The Vine of Desire
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Narrated by:
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Julia Whelan
About this listen
The beloved characters of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's best-selling novel Sister of My Heart are reunited in this powerful narrative that challenges the emotional bond between two lifelong friends, as the husband of one becomes dangerously attracted to the other.
Anju and Sudha formed an astounding, almost psychic connection during their childhood in India. When Anju invites Sudha, a single mother in Calcutta, to come live with her and her husband, Sunil, in California, Sudha foolishly accepts, knowing full well that Sunil has long desired her. As Sunil's attraction rises to the surface, the trio must struggle to make sense of the freedoms of America - and of the ties that bind them to India and to one another.
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Two sisters, ages 10 and 16, are exiled from Brooklyn to Bird Hill in Barbados, after their mother can no longer care for them. The young Phaedra and her older sister, Dionne, live, for the summer of 1989, with their grandmother, Hyacinth, a midwife and practitioner of the local spiritual practice of obeah. Dionne spends the summer in search of love, testing her grandmother's limits, and wanting to go home. Phaedra explores Bird Hill, where her family has lived for generations.
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My absolute favorite book of all time
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The Red Address Book
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- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
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The global fiction sensation - published in 32 countries around the world: Meet Doris, a 96-year-old woman living alone in her Stockholm apartment. She has few visitors, but her weekly Skype calls with Jenny - her American grandniece, and her only relative - give her great joy and remind her of her own youth. In writing down the stories of her colorful past - working as a maid in Sweden, modelling in Paris during the '30s, fleeing to Manhattan at the dawn of the Second World War - she may help Jenny, haunted by a difficult childhood, unlock the secrets of their family....
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narrator was overwrought
- By Janet L. Hamilton on 02-22-19
By: Sofia Lundberg, and others
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Lifted by the Great Nothing
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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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On Mystic Lake
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On the day her daughter leaves for college, Anne Colwater's husband of 20 years announces he wants a divorce. Her roles of wife and mother suddenly gone, Annie retreats to her childhood home of Mystic, Washington, to heal. There she finds her old friend Nick, suddenly widowed and unable to cope with his emotionally scarred young daughter, Izzie.
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Never been so disappointed
- By Anonymous User on 12-28-10
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The Story Hour
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An experienced psychologist, Maggie carefully maintains emotional distance from her patients. But when she meets a young Indian woman who tried to kill herself, her professional detachment disintegrates. Cut off from her family in India, Lakshmi is desperately lonely and trapped in a loveless marriage. Moved by her plight, Maggie treats Lakshmi in her home office for free, quickly realizing that the despondent woman doesn't need a shrink; she needs a friend.
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A stellar performance almost carried the book...
- By Daryl on 03-04-15
By: Thrity Umrigar
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How to Be an American Housewife
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How to Be an American Housewife is a novel about mothers and daughters and the pull of tradition. It tells the story of Shoko, a Japanese woman who married an American GI, and her grown daughter, Sue, a divorced mother whose life as an American housewife hasn't been what she'd expected. When illness prevents Shoko from traveling to Japan, she asks Sue to go in her place. The trip reveals family secrets that change their lives in dramatic and unforeseen ways.
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big disappointment
- By Kirsten on 04-12-12
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Mustique Island
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- By: Sarah McCoy
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s January 1972 but the sun is white hot when Willy May Michael’s boat first kisses the dock of Mustique Island. Tucked into the southernmost curve of the Caribbean, Mustique is a private island that has become a haven for the wealthy and privileged. Its owner is the eccentric British playboy Colin Tennant, who is determined to turn this speck of white sand into a luxurious neo-colonial retreat for his rich friends and into a royal court in exile for the Queen’s rebellious sister, Princess Margaret.
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Vivid Imagery
- By GeauxGetLit on 07-24-22
By: Sarah McCoy
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Hum If You Don't Know the Words
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Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a 10-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred...until the Soweto Uprising.
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Completely wrong accents
- By Debbie on 02-12-22
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The Space Between Us
- By: Thrity Umrigar
- Narrated by: Purva Bedi
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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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What listeners say about The Vine of Desire
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amy C
- 05-24-22
Love and Forgiveness
The continuation of this story was even better than the first. At the end of the first book, we had the excitement of the “sisters” coming together in America. Sometimes too much togetherness, even with a best friend, can do us in. This book had some heartbreak, love, and in the end forgiveness. I really enjoyed Julia Whelan’s voices of each character. So much talent that help tie the story together.
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- Vaishali
- 07-08-21
Beautifully written
Human emotions which are hard to put into words are beautifully stringed together. Every character has its share of white, black & grey areas. High on emotions, plot is very well written. Sometimes it becomes too wordy though & tires me.
Will surely recommend.
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- Mz Shantay
- 03-27-21
Vine of desire
Amazing writing compelling story but the ending has no closure. Also the imagery is outstanding
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 05-03-18
Heartbreaking
The book will stay with me for v long time. It is haunting and exhilarating. The narrator is equal to the task of adding emotions to the narrative.
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- Christina
- 06-23-15
Good story, horrible narration
Any additional comments?
The narrator's voice is so annoying it is sometimes hard to listen to. She speaks in this breathy, almost whisper, voice that doesn't fit the story at all. And her voice for Sunil (the male character) is laughable. Her pronunciation of the Indian words is so bad that at times I don't know what she is talking about. I am about half way through the book, and am enjoying the story. It is an accurate portrayal of the lives of many Indian woman and the way they think. But I would encourage others to read the book rather than listen to it.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-07-24
Wonderful story - beautifully written, and executed
This is a sequel to Sister of my heart.
I listen to both books one after the other, and the characters, plot, complexity of human emotions, and thoughts is again beautifully written by this very talented author.
Imperative to listen or read sister of my heart first though
I am working my way through all of this authors Writings, and I highly recommend this series of two books
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- Donna D Sabsook
- 06-20-15
Good
Story was ok, good. Was slow a read. The last quarter of the book was best.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Sarah L Morelli
- 02-16-21
Wonderful story problematically read
I am a fan of Divakaruni’s novels, but I almost stopped mid-story on multiple occasions because of the many, many mispronunciations of Indian words: even desi and Bengal, for heaven’s sake!
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- Kamalei
- 08-30-21
Good, interesting
Narration great, story interesting. Good story, kept me wanting to listen. Is there a sequel to this?
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- Joanna
- 06-28-21
Good listen overall
But seriously. When a reader mispronounces foreign words they shouldn’t be the reader. She could t even pronounce “chai”! So annoying. But still a good easy listen. For once, an Indian novel that doesn’t end disastrously.
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