The River Knows My Name
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 $25.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Janet Metzger
About this listen
From award-winning writer Mortada Gzar, author of the acclaimed memoir I’m in Seattle, Where Are You?, comes an enthralling and lyrical novel about a girl’s liberating self-discovery in Iraq.
Fifteen-year-old Charlotte is restlessly coming of age in early twentieth-century Basra, Iraq. The daughter of a Seattle doctor and missionary, Charlotte craves an adventure of her own making. Just the thought of the steppes, hills, valleys, and the winding river stirs Charlotte’s imagination and sends her compass of flight dancing.
So, preferring the wondrous unknown to solicitude, Charlotte packs up copies of her father’s Gospels and a statue of the Baby Jesus and runs away. Then, in a desperate search to find his daughter, Charlotte’s own father goes missing. With the help of two women—the mission’s Sister Baghdadli and Shathra, a guide to the lost—Charlotte embarks on a quest steeped in local lore, and as mysterious and marvelous as the river itself. In turn, Charlotte may find what’s she’s been looking for all along: the ability to stake a claim on her own identity.
In this rich and immersive novel, Mortada Gzar explores the power of belief, the drive for escape, and the exhilaration of self-discovery.
©2024 by Mortada Gzar. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Translation © 2024 by Luke LeafgrenCritic reviews
“Gzar presents an unforgettable girl, a kind of stranger in a strange land, who is gifted with abundant imagination, depth of feeling, and a fearlessness we all might envy…This is a novel in which emotional delicacy and comic absurdity meld seamlessly.”—Sun Yung Shin, poet and author of The Wet Hex
“A sweeping, impassioned work of delirium and history that is also a stunning evocation of—and homage to—the natural world of the Iraqi marshes.”—Yasmeen Hanoosh, literary translator, author, and critic
Related to this topic
-
The Grandmother
- By: Jane E. James
- Narrated by: Anna Cordell, Max Dinnen
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two little girls stand with their heads bowed in my living room. I’m told they’re my granddaughters. Daisy is nine, and Alice seven. Daisy is the spitting image of her mother. This is the first time I’ve met them since my daughter and I fell out after she married that waste of space, Vince. They’ve come to live with me because their mother — my daughter — was murdered. In her own home while they slept close by. I think Vince killed her. But the police can’t prove it. I’ve always known he was no good. He treated my daughter like dirt. I said he’d cheat on her — but she wouldn’t listen.
-
-
Not too outlandish
- By Jackie H on 12-14-24
By: Jane E. James
-
Say No More
- By: Caroline Overington
- Narrated by: Anna Skellern
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who is Audrey Hoedemaker? It's a question her sister Maureen has heard more times than she can count, and she doesn't know what the short answer would be. Little sister, troubled teen, backpacker, musical theatre coach, con artist, childcare worker. Murderer. A tragic, traumatic childhood casts a long shadow on the Hoedemaker sisters. Maureen has worked hard to move beyond the violence of the past and build a good, honest life for herself. Audrey, however, just can't seem to do the same, careening from one state of chaos to another.
-
-
Good read with a not so good ending.
- By Katie A Scribner on 12-26-24
-
The Answer Is No
- A Short Story
- By: Fredrik Backman, Elizabeth DeNoma - translator
- Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez
- Length: 1 hr and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.
-
-
Narrator doesn’t get Backman’s satire or rhythm
- By joey1603 on 12-01-24
By: Fredrik Backman, and others
-
George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
-
-
A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
-
The Art of War
- By: Sun Tzu
- Narrated by: Aidan Gillen
- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 13 chapters of The Art of War, each devoted to one aspect of warfare, were compiled by the high-ranking Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher Sun-Tzu. In spite of its battlefield specificity, The Art of War has found new life in the modern age, with leaders in fields as wide and far-reaching as world politics, human psychology, and corporate strategy finding valuable insight in its timeworn words.
-
-
The actual book The Art of War, not a commentary
- By Nemo71 on 12-31-19
By: Sun Tzu
-
Dead Med
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Patricia Santomasso, Scott Merriman
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Heather McKinley dreamed of becoming a doctor, she imagined curing sick kids and sporting pink stethoscopes. She never anticipated the sleepless nights, grueling exams, and endless labs. And she certainly never knew that her medical school earned the nickname Dead Med thanks to the tragic history of students overdosing on illegal drugs. But Heather would never consider doing anything like that. That is, until her longtime boyfriend dumps her, she finds herself failing anatomy, and her world starts to crumble.
-
-
Hmm
- By Morgan Meaux on 08-22-24
By: Freida McFadden
-
The Grandmother
- By: Jane E. James
- Narrated by: Anna Cordell, Max Dinnen
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two little girls stand with their heads bowed in my living room. I’m told they’re my granddaughters. Daisy is nine, and Alice seven. Daisy is the spitting image of her mother. This is the first time I’ve met them since my daughter and I fell out after she married that waste of space, Vince. They’ve come to live with me because their mother — my daughter — was murdered. In her own home while they slept close by. I think Vince killed her. But the police can’t prove it. I’ve always known he was no good. He treated my daughter like dirt. I said he’d cheat on her — but she wouldn’t listen.
-
-
Not too outlandish
- By Jackie H on 12-14-24
By: Jane E. James
-
Say No More
- By: Caroline Overington
- Narrated by: Anna Skellern
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who is Audrey Hoedemaker? It's a question her sister Maureen has heard more times than she can count, and she doesn't know what the short answer would be. Little sister, troubled teen, backpacker, musical theatre coach, con artist, childcare worker. Murderer. A tragic, traumatic childhood casts a long shadow on the Hoedemaker sisters. Maureen has worked hard to move beyond the violence of the past and build a good, honest life for herself. Audrey, however, just can't seem to do the same, careening from one state of chaos to another.
-
-
Good read with a not so good ending.
- By Katie A Scribner on 12-26-24
-
The Answer Is No
- A Short Story
- By: Fredrik Backman, Elizabeth DeNoma - translator
- Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez
- Length: 1 hr and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.
-
-
Narrator doesn’t get Backman’s satire or rhythm
- By joey1603 on 12-01-24
By: Fredrik Backman, and others
-
George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
-
-
A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
-
The Art of War
- By: Sun Tzu
- Narrated by: Aidan Gillen
- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 13 chapters of The Art of War, each devoted to one aspect of warfare, were compiled by the high-ranking Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher Sun-Tzu. In spite of its battlefield specificity, The Art of War has found new life in the modern age, with leaders in fields as wide and far-reaching as world politics, human psychology, and corporate strategy finding valuable insight in its timeworn words.
-
-
The actual book The Art of War, not a commentary
- By Nemo71 on 12-31-19
By: Sun Tzu
-
Dead Med
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Patricia Santomasso, Scott Merriman
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Heather McKinley dreamed of becoming a doctor, she imagined curing sick kids and sporting pink stethoscopes. She never anticipated the sleepless nights, grueling exams, and endless labs. And she certainly never knew that her medical school earned the nickname Dead Med thanks to the tragic history of students overdosing on illegal drugs. But Heather would never consider doing anything like that. That is, until her longtime boyfriend dumps her, she finds herself failing anatomy, and her world starts to crumble.
-
-
Hmm
- By Morgan Meaux on 08-22-24
By: Freida McFadden
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Trade Off
- A Novel
- By: Samantha Greene Woodruff
- Narrated by: Helen Laser
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bea Abramovitz has a gift for math and numbers. With her father, she studies the burgeoning Wall Street market’s stocks and patterns in the financial pages. After college she’s determined to parlay her talent for the prediction game into personal and professional success. But in the 1920s, in a Lower East Side tenement, opportunities for women don’t just come knocking. Bea will have to create them.
-
-
Loved the historical notes
- By Dena S. Berte on 01-17-25
-
Running Cold
- A Novel
- By: Susan Walter
- Narrated by: Selah Victor, Erin Moon, Jess Nahikian, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Julie Adler’s perfect facade is shattered by grief when her husband commits suicide. His death reveals that their luxurious California life was a house of cards, and his secret business dealings have left Julie penniless. As she strikes out on her own, Julie feels drawn to her old stomping grounds in Banff, a charming and isolated ski town where she once trained for the Olympics. She finds work as a housekeeper at a luxury resort, but just as she starts to piece together a new life, an eccentric guest turns up dead. And Julie, the last person seen in her hotel room, is the prime suspect.
-
-
Great!
- By rhack05 on 10-25-24
By: Susan Walter
-
After Image
- By: Jaime deBlanc
- Narrated by: Vivia Font
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four years ago, beautiful yet troubled Allie Andersen vanished without a trace. The twenty-one-year-old daughter of an acclaimed actress, her disappearance captivated the media, left her family distraught, and became a fixation for online theorists, who implicated everybody Allie knew and loved. Everyone, including her devoted stepsister, Natasha. Now, Natasha is finally trying to move on.
-
-
Slow but worth it
- By Hendo on 01-05-25
By: Jaime deBlanc
-
Echoes of Us
- A Novel
- By: Joy Jordan-Lake
- Narrated by: Caroline Hewitt
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the midst of World War II, a Tennessee farm boy, a Jewish Cambridge student, and a German POW forge a connection that endures—against all odds. But now everything that Will Dobbins, Dov Silverberg, and Hans Hessler fought for is at risk as their descendants clash for control of the corporation they founded together. In an attempt to remake its tattered corporate image, the firm hires event planner Hadley Jacks and her sister Kitzie to organize a reunion for the families on St. Simons Island, Georgia, the place that changed all three men’s lives forever.
-
-
A great history lesson
- By John on 11-23-24
By: Joy Jordan-Lake
-
Childish Literature
- By: Alejandro Zambra, Megan McDowell - translator
- Narrated by: Ben Balmaceda
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of My Documents and Chilean Poet, a wise, humorous, and captivating literary exploration of the delights and absurdities of childhood, fatherhood, and family life.
-
-
Fantastic!
- By Charles Morton on 10-18-24
By: Alejandro Zambra, and others
-
Scuttle
- By: Barnaby Walter
- Narrated by: Frazer Hadfield, Mark Elstob, Francine Brody
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an overnight camping trip in the woods on Halloween night goes wrong, and a girl ends up dead with what looks like animal wounds, the whole neighbourhood is shocked. How did it happen? And more importantly what was it that killed her?
-
-
I purchased for Francine Brody’s narration
- By Amazon Customer on 10-14-24
By: Barnaby Walter
-
The Trade Off
- A Novel
- By: Samantha Greene Woodruff
- Narrated by: Helen Laser
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bea Abramovitz has a gift for math and numbers. With her father, she studies the burgeoning Wall Street market’s stocks and patterns in the financial pages. After college she’s determined to parlay her talent for the prediction game into personal and professional success. But in the 1920s, in a Lower East Side tenement, opportunities for women don’t just come knocking. Bea will have to create them.
-
-
Loved the historical notes
- By Dena S. Berte on 01-17-25
-
Running Cold
- A Novel
- By: Susan Walter
- Narrated by: Selah Victor, Erin Moon, Jess Nahikian, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Julie Adler’s perfect facade is shattered by grief when her husband commits suicide. His death reveals that their luxurious California life was a house of cards, and his secret business dealings have left Julie penniless. As she strikes out on her own, Julie feels drawn to her old stomping grounds in Banff, a charming and isolated ski town where she once trained for the Olympics. She finds work as a housekeeper at a luxury resort, but just as she starts to piece together a new life, an eccentric guest turns up dead. And Julie, the last person seen in her hotel room, is the prime suspect.
-
-
Great!
- By rhack05 on 10-25-24
By: Susan Walter
-
After Image
- By: Jaime deBlanc
- Narrated by: Vivia Font
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four years ago, beautiful yet troubled Allie Andersen vanished without a trace. The twenty-one-year-old daughter of an acclaimed actress, her disappearance captivated the media, left her family distraught, and became a fixation for online theorists, who implicated everybody Allie knew and loved. Everyone, including her devoted stepsister, Natasha. Now, Natasha is finally trying to move on.
-
-
Slow but worth it
- By Hendo on 01-05-25
By: Jaime deBlanc
-
Echoes of Us
- A Novel
- By: Joy Jordan-Lake
- Narrated by: Caroline Hewitt
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the midst of World War II, a Tennessee farm boy, a Jewish Cambridge student, and a German POW forge a connection that endures—against all odds. But now everything that Will Dobbins, Dov Silverberg, and Hans Hessler fought for is at risk as their descendants clash for control of the corporation they founded together. In an attempt to remake its tattered corporate image, the firm hires event planner Hadley Jacks and her sister Kitzie to organize a reunion for the families on St. Simons Island, Georgia, the place that changed all three men’s lives forever.
-
-
A great history lesson
- By John on 11-23-24
By: Joy Jordan-Lake
-
Childish Literature
- By: Alejandro Zambra, Megan McDowell - translator
- Narrated by: Ben Balmaceda
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of My Documents and Chilean Poet, a wise, humorous, and captivating literary exploration of the delights and absurdities of childhood, fatherhood, and family life.
-
-
Fantastic!
- By Charles Morton on 10-18-24
By: Alejandro Zambra, and others
-
Scuttle
- By: Barnaby Walter
- Narrated by: Frazer Hadfield, Mark Elstob, Francine Brody
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an overnight camping trip in the woods on Halloween night goes wrong, and a girl ends up dead with what looks like animal wounds, the whole neighbourhood is shocked. How did it happen? And more importantly what was it that killed her?
-
-
I purchased for Francine Brody’s narration
- By Amazon Customer on 10-14-24
By: Barnaby Walter
-
The Trip
- A Novel
- By: Phoebe Morgan
- Narrated by: Sofia Engstrand, Jess Nesling, Sid Sagar
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A new heart-stopping thriller from the author of The Wild Girls in which two couples go on vacation and murder ensues. How well do you know your friends? Four friends are on the vacation of a lifetime in Thailand. Until a vicious murder shatters their paradise. Four friends who would do anything for each other—until now. Only one of them committed a crime. But all four know how to keep a secret. And they’re all guilty of something.
By: Phoebe Morgan
-
The Promise of Tomorrow
- By: Samantha Tonge
- Narrated by: Claire Storey
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
She’s not ill. She’s not in imminent danger. But she is sure it’s going to happen. Because many years ago… she’d made a promise to a stranger, in the woods. Elena’s mother was in hospital, after a life-threatening accident. The promise would keep her mother safe, but put Elena’s own life at risk, instead, when she grew up and turned thirty. Elena put the promise to the back of her mind, over the years. But she’s twenty-nine now, and when something happens that puts her life in danger, she remembers. And she knows.
By: Samantha Tonge
-
The Murderess
- A Novel
- By: Laurie Notaro
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s October 1931. When Winnie Ruth Judd arrives at the Los Angeles train station from Phoenix, her shipping trunks catch the attention of a suspicious porter. By the time they’re pried open, revealing the dismembered bodies of two women inside, Ruth has disappeared into the crowd. The search for, and eventual apprehension of, the Trunk Murderess quickly becomes a headline-making sensation. Even the Phoenix murder house is a sideshow attraction.
-
-
This book is EVERYTHING!
- By MINDY S. TIMM on 10-22-24
By: Laurie Notaro
-
The Late Clara Beame
- A Novel
- By: Taylor Caldwell
- Narrated by: Devon Sorvari
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Laura and Henry Frazier, David Gates, and Alice Bullowe are in Connecticut for Christmas. The family is staying in a country home Laura inherited from her aunt, Clara, and Alice, also a niece of the late Clara Beame, is more than a little disappointed by the terms of the will. As an edge of hostility threatens to spoil the party, the drama only grows as manipulative games are played, a blizzard roars outside, a surprise guest arrives-and the holiday turns more scary than merry . . .
By: Taylor Caldwell
-
The Replacement Wife
- By: Eileen Goudge
- Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell
- Length: 18 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Camille Hart, one of Manhattan's most sought-after matchmakers, has survived more than her fair share of hardships. Her mother died when she was a young girl, leaving her and her sister with an absentee father. Now in her forties, she has already survived cancer once, though the battle revealed just how ill-equipped her husband Edward is to be a single parent.
By: Eileen Goudge
-
The Puzzle Box
- A Novel
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the Year of the Wood Dragon, and the ingenious Mike Brink has been invited to Tokyo, Japan, to open the legendary Dragon Box. The box was constructed during one of Japan’s most tumultuous periods, when the samurai class was disbanded and the shogun lost power. In this moment of crisis, Emperor Meiji locked a priceless Imperial secret in the Dragon Box. Only two people knew how to open the box—Meiji and the box’s sadistic constructor—and both died without telling a soul what was inside or how to open it.
-
-
a great new read
- By Kathryn E. Libby on 10-17-24