
The Teahouse Fire
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Narrated by:
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Barbara Caruso
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By:
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Ellis Avery
About this listen
The Japanese tea ceremony, steeped in ritual, is at the heart of this story of an American girl adopted by Kyoto's most important tea master and raised as attendant and surrogate younger sister to his privileged daughter, Yukako.
Pasts shrouded in secrets and mysterious traditions rocked by modernization make The Teahouse Fire a compelling and provocative story, lush in details and epic in scope.
©2006 Ellis Avery. All rights reserved (P)2006 HighBridge CompanyListeners also enjoyed...
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Performance
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Best-selling author Thrity Umrigar won the Nieman Fellowship and earned a finalist spot for the PEN/Beyond Margins award with The Space Between Us. Set in modern-day India, this evocative novel follows upper-middle-class Parsi housewife Sera Dubash and 65-year-old illiterate household worker Bhima as they make their way through life. Though separated by their stations in life, the two women share bonds of womanhood that prove far stronger than the divisions of class or culture.
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A Story that stays with you
- By gardener97 on 04-25-15
By: Thrity Umrigar
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Paper Wife
- A Novel
- By: Laila Ibrahim
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Southern China, 1923. Desperate to secure her future, Mei Ling’s parents arrange a marriage to a widower in California. To enter the country, she must pretend to be her husband’s first wife - a paper wife. On the perilous voyage, Mei Ling takes an orphan girl named Siew under her wing. Dreams of a better life in America give Mei Ling the strength to endure the treacherous journey and detainment on Angel Island. But when she finally reaches San Francisco, she’s met with a surprise. Her husband, Chinn Kai Li, is a houseboy, not the successful merchant he led her to believe.
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Just okay..disappointed
- By Donna Smith McG on 11-03-18
By: Laila Ibrahim
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The Spanish Daughter
- By: Lorena Hughes
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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As a child in Spain, Puri always knew her passion for chocolate was inherited from her father. But it’s not until his death that she learns of something else she’s inherited - a cocoa estate in Vinces, Ecuador, a town nicknamed “París Chiquito”. Eager to claim her birthright and filled with hope for a new life after the devastation of World War I, she and her husband Cristóbal set out across the Atlantic Ocean. But it soon becomes clear someone is angered by Puri’s claim to the estate…
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A who done it novel
- By Leslie on 02-19-22
By: Lorena Hughes
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The Garden of Evening Mists
- By: Tan Twan Eng
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Malaya, 1951. Yun Ling Teoh, the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle-fringed tea plantations of Cameron Highlands. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former gardener of the emperor of Japan. Despite her hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling seeks to engage Aritomo to create a garden in memory of her sister, who died in the camp.
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The best
- By Susan Gardner Bowers on 03-11-13
By: Tan Twan Eng
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A Single Swallow
- By: Zhang Ling, Shelly Bryant - translator
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey, Adam Verner, Feodor Chin, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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On the day of the historic 1945 Jewel Voice Broadcast - in which Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender to the Allied forces, bringing an end to World War II - three men, flush with jubilation, made a pact. After their deaths, each year on the anniversary of the broadcast, their souls would return to the Chinese village of their younger days. Now, seventy years later, the pledge is being fulfilled by American missionary Pastor Billy, brash gunner’s mate Ian Ferguson, and local soldier Liu Zhaohu. All that’s missing is Ah Yan - also known as Swallow.
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A Must-Read
- By 20eagle16 on 05-13-21
By: Zhang Ling, and others
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Equal of the Sun
- A Novel
- By: Anita Amirrezvani
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Iran in 1576 is a place of peace, wealth, and dazzling beauty. But when the Shah dies without having named an heir, the court is thrown into tumult. Princess Pari, the Shah's daughter and closest adviser, knows more about the inner workings of the state than almost anyone, but the princess's maneuvers to instill order after her father's sudden death incite resentment and dissent. Pari and her trusted servant, a eunuch able to navigate the harem as well as the world beyond the palace walls, are in possession of an incredible tapestry....
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A Woman in a Man's World
- By JGrace on 06-26-13
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The Street of a Thousand Blossoms
- By: Gail Tsukiyama
- Narrated by: Stephen Park
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Japan, 1939. On the Street of a Thousand Blossoms in Tokyo, two orphaned brothers are growing up with loving grandparents who inspire them to dream of a future firmly rooted in tradition. The older boy, Hiroshi, shows early signs of promise in sumo wrestling, while Kenji is fascinated by the art of creating exquisite masks for actors in the Noh theater. But as the ripples of war spread all the way to their quiet neighborhood, the brothers must put their dreams on hold - and then forge their own paths in a new Japan.
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Great Audio Book
- By Victor on 09-22-07
By: Gail Tsukiyama
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Sweet Bean Paste
- By: Durian Sukegawa, Alison Watts - translator
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Sentaro has failed. He has a criminal record, drinks too much, and his dream of becoming a writer is just a distant memory. With only the blossoming of the cherry trees to mark the passing of time, he spends his days in a tiny confectionery shop selling dorayaki, a type of pancake filled with sweet bean paste. Into his life comes Tokue, an elderly woman with disfigured hands and a troubled past. Tokue makes the best sweet bean paste Sentaro has ever tasted. She begins to teach him her craft, but as their friendship flourishes, social pressures become impossible to escape.
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Heartfelt Story between the unlikely friendship between an old lady in her 70s and a middle aged chef
- By Anonymous User on 05-24-25
By: Durian Sukegawa, and others
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The Moon in the Palace
- The Empress of Bright Moon, Book 1
- By: Weina Dai Randel
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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There is no easy path for a woman aspiring to power. A concubine at the palace learns quickly that there are many ways to capture the emperor's attention. Many paint their faces white and style their hair attractively, hoping to lure in the One Above All with their beauty. Some present him with fantastic gifts, such as jade pendants and scrolls of calligraphy, while others rely on their knowledge of seduction to draw his interest. But young Mei knows nothing of these womanly arts, yet she will give the emperor a gift he can never forget.
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One of the most annoying narrations
- By Foodiewife on 01-28-17
By: Weina Dai Randel
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The Woman in the White Kimono
- A Novel
- By: Ana Johns
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Lauren Ezzo
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Japan, 1957. Seventeen-year-old Naoko Nakamura’s prearranged marriage to the son of her father’s business associate would secure her family’s status in their traditional Japanese community, but Naoko has fallen for another man - an American sailor, a gaijin - and to marry him would bring great shame upon her entire family. When it’s learned Naoko carries the sailor’s child, she’s cast out in disgrace and forced to make unimaginable choices with consequences that will ripple across generations.
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DO NOT LISTEN! Decent story, HORRIBLE narration!!!
- By David Meier on 05-07-20
By: Ana Johns
family ties
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Excellent
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Magical Cultural Experience
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Good but slow!
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What a great book!
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absolutely amazing book!
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Captivating
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Only girl talk
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not what I expected
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Unexpected and Strong
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