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The Orientalist
- Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
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Publisher's summary
Part history, part cultural biography, and part literary mystery, The Orientalist traces the life of Lev Nussimbaum, a Jew who transformed himself into a Muslim prince and became a best-selling author in Nazi Germany.
Born in 1905 to a wealthy family in the oil-boom city of Baku at the edge of the czarist empire, Lev escaped the Russian Revolution in a camel caravan. He found refuge in Germany, where, writing under the names Essad Bey and Kurban Said, his remarkable books about Islam, desert adventures, and global revolution became celebrated across fascist Europe. His enduring masterpiece, Ali and Nino - a story of love across ethnic and religious boundaries, published on the eve of the Holocaust - is still in print today.
But Lev's life grew wilder than his wildest stories. He married an international heiress who had no idea of his true identity - until she divorced him in a tabloid scandal. His closest friend in New York, George Sylvester Viereck - also a friend of both Freud's and Einstein's - was arrested as the leading Nazi agent in the United States. Lev was invited to be Mussolini's official biographer - until the Fascists discovered his true identity. Under house arrest in the Amalfi cliff town of Positano, Lev wrote his last book - discovered in a half a dozen notebooks never before read by anyone - helped by a mysterious half-German salon hostess, an Algerian weapons smuggler, and the poet Ezra Pound.
Tom Reiss spent five years tracking down secret police records, love letters, diaries, and the deathbed notebooks. Beginning with a yearlong investigation for The New Yorker, he pursued Lev's story across 10 countries and found himself caught up in encounters as dramatic and surreal, and sometimes as heartbreaking, as his subject's life. Reiss' quest for the truth buffets him from one weird character to the next: from the last heir of the Ottoman throne to a rock opera-composing baroness in an Austrian castle to an aging starlet in a Hollywood bungalow full of cats and turtles.
As he tracks down the pieces of Lev Nussimbaum's deliberately obscured life, Reiss discovers a series of shadowy worlds - of European pan-Islamists, nihilist assassins, anti-Nazi book smugglers, Baku oil barons, Jewish Orientalists - that have also been forgotten. The result is a thoroughly unexpected depiction of the 20th century - of the origins of our ideas about race and religious self-definition, and of the roots of modern fanaticism and terrorism. Written with grace and infused with wonder, The Orientalist is an astonishing book.
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- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 45 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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On the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the epic story of an enormous apartment building where Communist true believers lived before their destruction. The House of Government is unlike any other book about the Russian Revolution and the Soviet experiment.
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Inside saga of the leaders of Bolshevism & the USSR
- By Edward V. Blanchard on 11-05-17
By: Yuri Slezkine, and others
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Fracture
- Life and Culture in the West, 1918-1938
- By: Philipp Blom
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
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When the Great War ended in 1918, the West was broken. Religious faith, patriotism, and the belief in human progress had all been called into question by the mass carnage experienced by both sides. Shell-shocked and traumatized, the West faced a world it no longer recognized: The old order had collapsed, replaced by an age of machines. The world hurtled forward on gears and crankshafts, and terrifying new ideologies arose from the wreckage of past belief.
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Lots of good trivia information
- By Jean on 07-23-15
By: Philipp Blom
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Young Stalin
- By: Simon Sebag Montefiore
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Young Stalin tells the story of an exceptional, charismatic, darkly turbulent young man born into obscurity, fancying himself a poet and a priest, and finally embracing revolutionary idealism as his Messianic mission in life. Equal parts scholar and terrorist, a mastermind of bank robberies, extortion, piracy, and murder, he was so impressive in his brutality that Lenin made him, along with Trotsky, his chief henchman.
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Really Good Read/Listen
- By Jim on 02-20-11
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The Devil's Diary
- Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
- By: Robert K. Wittman, David Kinney
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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A groundbreaking historical contribution, The Devil's Diary is a chilling window into the mind of Adolf Hitler's "chief social philosopher", Alfred Rosenberg, who formulated some of the guiding principles behind the Third Reich's genocidal crusade.
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Fresh perspective on terrible events.
- By Sparkly on 04-20-16
By: Robert K. Wittman, and others
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Stalin
- The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives
- By: Edvard Radzinsky
- Narrated by: David McCallum
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Abridged
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The Kremlin intrigues, the private worlds of the Soviet Empire's ruling class, Radzinsky thrillingly brings them to life. And the riddle of that most cold-blooded of leaders, a man for whom nothing was sacred in his pursuit of absolute might, and perhaps the greatest mass murderer in Western history, is solved.
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A Great Book About a Great Tyrant
- By Moon Man on 05-01-05
By: Edvard Radzinsky
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After the Romanovs
- Russian Exiles in Paris from the Belle Époque Through Revolution and War
- By: Helen Rappaport
- Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Paris has always been a city of cultural excellence, fine wine and food, and the latest fashions. But it has also been a place of refuge for those fleeing persecution, never more so than before and after the Russian Revolution and the fall of the Romanov dynasty. For years, Russian aristocrats had enjoyed all that Belle Époque Paris had to offer, spending lavishly when they visited. It was a place of artistic experimentation, such as Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. But the brutality of the Bolshevik takeover forced Russians of all types to flee their homeland.
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Well written and researched- A Romanov PostScript
- By Pita on 07-24-22
By: Helen Rappaport
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Indian Summer
- The Secret History of the End of an Empire
- By: Alex von Tunzelmann
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the British Empire withdrew from India, igniting the exhilaration and turmoil of a newly free society. In this vivid, atmospheric popular history, Alex von Tunzelmann chronicles these times through the most prominent figures.
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Such an interesting piece of History made easy
- By Diego on 01-23-12
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Operation Nemesis
- The Assassination Plot That Avenged the Armenian Genocide
- By: Eric Bogosian
- Narrated by: Eric Bogosian
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1921 a small group of self-appointed patriots set out to avenge the deaths of almost one million victims of the Armenian Genocide. They named their operation Nemesis after the Greek goddess of retribution. Over several years the men tracked down and assassinated former Turkish leaders. The story of this secret operation has never been fully told until now.
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Avenging Turkish Denial with Reason
- By PKsweets on 05-12-15
By: Eric Bogosian
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Midnight at the Pera Palace
- The Birth of Modern Istanbul
- By: Charles King
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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At midnight, December 31, 1925, citizens of the newly proclaimed Turkish Republic celebrated the New Year. For the first time ever, they had agreed to use a nationally unified calendar and clock. Yet in Istanbul - an ancient crossroads and Turkey's largest city - people were looking toward an uncertain future. Never purely Turkish, Istanbul was home to generations of Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, as well as Muslims.
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INTERESTING SUBJECT - CONFUSED WRITING
- By The Louligan on 01-18-15
By: Charles King
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Adolf Hitler
- A Captivating Guide to the Life of the Führer of Nazi Germany
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Duke Holm
- Length: 2 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Explore the rise of Adolf Hitler. Was Hitler, as Ian Kershaw asked, a natural consequence of German history, or an aberration? Not that Hitler had been in hiding, waiting to attack. The Führer had actually been following an aggressive and savage foreign policy for almost 10 years, and been named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1938.
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Awesome little book
- By Bryan T. on 02-02-19
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Arab and Jew
- Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land
- By: David K. Shipler
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 27 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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David Shipler delves into the origins of the prejudices of Jews and Arabs that have been intensified by war, terrorism, and nationalism. Focusing on the diverse cultures that exist side by side in Israel and Israeli-controlled territories, Shipler examines the process of indoctrination that begins in schools; he discusses the far ranging effects of socioeconomic differences, historical conflicts between Islam and Judaism, attitudes about the Holocaust, and much more.
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'Arab and Jew' Needs a Good Editor
- By Robert W. Gillespie on 10-23-03
By: David K. Shipler
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Prague Winter
- A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948
- By: Madeleine Albright
- Narrated by: Madeleine Albright
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Before Madeleine Albright turned twelve, her life was shaken by the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia—the country where she was born—the Battle of Britain, the near total destruction of European Jewry, the Allied victory in World War II, the rise of communism, and the onset of the Cold War. Albright's experiences, and those of her family, provide a lens through which to view the most tumultuous dozen years in modern history.
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History from a Personal Perspective
- By Jeanette Finan on 02-22-13
What listeners say about The Orientalist
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Frances
- 07-25-19
Fascinating
On a personal level, this book made me look at my Jewish identity in a completely new way. I plan to listen to this one again.
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1 person found this helpful
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- LBM
- 06-08-18
An amazing and gripping story
A documentary that feels like a novel with a very interesting inserts of history, that puts many historical facts on the right place and helps to understand what happened to the world and why.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jay Lynn Walker
- 03-15-22
Very worthwhile book
The author’s scholarship and thoroughness were impressive, and I learned much more than I expected to about the politics and mores of the era. The narration was also first-rate, which I did expect, having listened to his work on other titles. Thank you, Audible.
Judy L. Walker
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- Sniperrus
- 10-30-20
There's a lot of amazing and unique information...
Occasionally felt like I was drinking history through a fire hose. Couldn't believe it's true.
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1 person found this helpful
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- ksarathy
- 09-30-22
A fantastic story
I had never heard about the novel "Ali & Nino", and never heard about its author. And yet, I devoured the entire tale. I loved the way Tom Reiss gave us the background on all the countries/places that Essad Bey/Nussimbaum visited and kept the tale going. I have forgotten how exactly I stumbled on this audio but I am sure glad I did.
Reiss is a wonderful writer. And the audio narration by Paul Michael was superb. Michael's German accent or Italian etc where necessary gave the narration the right touch.
Now, I am moving to the author's other book - The Black Count. If he could have wrung out so much material from a long-forgotten writer like Essad Bey, I am dying to see what he can do with the life of Dumas Sr.
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2 people found this helpful
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- mark
- 05-11-21
The essential but mostly forgotten history leading up to the Russian and German revolutions of the 20th century
This is a dual story of a fascinating individual and how his life intersected with the tumultuous revolutionary era of the early 20th century. That era’s obsession with ethnicity and race is a cautionary tale for our own era of resurgent identity politics and tribalism
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3 people found this helpful
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- Jesse
- 07-11-21
Intriguing Story
Tinged with melancholy, the larger than life story of lev nussembaum is vividly described by tom.
The author’s research and dogged determination to track down obscure details is admirable.
Read this after “The Black Count” another fascinating book by Tom Reiss about an enigmatic character traversing wild and exotic locations while the world descends into revolutionary chaos.
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- Devin Young
- 05-14-22
Fascinating biography of a sui generis character
This was a fun biography of what was for me a previously unknown historical figure. Lev Nussimbaum is like a real life Wes Anderson character. Nussimbaum s life was almost surreal, and it's fascinating to see how he navigated through many of the most important events and conflicts of the 20th century.
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- Storyteller/Author
- 01-10-23
Truth is Stranger Than Fiction
I accidentally purchased this book and am glad I did. Lev Nussimbaum was a much more prolific writer than I realized, especially since I was unaware of his pseudonyms until now. The history of the time was laid out in detail and filled a great many holes in my knowledge of that era. I listened for hours at a time and will listen to it again to deepen my understanding.
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- Kristi Pearson
- 08-25-22
Horrible listening experience
For most of the book it just droned on and I had a hard time following it. It bounced around so much I never knew what time period or century it was in. I was interested in Lev but want up for listening to a history book. Would not recommend to anyone. Our entire book club panned it!
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