The Lovers
Afghanistan's Romeo and Juliet, the True Story of How They Defied Their Families and Escaped an Honor Killing
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Narrated by:
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Peter Ganim
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By:
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Rod Nordland
About this listen
A riveting, real-life equivalent of The Kite Runner - an astonishingly powerful and profoundly moving story of a young couple willing to risk everything for love that puts a human face on the ongoing debate about women's rights in the Muslim world.
Zakia and Ali were from different tribes, but they grew up on neighboring farms in the hinterlands of Afghanistan. By the time they were young teenagers, Zakia, strikingly beautiful and fiercely opinionated, and Ali, shy and tender, had fallen in love. Defying their families, sectarian differences, cultural conventions, and Afghan civil and Islamic law, they ran away together only to live under constant threat from Zakia's large and vengeful family, who have vowed to kill her to restore the family's honor. They are still in hiding.
Despite a decade of American good intentions, women in Afghanistan are still subjected to some of the worst human rights violations in the world. Rod Nordland, then the Kabul bureau chief of The New York Times, had watched these abuses unfold for years when he came upon Zakia and Ali and has not only chronicled their plight but has also shepherded them from danger.
The Lovers will do for women's rights generally what Malala's story did for women's education. It is an astonishing story about self-determination and the meaning of love that illustrates, as no policy book could, the limits of Western influence on fundamentalist Islamic culture and, at the same time, the need for change.
©2016 Rod Nordland (P)2016 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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A ferociously intimate memoir by a devout woman from a modest family in Saudi Arabia who became the unexpected leader of a courageous movement to support women's right to drive.
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The rain begins with a single drop
- By Sara on 07-01-17
By: Manal al-Sharif
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A Rope and a Prayer
- The Story of a Kidnapping
- By: David Rohde, Kristen Mulvihill
- Narrated by: David Rohde, Kristen Mulvihill
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The compelling and insightful account of a New York Times reporter's abduction by the Taliban and his wife's struggle to free him. Invited to an interview by a Taliban commander, New York Times reporter David Rohde and two Afghan colleagues were kidnapped in November 2008 and spirited to the tribal areas of Pakistan. For the next seven months, they lived in an alternate reality, ruled by jihadists, in which paranoia, conspiracy theories, and shifting alliances abounded.
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A History Lesson
- By Ed on 12-31-10
By: David Rohde, and others
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I Shall Not Hate
- A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity
- By: Izzeldin Abuelaish
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish---now known simply as the "Gaza doctor"---captured hearts and headlines around the world in the aftermath of horrific tragedy: On January 16, 2009, Israeli shells hit his home in the Gaza Strip, killing three of his daughters and his niece. By turns inspiring and heartbreaking, hopeful and horrifying, I Shall Not Hate is Abuelaish's account of an extraordinary life.
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A story worth reading, but terrible narration
- By BL Lucas on 04-11-12
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In Order to Live
- A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
- By: Yeonmi Park
- Narrated by: Eji Kim
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In In Order to Live, Yeonmi Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in China and forced to suffer terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally made their way to Seoul, South Korea - and to freedom.
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Wow. What a story!
- By Jfm on 02-01-16
By: Yeonmi Park
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The Wind in My Hair
- My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran
- By: Masih Alinejad
- Narrated by: Linda Henning
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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A photo on Masih's Facebook page: a woman standing proudly, face bare, hair blowing in the wind. Her crime: removing her veil, or hijab, which is compulsory for women in Iran. This is the self-portrait that sparked "My Stealthy Freedom", a social media campaign that went viral. But Masih is so much more than the arresting face that sparked a campaign inspiring women to find their voices. She's also a world-class journalist whose personal story, told in her unforgettably bold and spirited voice, is emotional and inspiring.
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An inspiring journey
- By Krishna Teja Rekapalli on 01-06-19
By: Masih Alinejad
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Nine Parts of Desire
- The Hidden World of Islamic Women
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Geraldine Brooks
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women is the story of Brooks’ intrepid journey toward an understanding of the women behind the veils, and of the often contradictory political, religious, and cultural forces that shape their lives. In fundamentalist Iran, Brooks finagles an invitation to tea with the ayatollah’s widow—and discovers that Mrs. Khomeini dyes her hair.
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Auto-ethnography and good research
- By Verna on 09-26-13
By: Geraldine Brooks
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Excellent Daughters
- The Secret Lives of Young Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World
- By: Katherine Zoepf
- Narrated by: Katherine Zoepf
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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For more than a decade, Katherine Zoepf has lived in or traveled throughout the Arab world, reporting on the lives of women, whose role in the region has never been more in flux. Only a generation ago, female adolescence as we know it in the West did not exist in the Middle East. There were only children and married women. Today, young Arab women outnumber men in universities, and a few are beginning to face down religious and social tradition in order to live independently, to delay marriage, and to pursue professional goals.
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Best book on Middle East written this decade
- By Zuzana B on 07-02-17
By: Katherine Zoepf
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A Man of Honor
- The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno
- By: Joseph Bonanno
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Joseph Bonanno found his future amid the whiskey-running, riotous streets of Prohibition America in 1924, when he illegally entered the United States to pursue his dreams. By the age of only 26, Bonanno became a don. He eventually took over the New York underworld, igniting the "Castellammarese War", one of the bloodiest Family battles ever to hit New York City.
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A must read
- By E. Orlando on 05-03-17
By: Joseph Bonanno
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Dancing with the Enemy
- My Family's Holocaust Secret
- By: Paul Glaser
- Narrated by: James Anderson Foster, Christa Lewis
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The gripping story of the author's aunt, a Jewish dance instructor who was betrayed to the Nazis by the two men she loved, yet managed to survive WWII by teaching dance lessons to the SS at Auschwitz. Her epic life becomes a window into the author's own past and the key to discovering his Jewish roots.
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Amazing Unique
- By Nordic Artisan on 05-11-19
By: Paul Glaser
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Preemptive Love
- Pursuing Peace One Heart at a Time
- By: Jeremy Courtney
- Narrated by: Jeremy Courtney
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In the middle of the Iraq War, Jeremy and Jessica Courtney found themselves with their two children caught up in the turmoil, just hoping to make a difference. After an encounter with a father whose little girl was dying from a heart defect, they began to investigate options for helping and learned that untold thousands of children across Iraq were in similar need, waiting in line for heart surgery in a country without a qualified heart surgeon.
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Recommended Highly!
- By Zak on 06-13-18
By: Jeremy Courtney
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Until We Are Free
- My Fight for Human Rights in Iran
- By: Shirin Ebadi
- Narrated by: Shohreh Aghdashloo
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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The first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, Shirin Ebadi has inspired millions around the globe through her work as a human rights lawyer defending women and children against a brutal regime in Iran. Now Ebadi tells her story of courage and defiance in the face of a government out to destroy her, her family, and her mission: to bring justice to the people and the country she loves.
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Book of Trurth
- By Babak on 07-27-17
By: Shirin Ebadi
What listeners say about The Lovers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Daryl
- 04-05-16
More than a Love Story
This book is powerful, beautiful, tragic and hopeful. It is a story of a young couple who wished to marry against the woman's family's wishes. Despite their impoverished upbringing, illiteracy, and innumeracy, they found ways to communicate, to marry and to try and carve out lives for themselves. They made mistakes, asked too much or unnecessarily tried to go it alone...
This is a story about two people in Afghanistan, and yet it is more than that. It is about women in Afghanistan and the rights they do not have. The west may have helped in some ways by invading Afghanistan, but in other ways things have not changed in the past 15 years.
Well-written, well-read, and worth your time and credit.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Rachel Coats
- 03-15-16
Eye Opening and Heart Breaking
Would you consider the audio edition of The Lovers to be better than the print version?
I never read the print version, but I can imagine you would get the advantage in the Print Edition to do further research on many of the organizations/ reports in the book. It's a lot easier to do a Google search on a name in a book than trying to recall it an hour later from what you heard.
Have you listened to any of Peter Ganim’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Not that I think...
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
It really exposes many of the hardships that the women in Afghanistan are facing, and almost how powerless they are to change what's thrown upon them. I was surprised to learn how in many cases third party intervention and public awareness is really the only hope for these women. I think sometimes we as Americans like to take the stance that "we shouldn't get involved" and this is a really good example of why we absolutely should. The thing that helped these women more than anything was exposure. And it's something that I will never underestimate again.
Any additional comments?
It can be a little repetitive at times, which is both good and bad. And it's a hard book to listen through in one setting. Many of the discussed subjects and given examples are very, very heart-breaking. But, it does give you excellent insight into some portion of Afghanistan's culture.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Tracy
- 09-21-16
Educational and Inspiring
You'll learn a lot about the cultures that kept them apart and the atrocities against women that are rampant still today.
Narration was very dull, was like listening to a reporter the entire time. Which, I guess it is.
As I said in the title, it is inspirational that these two fought against their cultures for love, and that means a lot.
Educational on how and why women in Afghanistan are treated like they are.
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- sara
- 03-30-16
Epilogue and Appendices save this book
Great narration, but the story soon became tedious and annoying. The political recap at end of book saved this from an even lower rating.
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1 person found this helpful
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- RedHead
- 02-15-16
Brilliant book about Afghanistan
This book was written so well, so informative, so shocking! An incredible true story about a boy and a girl and their crime of love. It also is an interesting account of what has transpired in Afghanistan for the last several decades and how in spite (or maybe as a result of) of the billions of dollars spent by multiple countries and NGOs, Afghanistan is still no better off (especially its women).
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- phoebe fields
- 02-11-16
depressing at the treatment of women.
narrator well done. apparently male prisoners are raped as well. what about having normal sex
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- KMRL
- 02-17-17
eye opening, a must read
I can't believe all of this occurred in 2013/2014, you would think these things didn't happen in the world anymore! omg!
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- Sarah j
- 10-19-16
Educational, Eye Opening
Narration was perfection. Simple, clear and non distracting exactly what you want in non fiction.
This story was clearly a work of non fiction. If you are looking for a dramatic romeo and juliet story that sweeps you away this isn't exactly it. There is some Drama of course, their lives are in danger but, everything plays out at a slower, calmer pace but that's fine these are two real people with real lives. I found the side stories of other Afghani's incredibly interesting. This book really gives you a picture of what life in rural Afghanistan is like. The love story is not exactly the great romance it is advertised to be. Just two young people living in restrictive conditions who knowing nothing of the outside world find each other to cling to.
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- Talley101
- 04-26-16
Enlightening and Heartbreaking
This book truly opens one's eyes to a way of thinking that is hard for those raised in first world nations to imagine exists in this day of age. Even before women's rights happened in America, this way of treating wives, mothers, and daughters was far beyond most people's thinking. It is comparable only to the horrors of slavery or the Holocaust, where one person is mere property of another, without any rights, and the victim is the one punished and held responsible when their only "crime" is to have been born a different race or religion or gender than their abuser. The plights of the women mentioned in this book are truly heartbreaking.
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