in heartbreak, Mino flees the Incurables in search of his family. Venice is full of secrets, and Mino is certain one will lead to his long-lost mother.
-
-
Fate really has a sense of humor!
- By Kay on 07-22-19
By: Lauren Kate
-
War and Turpentine
- A Novel
- By: Stefan Hertmans, David Mckay
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The life of Urbain Martien - artist, soldier, survivor of World War I - lies contained in two notebooks he left behind when he died in 1981. His grandson, a writer, retells his story, the notebooks giving him the impetus to imagine his way into the locked chambers of Urbain's memory. He vividly recounts a whole life: Urbain as the child of a lowly church painter, retouching his father's work; dodging death in a foundry; fighting in the war that altered the course of history, and much more.
-
-
Une Beauté Douloureux en Flandres
- By W Perry Hall on 10-24-16
By: Stefan Hertmans, and others
-
What the Wind Knows
- By: Amy Harmon
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anne Gallagher grew up enchanted by her grandfather’s stories of Ireland. Heartbroken at his death, she travels to his childhood home to spread his ashes. There, overcome with memories of the man she adored and consumed by a history she never knew, she is pulled into another time. The Ireland of 1921, teetering on the edge of war, is a dangerous place in which to awaken. But there Anne finds herself, hurt, disoriented, and under the care of Dr. Thomas Smith, guardian to a young boy who is oddly familiar.
-
-
A Captivating Historical Romance!
- By Melanie on 03-04-19
By: Amy Harmon
-
The Iliad & The Odyssey
- By: Homer
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 28 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Little is known about the Ancient Greek oral poet Homer, the supposed 8th century BC author of the world-read Iliad and his later masterpiece, The Odyssey. These classic epics provided the basis for Greek education and culture throughout the classical age and formed the backbone of humane education through the birth of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity.
-
-
Worth the price, worth the time
- By Sam on 12-31-04
By: Homer
-
Genghis
- Birth of an Empire
- By: Conn Iggulden
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Genghis Khan was born Temujin, the son of a khan, raised in a clan of hunters migrating across the rugged steppe. Shaped by abandonment and betrayal, Temujin endured, driven by a singular fury: to survive in the face of death, to kill before being killed, and to conquer enemies who could come without warning from beyond the horizon. Through a series of courageous raids, Temujin's legend grew until he was chasing a vision: to unite many tribes into one, to make the earth tremble under the hoofbeats of 1,000 warhorses, to subject all nations and empires to his will.
-
-
Simply Extraordinary
- By TR Jensen on 05-17-22
By: Conn Iggulden
-
The Family
- A Read with Jenna Pick (A Novel)
- By: Naomi Krupitsky
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sofia Colicchio is a free spirit, loud and untamed. Antonia Russo is thoughtful, ever observing the world around her. Best friends since birth, they live in the shadow of their fathers’ unspoken community: the Family. Sunday dinners gather them each week to feast, discuss business, and renew the intoxicating bond borne of blood and love. But the disappearance of Antonia’s father drives a whisper-thin wedge between the girls as they grow into women, wives, mothers, and leaders. One fateful night, their loyalty to each other and the Family will be tested.
-
-
Another Hyped up Book Club Pick that didn’t deliver
- By steven testasecca on 11-14-21
By: Naomi Krupitsky
-
The Orphan's Song
- By: Lauren Kate
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Venice, 1736. When fate brings Violetta and Mino together on the roof of the Hospital of the Incurables, they form a connection that will change their lives forever. Both are orphans at the Incurables, dreaming of escape. But when the resident Maestro notices Violetta's voice, she is selected for the Incurables' world famous coro, and must sign an oath never to sing beyond its church doors. After a declaration of love ends in heartbreak, Mino flees the Incurables in search of his family. Venice is full of secrets, and Mino is certain one will lead to his long-lost mother.
-
-
Fate really has a sense of humor!
- By Kay on 07-22-19
By: Lauren Kate
-
War and Turpentine
- A Novel
- By: Stefan Hertmans, David Mckay
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The life of Urbain Martien - artist, soldier, survivor of World War I - lies contained in two notebooks he left behind when he died in 1981. His grandson, a writer, retells his story, the notebooks giving him the impetus to imagine his way into the locked chambers of Urbain's memory. He vividly recounts a whole life: Urbain as the child of a lowly church painter, retouching his father's work; dodging death in a foundry; fighting in the war that altered the course of history, and much more.
-
-
Une Beauté Douloureux en Flandres
- By W Perry Hall on 10-24-16
By: Stefan Hertmans, and others
-
What the Wind Knows
- By: Amy Harmon
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anne Gallagher grew up enchanted by her grandfather’s stories of Ireland. Heartbroken at his death, she travels to his childhood home to spread his ashes. There, overcome with memories of the man she adored and consumed by a history she never knew, she is pulled into another time. The Ireland of 1921, teetering on the edge of war, is a dangerous place in which to awaken. But there Anne finds herself, hurt, disoriented, and under the care of Dr. Thomas Smith, guardian to a young boy who is oddly familiar.
-
-
A Captivating Historical Romance!
- By Melanie on 03-04-19
By: Amy Harmon
-
The Iliad & The Odyssey
- By: Homer
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 28 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Little is known about the Ancient Greek oral poet Homer, the supposed 8th century BC author of the world-read Iliad and his later masterpiece, The Odyssey. These classic epics provided the basis for Greek education and culture throughout the classical age and formed the backbone of humane education through the birth of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity.
-
-
Worth the price, worth the time
- By Sam on 12-31-04
By: Homer
-
The Only Woman in the Room
- By: Marie Benedict
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Her beauty almost certainly saved her from the rising Nazi party and led to marriage with an Austrian arms dealer. Underestimated in everything else, she overheard the Third Reich's plans while at her husband's side, understanding more than anyone would guess. She devised a plan to flee in disguise from their castle, and the whirlwind escape landed her in Hollywood. She became Hedy Lamarr, screen star.
-
-
incredible true story about heddy Lamar
- By S. Loew on 01-26-19
By: Marie Benedict
-
A Disappearance in Fiji
- By: Nilima Rao
- Narrated by: Sid Sagar
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1914, Fiji: 25-year-old Akal Singh would rather be anywhere but this tropical paradise—or, as he calls it, “this godforsaken island.” After a promising start to his police career in his native India and Hong Kong, Akal has been sent to Fiji as punishment for a humiliating professional mistake. Lonely and grumpy, Akal plods through his work and dreams of getting back to Hong Kong. When an indentured Indian woman goes missing from a sugarcane plantation and Fiji’s newspapers scream “kidnapping,” the inspector-general reluctantly assigns Akal the case.
-
-
Good historical story
- By JU on 09-20-23
By: Nilima Rao
-
A Gentleman in Moscow
- A Novel
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 17 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.
-
-
A Reprieve Amidst Ugly News, Relentless Negativity
- By Cathy Lindhorst on 08-27-17
By: Amor Towles
-
Magdalen Rising
- The Beginning
- By: Elizabeth Cunningham
- Narrated by: Heather O'Neill
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
The Story as Maeve meant you to hear it!
- By Elizabeth Cunningham on 07-27-15
-
When Christ and His Saints Slept
- Plantagenets, Book 1
- By: Sharon Kay Penman
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 36 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In When Christ and His Saints Slept, the first of a trilogy that will tell the story of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, master storyteller and historian Sharon Kay Penman illuminates one of the less known but fascinating periods of English history. It begins with the death of King Henry I, son of William the Conqueror and father of Maude, his only living legitimate offspring.
-
-
Please release Pt 2!
- By BVerité on 06-08-19
-
Creatures of Passage
- By: Morowa Yejidé
- Narrated by: Morowa Yejidé
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nephthys Kinwell is a taxi driver of sorts in Washington, DC, ferrying passengers in a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere with a ghost in the trunk. Endless rides and alcohol help her manage her grief over the death of her twin brother, Osiris, who was murdered and dumped in the Anacostia River. Unknown to Nephthys when the novel opens in 1977, her estranged great-nephew, 10-year-old Dash, is finding himself drawn to the banks of that very same river. It is there that Dash has charmed conversations with a mysterious figure he calls the "River Man".
-
-
This is the one
- By just_watching on 04-27-21
By: Morowa Yejidé
-
The Book of Longings
- A Novel
- By: Sue Monk Kidd
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò, Sue Monk Kidd
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her mesmerizing fourth work of fiction, Sue Monk Kidd takes an audacious approach to history and brings her acclaimed narrative gifts to imagine the story of a young woman named Ana. Raised in a wealthy family with ties to the ruler of Galilee, she is rebellious and ambitious, with a brilliant mind and a daring spirit. She engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes narratives about neglected and silenced women. Ana is expected to marry an older widower, a prospect that horrifies her. An encounter with 18-year-old Jesus changes everything.
-
-
Made me cringe
- By Joan on 05-08-20
By: Sue Monk Kidd
-
Metamorphica
- By: Zachary Mason
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot, Kevin Kenerly, Robertson Dean, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the tradition of his best-selling debut novel The Lost Books of the Odyssey, Zachary Mason's Metamorphica transforms Ovid's epic poem of endless transformation. It reimagines the stories of Narcissus, Pygmalion and Galatea, Midas, and Atalanta and strings them together like the stars in constellations - even Ovid becomes a story. It's as though the ancient mythologies had been rewritten by Borges or Calvino.
-
-
Fantastic
- By Morgon O'Kelley on 01-29-21
By: Zachary Mason
-
Silence
- By: Shusaku Endo
- Narrated by: David Holt
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Recipient of the 1966 Tanizaki Prize, it has been called Endo's supreme achievement" and "one of the twentieth century's finest novels". Considered controversial ever since its first publication, it tackles the thorniest religious issues of belief and faith head on. A novel of historical fiction, it is the story of a Jesuit missionary sent to seventeenth century Japan, who endured persecution that followed the defeat of the Shimabara Rebellion.
-
-
Remarkable
- By Helgi Sigurbjörnsson on 10-12-17
By: Shusaku Endo
-
The Porpoise
- A Novel
- By: Mark Haddon
- Narrated by: Tim McInnerny
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a bravura feat of storytelling, Mark Haddon calls upon narratives ancient and modern to tell the story of Angelica, a young woman trapped in an abusive relationship with her father. When a young man named Darius discovers their secret, he is forced to escape on a boat bound for the Mediterranean. To his surprise, he finds himself travelling backward over 2,000 years to a world of pirates and shipwrecks, of plagues and miracles and angry gods.
-
-
Smart and complex
- By martini on 08-04-19
By: Mark Haddon
-
The Historian
- By: Elizabeth Kostova
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre, Paul Michael
- Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor", and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of - a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.
-
-
Great buildup to nowhere
- By Nifty Hokie15 on 04-03-18
-
Matrix
- A Novel
- By: Lauren Groff
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine, deemed too coarse and rough-hewn for marriage or courtly life, seventeen-year-old Marie de France is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey, its nuns on the brink of starvation and beset by disease. At first taken aback by the severity of her new life, Marie finds focus and love in collective life with her singular and mercurial sisters. In this crucible, Marie steadily supplants her desire for family, for her homeland, for the passions of her youth with something new to her.
-
-
Wonderful story well written and narratives
- By ReallyNelie on 09-25-21
By: Lauren Groff
Critic reviews
"Extraordinarly good.... An astonishing take.... Hertmans conjures the medieval world with the same sensuous detailing that was so effective in War and Turpentine." (The Sunday Times London)
"Constructed with delicacy, lyricism, and care.... The book has a quiet intimacy to it." (Kirkus Reviews)
“[A] commanding historical novel...[that] will satisfy readers willing to be swept away into a starkly different time.” (Publishers Weekly)
Related to this topic
-
Cathedral
- By: Ben Hopkins
- Narrated by: Malk Williams, Sophie Roberts
- Length: 19 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A sweeping story about obsession, mysticism, art and earthly desire. At the centre of this story is the Cathedral. Its design and construction in the 13th and 14th centuries in the fictional town of Hagenburg unites a vast array of unforgettable characters whose fortunes are inseparable from the shifting political factions and economic interests vying for supremacy. From the bishop to his treasurer, from local merchants to lowly stonecutters, the fate of everyone, both Gentile and Jew, is affected by the slow rise of Hagenburg’s cathedral.
-
-
Interesting description of life in the Middle Ages
- By leongork on 06-30-21
By: Ben Hopkins
-
Exile and the Kingdom
- By: Albert Camus
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a variety of masterfully rendered perspectives, these six stories depict people at painful odds with the world around them. A wife can only surrender to a desert night by betraying her husband. An artist struggles to honor his own aspirations as well as society's expectations of him. A missionary brutally converted to the worship of a tribal fetish is left with but an echo of his identity. Whether set in North Africa, Paris, or Brazil, the stories in Exile and the Kingdom are probing portraits of spiritual exile, and man's perpetual search for an inner kingdom.
-
-
So good!
- By Christopher A. Douglas on 10-24-24
By: Albert Camus
-
The Book of Longings
- A Novel
- By: Sue Monk Kidd
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò, Sue Monk Kidd
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her mesmerizing fourth work of fiction, Sue Monk Kidd takes an audacious approach to history and brings her acclaimed narrative gifts to imagine the story of a young woman named Ana. Raised in a wealthy family with ties to the ruler of Galilee, she is rebellious and ambitious, with a brilliant mind and a daring spirit. She engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes narratives about neglected and silenced women. Ana is expected to marry an older widower, a prospect that horrifies her. An encounter with 18-year-old Jesus changes everything.
-
-
Made me cringe
- By Joan on 05-08-20
By: Sue Monk Kidd
-
The Amur River
- Between Russia and China
- By: Colin Thubron
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Amur River is almost unknown. Yet it is the 10th longest river in the world, rising in the Mongolian mountains and flowing through Siberia to the Pacific. For 1,100 miles, it forms the tense border between Russia and China. Simmering with the memory of land-grabs and unequal treaties, this is the most densely fortified frontier on Earth.
-
-
Bleak
- By Amazon Customer on 11-03-21
By: Colin Thubron
-
Shadow of the Silk Road
- By: Colin Thubron
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across Northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey, Colin Thubron undertakes a journey along the greatest land route on earth: the Silk Road. Travelling 7,000 miles in eight months, he traces the passage not only of trade and armies, but of ideas, religions and inventions.
-
-
prose meets poetry
- By Paul on 11-05-07
By: Colin Thubron
-
Death Comes to the Village
- Kurland St. Mary Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: Catherine Lloyd
- Narrated by: Susannah Tyrrell
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Major Robert Kurland has returned to the quiet vistas of Kurland St. Mary to recuperate from the horrors of Waterloo. However injured his body may be, his mind is as active as ever. Too active, perhaps. When he glimpses a shadowy figure from his bedroom window struggling with a heavy load, the tranquil façade of the village begins to loom sinister....
-
-
Starts slowly, gets better
- By TabithaD on 02-16-24
By: Catherine Lloyd
-
Cathedral
- By: Ben Hopkins
- Narrated by: Malk Williams, Sophie Roberts
- Length: 19 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A sweeping story about obsession, mysticism, art and earthly desire. At the centre of this story is the Cathedral. Its design and construction in the 13th and 14th centuries in the fictional town of Hagenburg unites a vast array of unforgettable characters whose fortunes are inseparable from the shifting political factions and economic interests vying for supremacy. From the bishop to his treasurer, from local merchants to lowly stonecutters, the fate of everyone, both Gentile and Jew, is affected by the slow rise of Hagenburg’s cathedral.
-
-
Interesting description of life in the Middle Ages
- By leongork on 06-30-21
By: Ben Hopkins
-
Exile and the Kingdom
- By: Albert Camus
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a variety of masterfully rendered perspectives, these six stories depict people at painful odds with the world around them. A wife can only surrender to a desert night by betraying her husband. An artist struggles to honor his own aspirations as well as society's expectations of him. A missionary brutally converted to the worship of a tribal fetish is left with but an echo of his identity. Whether set in North Africa, Paris, or Brazil, the stories in Exile and the Kingdom are probing portraits of spiritual exile, and man's perpetual search for an inner kingdom.
-
-
So good!
- By Christopher A. Douglas on 10-24-24
By: Albert Camus
-
The Book of Longings
- A Novel
- By: Sue Monk Kidd
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò, Sue Monk Kidd
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her mesmerizing fourth work of fiction, Sue Monk Kidd takes an audacious approach to history and brings her acclaimed narrative gifts to imagine the story of a young woman named Ana. Raised in a wealthy family with ties to the ruler of Galilee, she is rebellious and ambitious, with a brilliant mind and a daring spirit. She engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes narratives about neglected and silenced women. Ana is expected to marry an older widower, a prospect that horrifies her. An encounter with 18-year-old Jesus changes everything.
-
-
Made me cringe
- By Joan on 05-08-20
By: Sue Monk Kidd
-
The Amur River
- Between Russia and China
- By: Colin Thubron
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Amur River is almost unknown. Yet it is the 10th longest river in the world, rising in the Mongolian mountains and flowing through Siberia to the Pacific. For 1,100 miles, it forms the tense border between Russia and China. Simmering with the memory of land-grabs and unequal treaties, this is the most densely fortified frontier on Earth.
-
-
Bleak
- By Amazon Customer on 11-03-21
By: Colin Thubron
-
Shadow of the Silk Road
- By: Colin Thubron
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across Northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey, Colin Thubron undertakes a journey along the greatest land route on earth: the Silk Road. Travelling 7,000 miles in eight months, he traces the passage not only of trade and armies, but of ideas, religions and inventions.
-
-
prose meets poetry
- By Paul on 11-05-07
By: Colin Thubron
-
Death Comes to the Village
- Kurland St. Mary Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: Catherine Lloyd
- Narrated by: Susannah Tyrrell
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Major Robert Kurland has returned to the quiet vistas of Kurland St. Mary to recuperate from the horrors of Waterloo. However injured his body may be, his mind is as active as ever. Too active, perhaps. When he glimpses a shadowy figure from his bedroom window struggling with a heavy load, the tranquil façade of the village begins to loom sinister....
-
-
Starts slowly, gets better
- By TabithaD on 02-16-24
By: Catherine Lloyd
-
The Wife's Tale
- A Personal History
- By: Aida Edemariam
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this indelible memoir of the life of her remarkable 95-year-old grandmother, Guardian journalist Aida Edemariam tells the story of modern Ethiopia - a nation that underwent a tumultuous transformation from feudalism to monarchy to Marxist revolution to democracy, over the course of one century. Filled with a vivid cast of characters - emperors and empresses, priests and scholars, monks and nuns, archbishops and slaves, Marxist revolutionaries and wartime double agents - The Wife's Tale introduces a woman both imperious and vulnerable.
-
-
A Look At Ethiopia
- By Jean on 07-15-18
By: Aida Edemariam
-
Anticipation
- A Novel
- By: Melodie Winawer
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy, Samantha Desz, Jonathan Davis, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the “engrossing historical epic” (Booklist) The Scribe of Siena comes a thrilling tale set in the crumbling city of Mystras, Greece, in which a scientist’s vacation with her young son quickly turns into a fight for their lives after they cross paths with a man out of time.
-
-
Historical novel with a twist
- By Jbbee on 07-05-22
By: Melodie Winawer
-
The Unreal and the Real
- Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin, Volume One: Where on Earth
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Tandy Cronyn
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Unreal and the Real is a major event not to be missed. In this two-volume selection of Ursula K. Le Guin's best short stories--as selected by the National Book Award winning author herself--the reader will be delighted, provoked, amused, and faced with the sharp, satirical voice of one of the best short story writers of the present day. Where on Earth explores Le Guin's earthbound stories which range around the world, from small town Oregon to middle Europe in the middle of revolution to summer camp.
-
-
Shame on you, Audible
- By Audrey McCombs on 07-03-20
-
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe
- By: Kij Johnson
- Narrated by: Kij Johnson
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Professor Vellitt Boe teaches at the prestigious Ulthar Women's College. When one of her most gifted students elopes with a dreamer from the waking world, Vellitt must retrieve her.
-
-
it took me a few trys to ger through this audio
- By Melanie on 05-13-17
By: Kij Johnson
-
The Passion
- By: Jeanette Winterson
- Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues, Daniel Pirrie
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set during the tumultuous years of the Napoleonic Wars, The Passion intertwines the destinies of two remarkable people: Henri, a simple French soldier, who follows Napoleon from glory to Russian ruin; and Villanelle, the red-haired, web-footed daughter of a Venetian boatman, whose husband has gambled away her heart. In Venice’s compound of carnival, chance, and darkness, the pair meets their singular destiny.
-
-
Excellence.
- By Scottie V. on 10-07-19
-
A Wind from the South
- Raetian Tales, Book 1
- By: Diane Duane
- Narrated by: Jessica Almasy
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A goddess in the making... or a demon reborn? In the remote mountain village where she was born, Mariarta dil Alicg lives the untroubled life of a peasant girl...until, soon after a mysterious stranger's arrival, she starts to hear voices in the wind. The voices whisper strange secrets in Mariarta's ears -- promising her the power to command the stormwind, hinting at an unknown, magical heritage, and prophesying a fate marvelous past all Mariarta's imaginings. Then a curse falls on Mariarta's village, shattering the lives of her family and friends.
-
-
This was a suprise!
- By Yvonne on 03-11-12
By: Diane Duane
-
The Door on Half-Bald Hill
- By: Helena Sorensen
- Narrated by: Robert Hook, Janet Devlin, Nigel Patterson
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the Bloodmoon rose, death came rushing into the world. Now the water is bitter, blight consumes everything, and the Crone haunts the hills. While the Druid of Blackthorn searches desperately for hope, the Ovate returns from the underworld bringing omens of despair. But Idris, the young bard, Keeper of the Sacred Word, will walk through fire and iron to uncover a question no one has ever dared to ask - a question that carries a world of answers on its back, a question that can change everything.
-
-
Interesting concept, but it felt incomplete.
- By W. Scott on 10-07-20
By: Helena Sorensen
-
When the Tripods Came
- Tripods Series Prequel (Book 4)
- By: John Christopher
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 3 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of The Tripods was the basis of a popular BBC television series in the 1980s, where humanity has been conquered and enslaved by "the tripods", unseen alien entities that travel about in gigantic three-legged walking machines.
-
-
Okay, but doesn’t live up to the main trilogy
- By Dr F on 02-19-23
By: John Christopher
-
Orange World and Other Stories
- By: Karen Russell
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Karen Russell’s comedic genius and mesmerizing talent for creating outlandish predicaments that uncannily mirror our inner in lives is on full display in these eight exuberant, arrestingly vivid, unforgettable stories. In “Bog Girl”, a revelatory story about first love, a young man falls in love with a 2,000-year-old girl that he’s extracted from a mass of peat in a Northern European bog. In “The Prospectors”, two opportunistic young women fleeing the depression strike out for new territory, and find themselves fighting for their lives. Plus much more.
-
-
Wild Ride
- By Georgia on 02-07-20
By: Karen Russell
-
The Fairy Tales of Herman Hesse
- By: Hermann Hesse, Jack Zipes - translator
- Narrated by: Donovan
- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
- Highlights
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Step into a world of visions, philosophy, and passion in which dreamers, seekers, princesses, and wandering poets dwell. The 6 wonderful, romantic tales in this collection are reminiscent of ancient Oriental and German fairy tales. The selections, "The Poet," "The Flute Dream," "The Dwarf," "Faldum," "Ziegler," and "Dream of the Gods" were hand-picked by the narrator, legendary folk and rock musician Donovan.
-
-
The reading is quiet and heavenly
- By Atalante Lemuria on 11-12-20
By: Hermann Hesse, and others
-
Shadow of the Moon
- By: M. M. Kaye
- Narrated by: Tara Ochs
- Length: 34 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The author of The Far Pavilions returns us once again to the vast, intoxicating romance of India under the British Raj. Shadow of the Moon is the story of Winter de Ballesteros, a beautiful English heiress come home to her beloved India. It is also the tale of Captain Alex Randall, her protector, who aches to possess her. Forged in the fires of a war that threatens to topple an empire, their tale is the saga of a desperate and unforgettable love that consumes all in its thrall.
-
-
Has always been a great story.
- By Sian on 06-08-14
By: M. M. Kaye
-
Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna
- By: Alda P. Dobbs
- Narrated by: Kyla Garcia, Ana Osorio
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1913, and 12-year-old Petra Luna’s mamá has died while the revolution rages in Mexico. Before her papá is dragged away by soldiers, Petra vows to him that she will care for the family she has left — her abuelita, her little sister, Amelia, and her baby brother, Luisito — until they can be reunited.
-
-
¡Me encanto!
- By Roxann Martinez on 01-11-23
By: Alda P. Dobbs
What listeners say about The Convert
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ripley
- 04-06-23
Nicely done
Easy to get absorbed in this mix of a historical travelogue with a sometimes difficult to hear tale of human on human cruelty - but worth the ride.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- REB
- 09-11-20
Unique Format
I enjoyed this unique format wherein the author's modern-era travel log interrupts the story, but am aware that some readers might find it distracting. Tracing the steps of history are exciting. The roads we travel, the hills we climb, the streams we cross might have played an important part of another person's life story many years ago. Fun to think about.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nicky Whisenant
- 09-27-22
Hypnotic
This book is so richly written I had to stop myself from devouring it in one big bite.I rationed these words, pausing ever now and then to savour a particular sentence.
The writer blends bits of fact in with his fiction, so skillfully I am not sure what is real and what is imagined of the woman"a life.
Splendidly written, the narrator's delivery of this story is hypnotic .
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- John K.
- 03-04-20
Stefan Hertmans + Nicholas Guy Smith = *****
The sense of awe and wonder that Mr. Smith brings to Mr. Hertmans latest novel is extraordinary. The same can be said for War and Turpentine, the prior novel that introduced me to Mr. Hertmans. Mr. Smith also narrated/performed A Gentleman in Moscow, which truly brought that novel to life. Most definitely treat yourself to The Convert.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Catherine
- 02-06-21
Captivating
Every aspect of this book was amazing. The narrative is beautiful; the history fascinating. This is among my all time favorites.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jane
- 01-18-22
story would be better with different narration
The story was good and I regret that I didn't read it . Listening to it probably didn't do it justice. The narrator was a bit too adenoidal. His reading was not exactly monotonous, but with almost every sentence in the book, his voice rises and falls in the same manner. The lack of variation in the reading really did make it to struggle to finish the book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- stephanie L razzano
- 04-17-21
Great Book
Interesting and tragic story of a young girl who could have lived in any century. Loved the way the author juxtaposed the story with his research.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- kabebe
- 01-27-24
Loved every bit of it
A Beautiful story of a woman who sacrifices her beliefs and her family for the love of her life. She went through hardships but the love for her children was always present. Interesting facts from the medieval times very well narrated I couldn’t stop listening!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gita
- 04-15-20
I loved this book, but...
I loved this book. The story, stitched together from fragments recovered from the Cairo Genizah, is engrossing and moving. I very much enjoyed the interspersing of the narrator's recreation of the story with the story itself, and Nicholas Guy Smith's performance was, as in A Gentleman in Moscow, excellent. BUT, someone should have tutored Mr. Smith in the correct pronunciation of the Hebrew words in the book. At first it was kind of funny, but when names and words that appeared often were mispronounced it was mildly annoying. I don't blame Mr. Smith, but I think there should have been an editor who could have corrected the pronunciation.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jane Doe
- 05-17-21
A padded mix of history and imagination
Never really got involved in either thread. The story of the convert was too removed and the story of the author’s research was too precious. Excellent reader though.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!