The Family Chao
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Narrated by:
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Brian Nishii
About this listen
An acclaimed storyteller returns with “a gorgeous and gripping literary mystery” that explores “family, betrayal, passion, race, culture and the American Dream” (Jean Kwok).
The residents of Haven, Wisconsin, have dined on the Fine Chao Restaurant’s delicious Americanized Chinese food for 35 years, happy to ignore any unsavory whispers about the family owners. But when brash, charismatic, and tyrannical patriarch Leo Chao is found dead - presumed murdered - his sons discover that they’ve drawn the exacting gaze of the entire town.
The ensuing trial brings to light potential motives for all three brothers: Dagou, the restaurant’s reckless head chef; Ming, financially successful but personally tortured; and the youngest, gentle but lost college student James.
Brimming with heartbreak, comedy, and suspense, The Family Chao offers a kaleidoscopic, highly entertaining portrait of a Chinese American family grappling with the dark undercurrents of a seemingly pleasant small town.
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Madison is booming with dreamers and drifters, visionaries and entrepreneurs. Among them is Sydney Richardson, the daughter of a cop who died on these streets and now the proud, stressed-out owner of Hush Money, one of the city's top new restaurants. Like everyone else in town, Sydney is shocked when Madison's popular mayor - a crusty, charismatic man of the people - is shot to death in his own home. But the news hits especially close to home for Sydney because one of her own stands accused of the brutal crime. Sydney's the one person that Wanda Fields, a quiet, hardworking waitress and single mother, can think to call after her arrest.
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T E Woods sure know how to write 'em!
- By shelley on 02-14-18
By: T. E. Woods
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Everybody's Son
- A Novel
- By: Thrity Umrigar
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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During a terrible heat wave in 1991 - the worst in a decade - 10-year-old Anton has been locked in an apartment in the projects, alone, for seven days, without air conditioning or a fan. With no electricity, the refrigerator and lights do not work. Hot, hungry, and desperate, Anton shatters a window and climbs out. Cutting his leg on the broken glass, he is covered in blood when the police find him. Juanita, his mother, is discovered in a crack house less than three blocks away, nearly unconscious and half-naked.
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Engaging and insightful
- By Amazon Customer on 07-12-17
By: Thrity Umrigar
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Notes on a Banana
- A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression
- By: David Leite
- Narrated by: David Leite
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Reminiscing about the people and events that shaped him, David looks back at the highs and lows of his life, from his rejection of being gay and his attempt to "turn straight" through Aesthetic Realism, a cult in downtown Manhattan, to becoming a writer, cookbook author, and web publisher, to his 23-year relationship with Alan, known to millions of David's readers and listeners as "The One", which began with (what else?) food.
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Finished it in a day!
- By Kathryn on 08-23-17
By: David Leite
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The Mountain Midwife
- By: Laurie Alice Eakes
- Narrated by: Tiffany Morgan
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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For nearly 200 years, women in Ashley Tolliver's family have practiced the art of midwifery in their mountain community. Now she wants to take her skills a step further, but attending medical school means abandoning those women to whom she has dedicated her life, the mountains she loves, and the awakening of her heart.
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A clean, interesting but not preachy book
- By Kathy on 03-04-19
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The Great Failure
- A Bartender, a Monk, and My Unlikely Path to Truth
- By: Natalie Goldberg
- Narrated by: Natalie Goldberg
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
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"The Great Failure is a boundless embrace, leaving nothing out. I wanted to learn the truth, to become whole. If I could touch the dark nature in someone else, I could know it in myself." So begins Natalie Goldberg in this candid exploration of her life. Here, Goldberg makes sense of primary relationships between father and daughter, teacher and student, and exemplifies the accomplishment available when creating daily writing practices.
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If you have been let down by anyone. Listen
- By Mia on 04-19-18
By: Natalie Goldberg
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Lifted by the Great Nothing
- By: Karim Dimechkie
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Max doesn't remember his mother, who was murdered by burglars before they emigrated from Beirut to New Jersey. He lives with his father, Rasheed, who is enamored of his concept of American culture - baseball and barbeques - and tries to shed his Lebanese heritage completely.
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Excellent
- By Cheyenne on 06-13-15
By: Karim Dimechkie
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Love Walked In
- 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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The UnAmericans
- Stories
- By: Molly Antopol
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Again and again, Molly Antopol’s deeply sympathetic characters struggle for footing in an uncertain world, hounded by forces beyond their control. Their voices are intimate and powerful and they resonate with searing beauty. Antopol is a superb young talent, and The UnAmericans will long be remembered for its wit, humanity, and heart.
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Sensational stories! Brilliant new author.
- By MidwestGeek on 05-04-14
By: Molly Antopol
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Family Tree
- A Novel
- By: Susan Wiggs
- Narrated by: Christina Traister
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Sometimes the greatest dream starts with the smallest element. A single cell joining with another. And then dividing. And just like that, the world changes. Annie Harlow knows how lucky she is. The producer of a popular television cooking show, she loves her handsome husband and the beautiful Los Angeles home they share. And now she's pregnant with their first child. But in an instant, her life is shattered. And when Annie awakes from a coma, she discovers that time isn't the only thing she's lost.
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Not enjoying the narration
- By Joanna on 08-20-17
By: Susan Wiggs
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The Other Mother
- By: Rachel Harper
- Narrated by: January LaVoy, William DeMeritt
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
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Jenry Castillo is a musical prodigy, raised by a single mother in Miami, who arrives at Brown University on a scholarship—but also to learn more about his late father, Jasper Patterson, a famous ballet dancer who died tragically when Jenry was two. On his search, he meets his estranged grandfather, Winston Patterson, a legendary professor of African American history and a fixture at the Ivy League school, who explodes his world with one question: Why is Jenry so focused on Jasper, when it was Winston’s daughter, Juliet, who was Jenry’s mother’s lover?
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Very good.
- By Roland Harper on 05-22-22
By: Rachel Harper
What listeners say about The Family Chao
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-18-23
A Classic in the Making
Truly impressed. A great contribution to immigration and diaspora telling. Great characters, great story, nuanced.
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- Prussian reader in Siam
- 07-24-22
Well written, unlikeable protagonists
Lan Samantha Chang is a gifted writer who writes cogently and vividly describes the world and characters of her setting. Unfortunately, the protagonists (principally the three Chao brothers) are weak and indecisive, making it impossible for me to like very much about them.
When adversity appears for each of the three brothers, they constantly stand frozen, run away, act out emotionally to their detriment, or simply accept their loss/domination with an assumption that they had it coming.
Without giving away too many details, two of the brothers confront (separately) the villain (hero?) of the story, and one simply stands impotent, letting the villain escape, while the other runs away and delays telling anyone else after having earlier discovered the villain’s actions. They are sorry excuses for men and I found them all to be totally unlikable protagonists.
Still, Lan Samantha Chang is a talented writer; I look forward to reading more of her works, hopefully with stronger and more decisive protagonists.
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1 person found this helpful
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- David Silb
- 03-24-22
Only complaint I didn’t want it to end
Great story. Wonderful reader. Hope it continues
I want to know how it goes. I couldn’t stop
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19 people found this helpful
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- Anneke García
- 10-17-22
Creative and compelling way to reboot a classic
Earlier this year I listened to The Brothers Karamazov on Audible, for the first time, and fell in love with the story. Even though the time period and culture were so different from my life, the characters and intrigue were so memorable and compelling. When I heard that this book was a retelling of the Dostoyevsky novel, I was intrigued, and this performance of it has been masterful and delightful. The characters are in one way siblings of their Dostoyevsky counterparts, but Chang brings them to life as believable, lovable and flawed contemporary people. The depth of the family dynamic and the cultural dynamics at play, plus the pace of the mystery plot, were just perfect. I also found myself craving really good Chinese food after several passages were done! I really loved it and highly recommend it.
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- Anonymous User
- 02-26-24
Pretty good
Interesting twists, took a bit to get into the story. Overall a pretty good, although I thought it took too long to develop the characters
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- patrick morris
- 08-26-22
could have been more
interesting story but characters need more fleshing out for book to realize it's potential and be more compelling
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- Odilia Galván Rodríguez
- 09-12-22
Not To Be Missed
A great immigrant story which describes the difficulties, the racism, and xenophobia faced when one is considered “other” in a country filled with others who feel superior because of their white supremacist settler roots. The Family Chao is a complex and expertly woven story. An American story which needed to be told and read. Bravo!
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- Gaiah
- 11-25-23
Great story
I was hooked after the first chapter. Would love to see part 2 of this family’s saga.
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- w.l.
- 09-26-22
Not for me, but I listened to the bitter end
I got interested in this story of a Chinese immigrant family, but I am not sure I liked it. I didn't like the characters. I especially loathed the family patriarch, but that was the intent of the author. No one was relatable, or even very likeable to me.
I have never read The Brothers Karamazov, so cannot address this retelling.
I found a part of the story hard to agree with, but removed my comment as it would be a spoiler.
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- Mary Tsao
- 04-14-22
An American Family Saga of Love and Loyalty
It's wonderful to listen to a tale as well-written as this one and to imagine the bits that could fit your own life narrative. We all want the chance to be seen and to be loved -- regardless of who we are or what we've done -- by those we think of as our family. This book offers the light of that hope under the setting of a dingy Chinese restaurant in a hopeless Midwestern town during the gray of winter. The Family Chao is a satisfying story from start to finish.
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20 people found this helpful