The Crane Wife
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Narrated by:
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Jamie Glover
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By:
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Patrick Ness
About this listen
A magical novel, based on a Japanese folk tale, that imagines how the life of a broken-hearted man is transformed when he rescues an injured white crane that has landed in his backyard.
George Duncan is an American living and working in London. At 48, he owns a small print shop, is divorced, and lonelier than he realizes. All of the women with whom he has relationships eventually leave him for being too nice. But one night he is woken by an astonishing sound - a terrific keening, which is coming from somewhere in his garden. When he investigates he finds a great white crane, a bird taller than even himself. It has been shot through the wing with an arrow. Moved more than he can say, George struggles to take out the arrow from the bird's wing, saving its life before it flies away into the night sky.
The next morning, a shaken George tries to go about his daily life, retreating to the back of his store and making cuttings from discarded books - a harmless, personal hobby - when through the front door of the shop a woman walks in. Her name is Kumiko, and she asks George to help her with her own artwork. George is dumbstruck by her beauty and her enigmatic nature, and begins to fall desperately in love with her. She seems to hold the potential to change his entire life, if he could only get her to reveal the secret of who she is and why she has brought her artwork to him.
Witty, magical, and romantic, The Crane Wife is a story of passion and sacrifice, that resonates on the level of dream and myth. It is a novel that celebrates the creative imagination, and the disruptive power of love.
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- By: Marisa de los Santos
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning poet Marisa de los Santos crafts an irresistibly touching debut novel. Love Walked In is a contemporary tale, steeped in nostalgic, cinematic charm, of love in all its forms. Unapologetically idealistic about love, Cornelia Brown appears to catch the break of a lifetime when the dashing Martin Grace, her own personal Cary Grant, comes strolling into her life. But it is Martin's connection to 11-year-old Clare Hobbes that touches Cornelia's heart in ways she never imagined.
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Dreadful audio quality
- By Marenghi on 09-16-11
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Gold Dust
- By: Kimberley Freeman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Three women linked by their blood, their dreams...and their sins. From Leningrad in the '70s to America and London in the present day, Kimberley Freeman's new novel follows the lives of two sisters, Lena and Natalia, and their cousin, Sofi, as they move away from Russia and all they have known. Despite promising to always take care of each other, a pact to meet every winter is shattered as their lives change and long-held resentments begin to surface. Can that resentment turn to hatred? To murder?
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It's just not the same without Caroline Lee
- By Maria on 12-04-17
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The Ninth Life of Louis Drax
- By: Liz Jensen
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle, Jeff Woodman
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Nine-year-old Louis Drax lies in a coma in a hospital bed, re-living the events that led to his near-fatal fall into a ravine. Despite being attracted to the boy's mother Natalie Drax, Louis' doctor, Pascal Dannachet, begins reluctantly to question her version of Louis' accident and the apparent culpability of her missing husband. As the boy struggles to communicate from within his coma, the chilling truth emerges....
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Intriguing, but easy to figure out
- By Stephanie on 07-12-16
By: Liz Jensen
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The Secret Keeper
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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England, 1959: Laurel Nicolson is 16 years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.
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Kate Morton (and Caroline Lee) does it again!
- By Maria on 10-20-12
By: Kate Morton
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The Christmas Secret
- By: Karen Swan
- Narrated by: Laura Main
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Alex Hyde is the leaders' leader. An executive coach par excellence, she's the person the great and the good turn to when the pressure gets too much; she can change the way they think, how they operate, she can turn around the very fortunes of their companies.
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Was the narrator Nurse Turner?
- By Sally on 12-24-17
By: Karen Swan
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Hum If You Don't Know the Words
- By: Bianca Marais
- Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a 10-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred...until the Soweto Uprising.
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Completely wrong accents
- By Debbie on 02-12-22
By: Bianca Marais
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The Cerulean
- By: Amy Ewing
- Narrated by: Kim Mai Guest
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Sera Lighthaven has always felt as if she didn’t quite belong among her people, the Cerulean, who live in the city above the sky. She is curious about everything - especially the planet her city is magically tethered to - and can’t stop questioning things. Sera has always longed for the day when the tether will finally break and the Cerulean can move to a new planet. But when Sera is chosen as the sacrifice to break the tether, she feels betrayed by everything in which she’d been taught to trust. In order to save her city, Sera must end her own life.
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It was ok
- By Kim on 12-16-20
By: Amy Ewing
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The Woman at 72 Derry Lane
- By: Carmel Harrington
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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On a leafy suburban street in Dublin, beautiful, poised Stella Greene lives with her successful husband, Matt. They're the perfect couple in every way, and Stella appears to have it all. Next door, at number 72, however, lives Rea Brady. Gruff, bad tempered and rarely seen besides the twitching of her net curtains, rumour has it she's lost it all...including her marbles, if you believe the neighbourhood gossip. But appearances can be deceiving, and when Stella and Rea's worlds collide they realise they have much in common.
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So much emotion, I was not prepared
- By RedLady on 08-29-18
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Evergreen Falls
- By: Kimberley Freeman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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A long-forgotten secret, a scandalous attraction and a place where two women's lives are changed forever. 1926: Violet Armstrong is one of the few remaining members of staff working at the grand Evergreen Spa Hotel as it closes down over winter. Only a handful of guests are left, including the heir to a rich grazing family, his sister and her suave suitor. When a snowstorm moves in, the hotel is cut off and they are all trapped. No-one could have predicted what would unfold.
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Soooo Boring
- By Merford on 10-09-19
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London Fields
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 21 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The murderee is Nicola Six, a "black hole" of sex and self-loathing who is intent on orchestrating her own extinction. The murderer may be Keith Talent, a violent lowlife whose only passions are pornography and darts; or the rich, honorable, and dimly romantic Guy Clinch. As Nicola leads her suitors towards the precipice, London--and, indeed, the whole world--seems to shamble after them in a corrosively funny novel of complexity and morality.
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Big chewy novel, excellent narration
- By Sand on 08-21-14
By: Martin Amis
What listeners say about The Crane Wife
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- William C. Cohen-Kiraly
- 11-07-23
One of my all-time favorite listens
I’m not sure I have the words to say how much I loved this audiobook.
It is one of the few books I have consumed that so completely captivated me, both emotionally and intellectually. It is a beautiful story of love, loss and growth—in turns funny and bitter-sweet.
Though inspired by a Japanese folk tale and entwined with magical realism, the story is not a fantasy. It is the story of a man, his daughter, and many other finely-crafted characters touched by the grace of a beautiful, gentle, but enigmatic woman.
What makes the book so powerful is that Ness writes these characters so we can identify with them and feel their strengths, desires, foibles and insecurities.
Parts of this book left me laughing out loud, other parts were tense or sad. But start to finish, it was engrossing and demanded to be finished.
And just to add the chef’s kiss, the narration by Jamie Glover was superb. His voice is as beautiful as Ness’ prose. It is musical, calming and perfect in tone throughout the book.
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- Margalina555
- 06-05-14
Among My Most Favorite Books Ever
Would you listen to The Crane Wife again? Why?
Absolutely, it was such a pleasure. I am going to save it for a time when I could use something to lift my spirits and open my mind to possibility
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Crane Wife?
The realization that the Crane was having such an amazing positive effect on the family, that she was a Goddess in human form.
Which scene was your favorite?
The scene in the very beginning when he is holding the Crane and she wraps her neck around his upper body. I see that in my mind's eye whenever I think of the book. It totally drew me into the book. The writer was so capable of placing you in the situations in the book by his brilliant descriptions. I can see many of the scenes in full color in my head.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Both!! I'm having trouble writing this review because I don't want to ruin the book for anyone reading these reviews, and at the same time I want to encourage people to experience the book. I wish there was another star, or maybe I should go back and readjust all of my ratings to reflect the true feelings I have about this and a couple of other books I have read recently like "The Invention of Wings", "The Book of Tea" and "MiddleMarch".
Any additional comments?
I wish there was a way for us to identify in advance the books like this so I could buy them all. The pleasure of this book was astounding. I have told all of my friends about it. When it is said that "other books are similar" it isn't really true. I guess I should fine someone with similar taste and follow their suggestions.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Bob Evans
- 12-10-16
Magical
Magical and unexpected.
You are drawn into the story as viewers are transfixed by the art created in the text
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- Michael
- 06-04-14
an experience, but flawed
The Crane Wife is a story about George and his daughter Amanda. One night, George discovers a wounded crane in his yard that he nurses back to health. Later, he meets a mysterious woman named Kumiko, who wants his help with some artwork she is making. Eventually they fall in love and agree to be married. But Kumiko harbors a number of secrets and is more than she seems.
There are a few story lines interweaved: George, Amanda, George and Kumiko, and the Crane and Volcano.
Having read most of Patrick Ness' novels and enjoying them, I wanted to give this one a try. I listened to the audible version. The narrator did a fine job, although this is probably one of the most down-keyed depressing narrators I've ever heard, but it fit with the tone of the novel.
The writing itself was fairly well executed in as far as it was very poetic and fluid. But...it often went on way too long and thus the pacing was just glacial. There isn't a whole lot of action in this novel. It is mostly about the characters feelings and conversations. And then there is this whole mystical story line about the crane and the volcano, a couple apparently eternal who are outside time, but whose story doesn't always make much sense, and who seem to be unable to carry on a natural conversation with each other. Anytime one answered the other, the answer was always self-contradictory (yes and no). This mythology would have been interesting to me, but it answered nothing and didn't always make any sense at all. And not only was the plot just too slow in places, but there were parts put in that were baffling. The book opens with an extended description of George peeing, there are several places where Amanda is peeing and hears noises outside (nothing becomes of that), a whole subplot about Amanda being pregnant that goes nowhere, and an extended chapter exploring a ton of different ways a house fire could have started (just pick one already). Also it had a very nice logical ending place, and then continued on for chapter after chapter.
Character-wise, all of the characters are mostly well developed, and all very well detestable. George is described as a nice, giving wonderful man. But as the story continues we learn more about this man, and see that in reality he is self-centered, quick to anger, unfaithful, and generally a low life. And his daughter Amanda is selfish, negative, and really has nothing to say positive about anything. We feel a bit of sympathy at the way she is treated on the street by people but by the end of the novel, she isn't much better, but instead has found people under her to pick on, and peers to share her negativity. She is the kind of person who might leave her son alone with a mentally-unstable woman while she ran into a burning house without any thought that she might die and leave her son motherless. I wish I could say that the characters all experience growth and redemption, but really I could only say that about Rachel, the boss and semi-friend of Amanda. Even Kumiko is hard to completely like since she spends most of the story lying to everyone about who she really is, and making promises to George she can't keep.
It is a very interesting take on the traditional crane story, and it is not a bad book at all. But I felt it just went on way too long with too much filler, the characters were just too unlikable with little redemption, the mythology was shallow and unsatisfying, and there were many things tacked into the book that just didn't fit. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was half the length it was. But in the end, it was an experience and certainly has a unique mood and prose that are worth giving a try.
NOTE: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Celeste Bartunek
- 01-13-15
Fantastic Read!
I loved this book for it's unique visualizations and well written story. The artwork descriptions made the story come to life.
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- Mari
- 07-15-14
Strange story, so hypnotizing
If you could sum up The Crane Wife in three words, what would they be?
This was a wonderful book of hope, love and mythical morals. I think the characters could have been a little more well formed, but then again, it would have ruined the ending. It was a very easy, enjoyable and enthralling listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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- David O
- 06-29-19
wonderful story, wonderful reading
THis is not my favorite Patrick Ness story, but still very good, with a considerable magical realism flavor .
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