
Tyll
A Novel
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 $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Firdous Bamji
About this listen
From the internationally best-selling author of You Should Have Left, Measuring the World, and F, a transfixing retelling of the German myth of Tyll Ulenspiegel: a story about the devastation of war and a beguiling artist’s decision never to die
Daniel Kehlmann masterfully weaves the fates of many historical figures into this enchanting work of magical realism and adventure. This account of the 17th-century vagabond performer and trickster Tyll Ulenspiegel begins when he’s a scrawny boy growing up in a quiet village. When his father, a miller with a secret interest in alchemy and magic, is found out by the church, Tyll is forced to flee with the baker’s daughter, Nele. They find safety and companionship with a traveling performer, who teaches Tyll his trade. And so begins a journey of discovery and performance for Tyll, as he travels through a continent devastated by the Thirty Years’ War and encounters along the way a hangman, a fraudulent Jesuit scholar, and the exiled King Frederick and Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia.
Tyll displays Kehlmann’s remarkable narrative gifts and confirms the power of art in the face of the senseless brutality of history.
Translated from the German by Ross Benjamin
©2020 Daniel Kehlmann, Ross Benjamin (P)2020 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Made Things
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to Fountains Parish - a cesspit of trade and crime, where ambition curls up to die and desperation grows on its cobbled streets like mold on week-old bread. Coppelia is a street thief, a trickster, a low-level con artist. But she has something other thieves don't...tiny puppet-like companions: some made of wood, some of metal. They don't entirely trust her, and she doesn't entirely understand them, but their partnership mostly works.
-
-
2nd time through.....still awesome
- By k on 07-15-21
-
How Much of These Hills Is Gold
- A Novel
- By: C Pam Zhang
- Narrated by: Catherine Ho, Joel de la Fuente
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ba dies in the night; Ma is already gone. Newly orphaned children of immigrants, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existence. Fleeing the threats of their Western mining town, they set off to bury their father in the only way that will set them free from their past. Along the way, they encounter giant buffalo bones, tiger paw prints, and the specters of a ravaged landscape as well as family secrets, sibling rivalry, and glimpses of a different kind of future.
-
-
Artistically written
- By Sherry Novak on 08-15-20
By: C Pam Zhang
-
Homer Box Set: Iliad & Odyssey
- By: Homer, W. H. D. Rouse - translator
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 25 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are unquestionably two of the greatest epic masterpieces in Western literature. Though more than 2,700 years old, their stories of brave heroics, capricious gods, and towering human emotions are vividly timeless. The Iliad can justly be called the world’s greatest war epic. The terrible and long-drawn-out siege of Troy remains one of the classic campaigns. The Odyssey chronicles the many trials and adventures Odysseus must pass through on his long journey home from the Trojan wars to his beloved wife.
-
-
Oddball Translation
- By Joel Jenkins on 05-11-17
By: Homer, and others
-
Sistersong
- By: Lucy Holland
- Narrated by: Robyn Holdaway
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the ancient kingdom of Dumnonia, there is old magic to be found in the whisper of the wind, the roots of the trees, the curl of the grass. King Cador knew this once, but now the land has turned from him, calling instead to his three children. Riva can cure others, but can’t seem to heal her own deep scars. Keyne battles to be accepted for who he truly is—the king’s son. And Sinne dreams of seeing the world, of finding adventure.
-
-
Beautiful Genre-Defying Story
- By Joelle Trayers on 11-22-21
By: Lucy Holland
-
The Sea, the Sea
- By: Iris Murdoch, Mary Kinzie - introduction
- Narrated by: Simon Vance, Kimberly Farr
- Length: 21 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charles Arrowby, leading light of England's theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor, both professionally and personally, and amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years.
-
-
Murdoch Amazes
- By Sara on 08-30-17
By: Iris Murdoch, and others
-
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
- Stories
- By: Denis Johnson
- Narrated by: Nick Offerman, Michael Shannon, Dermot Mulroney, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden is the long-awaited new story collection from Denis Johnson. Written in the luminous prose that made him one of the most beloved and important writers of his generation, this collection finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating the ghosts of the past and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves.
-
-
His Tumulus of Stunning Sirenic Stories
- By W Perry Hall on 03-01-18
By: Denis Johnson
-
Made Things
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to Fountains Parish - a cesspit of trade and crime, where ambition curls up to die and desperation grows on its cobbled streets like mold on week-old bread. Coppelia is a street thief, a trickster, a low-level con artist. But she has something other thieves don't...tiny puppet-like companions: some made of wood, some of metal. They don't entirely trust her, and she doesn't entirely understand them, but their partnership mostly works.
-
-
2nd time through.....still awesome
- By k on 07-15-21
-
How Much of These Hills Is Gold
- A Novel
- By: C Pam Zhang
- Narrated by: Catherine Ho, Joel de la Fuente
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ba dies in the night; Ma is already gone. Newly orphaned children of immigrants, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existence. Fleeing the threats of their Western mining town, they set off to bury their father in the only way that will set them free from their past. Along the way, they encounter giant buffalo bones, tiger paw prints, and the specters of a ravaged landscape as well as family secrets, sibling rivalry, and glimpses of a different kind of future.
-
-
Artistically written
- By Sherry Novak on 08-15-20
By: C Pam Zhang
-
Homer Box Set: Iliad & Odyssey
- By: Homer, W. H. D. Rouse - translator
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 25 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are unquestionably two of the greatest epic masterpieces in Western literature. Though more than 2,700 years old, their stories of brave heroics, capricious gods, and towering human emotions are vividly timeless. The Iliad can justly be called the world’s greatest war epic. The terrible and long-drawn-out siege of Troy remains one of the classic campaigns. The Odyssey chronicles the many trials and adventures Odysseus must pass through on his long journey home from the Trojan wars to his beloved wife.
-
-
Oddball Translation
- By Joel Jenkins on 05-11-17
By: Homer, and others
-
Sistersong
- By: Lucy Holland
- Narrated by: Robyn Holdaway
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the ancient kingdom of Dumnonia, there is old magic to be found in the whisper of the wind, the roots of the trees, the curl of the grass. King Cador knew this once, but now the land has turned from him, calling instead to his three children. Riva can cure others, but can’t seem to heal her own deep scars. Keyne battles to be accepted for who he truly is—the king’s son. And Sinne dreams of seeing the world, of finding adventure.
-
-
Beautiful Genre-Defying Story
- By Joelle Trayers on 11-22-21
By: Lucy Holland
-
The Sea, the Sea
- By: Iris Murdoch, Mary Kinzie - introduction
- Narrated by: Simon Vance, Kimberly Farr
- Length: 21 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charles Arrowby, leading light of England's theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor, both professionally and personally, and amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years.
-
-
Murdoch Amazes
- By Sara on 08-30-17
By: Iris Murdoch, and others
-
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
- Stories
- By: Denis Johnson
- Narrated by: Nick Offerman, Michael Shannon, Dermot Mulroney, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden is the long-awaited new story collection from Denis Johnson. Written in the luminous prose that made him one of the most beloved and important writers of his generation, this collection finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating the ghosts of the past and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves.
-
-
His Tumulus of Stunning Sirenic Stories
- By W Perry Hall on 03-01-18
By: Denis Johnson
-
Quichotte
- A Novel
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by the Cervantes classic, Sam DuChamp, mediocre writer of spy thrillers, creates Quichotte, a courtly, addled salesman obsessed with television who falls in impossible love with a TV star. Together with his (imaginary) son Sancho, Quichotte sets off on a picaresque quest across America to prove worthy of her hand, gallantly braving the tragicomic perils of an age where “Anything-Can-Happen.” Meanwhile his creator, in a midlife crisis, has equally urgent challenges of his own.
-
-
The Best Narration I have Ever Heard
- By Bubikon on 12-12-19
By: Salman Rushdie
-
Piranesi
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has. In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.
-
-
Fascinating Social Study
- By Henry V on 02-26-21
By: Susanna Clarke
-
A Brightness Long Ago
- By: Guy Gavriel Kay
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who shaped his life. Danio Cerra's intelligence won him entry to a renowned school even though he was only the son of a tailor. He took service at the court of a ruling count - and soon learned why that man was known as the Beast.
-
-
Another Masterpiece from Mr. Kay
- By Craig Cassar on 06-01-19
By: Guy Gavriel Kay
-
Babel
- Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution
- By: R. F. Kuang
- Narrated by: Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Billie Fulford-Brown
- Length: 21 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.
-
-
The novel language lovers have been waiting for
- By LisaLee on 09-06-22
By: R. F. Kuang
-
The Long Ships
- By: Frans G. Bengtsson, Michael Meyer, Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 20 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bengtsson's hero, Red Orm-canny - courageous and above all lucky - is only a boy when he is abducted from his Danish home by the Vikings and made to take his place at the oars of their dragon-prowed ships. Orm is then captured by the Moors in Spain, where he fights for the Caliph of Cordova. Escaping from captivity, Orm washes up in Ireland, where he marvels at those epicene creatures, the Christian monks, and from which he then moves on to play an ever more important part in the intrigues of the various Scandinavian kings and clans and dependencies.
-
-
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful story
- By Kindle Customer on 08-28-18
By: Frans G. Bengtsson, and others
-
Red Pill
- A Novel
- By: Hari Kunzru
- Narrated by: Hari Kunzru
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After receiving a prestigious writing fellowship in Germany, the narrator of Red Pill arrives in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee and struggles to accomplish anything at all. Instead of working on the book he has proposed to write, he takes long walks and binge-watches Blue Lives - a violent cop show that becomes weirdly compelling in its bleak, Darwinian view of life - and soon begins to wonder if his writing has any value at all.
-
-
Paranoia justified
- By Daved Baker on 11-05-20
By: Hari Kunzru
-
The Passenger
- A Novel
- By: Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, André Aciman
- Narrated by: Philip Boehm, Neil Hellegers
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Berlin, November 1938. Jewish shops have been ransacked and looted, synagogues destroyed. As storm troopers pound on his door, Otto Silbermann, a respected businessman who fought for Germany in the Great War, is forced to sneak out the back of his own home. Turned away from establishments he had long patronized, and fearful of being exposed as a Jew despite his Aryan looks, he boards a train.
-
-
Top-notch novel
- By R. Klein on 05-31-21
By: Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, and others
-
The Silmarillion
- By: J. R. R. Tolkien
- Narrated by: Martin Shaw
- Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The complete unabridged audiobook of J.R.R Tolkien's The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien’s world. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of them such as Elrond and Galadriel took part.
-
-
Finally!
- By Brian on 11-22-18
By: J. R. R. Tolkien
-
The Splendid and the Vile
- A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: John Lee, Erik Larson
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next 12 months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally - and willing to fight to the end. In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless."
-
-
John Lee’s narration is a struggle
- By Leslie Rathjens on 03-05-20
By: Erik Larson
-
At Night All Blood Is Black
- A Novel
- By: David Diop, Anna Moschovakis - translator
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 2 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alfa Ndiaye is a Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting as a so-called “Chocolat” soldier with the French army during World War I. When his friend Mademba Diop, in the same regiment, is seriously injured in battle, Diop begs Alfa to kill him and spare him the pain of a long and agonizing death in No Man’s Land. Unable to commit this mercy killing, madness creeps into Alfa’s mind as he comes to see this refusal as a cruel moment of cowardice.
-
-
Compelling story, poor narration
- By Shauna on 07-10-21
By: David Diop, and others
-
The Evening and the Morning
- Kingsbridge, Book 4
- By: Ken Follett
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Those in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the king. Without a clear rule of law, chaos reigns. In these turbulent times, three characters find their lives intertwined.
-
-
I was really waiting for this book!
- By Firebolt on 09-20-20
By: Ken Follett
-
Musashi
- By: Eiji Yoshikawa, Charles S. Terry - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 53 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman. Miyamoto Musashi becomes a reluctant hero to a host of people whose lives he has touched and by whom he has been touched. Inevitably, he has to pit his skill against the naked blade of his greatest rival.
-
-
Good Historical Novel
- By The Walking Dude on 08-11-19
By: Eiji Yoshikawa, and others
Critic reviews
"This is a brilliant and unputdownable novel. Kehlmann is the true inheritor of the German fabulist tradition that stretches back to the Brothers Grimm and even further, and in the legendary prankster figure of Tyll Ulenspiegel he has found his perfect avatar." (Salman Rushdie)
"A rollicking historical picaresque ... Located somewhere between German romanticism and modernism, superstition and science, history and high fantasy, this is a rapturous and adventuresome novel of ideas that, like Tyll’s roaming sideshow, must be experienced to be believed.” (Publishers Weekly)
“Injecting gleeful dark humor into a setting that manages to feel both fantastically dystopian and historically grounded . . . [an] irresistible story.” (Booklist, starred review)
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Slaughterman's Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Yaniv Iczkovits
- Narrated by: Tovah Feldshuh
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With her reputation as a vilde chaya (wild animal), Fanny Keismann isn’t like the other women in her shtetl in the Pale of Settlement - certainly not her obedient and anxiety-ridden sister, Mende, whose “philosopher” of a husband has run off to Minsk, abandoning her and their two children. As a young girl, Fanny felt an inexorable pull toward her father’s profession of ritual slaughterer and, under his reluctant guidance, became a master with a knife. And though she long ago gave up that unsuitable profession, Fanny still keeps the knife tied to her right leg.
-
-
The narration - why?????
- By agarista on 07-20-21
By: Yaniv Iczkovits
-
Measuring the World
- By: Daniel Kehlmann
- Narrated by: Rider Strong
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scientist-explorer Alexander von Humboldt summons the great mathematician Carl Gauss to Berlin before embarking on an ambitious expedition across Russia, determined to measure the world.
-
-
Extremely disappointing - please avoid
- By Henrik on 04-24-07
By: Daniel Kehlmann
-
Sword Stone Table
- Old Legends, New Voices
- By: Swapna Krishna, Jenn Northington
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam, Gisela Chipe, Joel Froomkin, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the vast lore surrounding King Arthur, Camelot, and the Knights of the Round Table comes an anthology of gender-bent, race-bent, LGBTQIA+ inclusive retellings.
-
-
Wonderful!!
- By Gunnar Kerschner on 03-01-23
By: Swapna Krishna, and others
-
The Lost Steps
- By: Alejo Carpentier, Adrian Nathan West - translator, Leonardo Padura - introduction
- Narrated by: Caleb Summers
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dissatisfied with his empty, Sisyphus-like existence in New York City, where he has abandoned his creative dreams for a job in corporate advertising, a highly cultured aspiring composer wants nothing more than to tear his life up from the root. He soon finds his escape hatch: a university-sponsored mission to South America to look for indigenous musical instruments in one of the few areas of the world not yet touched by civilization. Retracing the steps of time, he voyages with his lover into a land that feels outside of history.
-
-
Fantastic!
- By Amazon Customer on 09-16-23
By: Alejo Carpentier, and others
-
Measuring the World
- By: Daniel Kehlmann
- Narrated by: David Timson
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Towards the end of the 18th century, two brilliant young Germans set out to measure the world. The naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt travels down the Orinoco, climbs the highest mountain then known to man, counts head lice on the heads of the natives, and explores every hole in the ground. The mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss does not even need to leave his home in Göttingen to know that space is curved.
By: Daniel Kehlmann
-
Thistlefoot
- A Novel
- By: GennaRose Nethercott
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Yaga siblings—Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist—have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive an inheritance, the siblings agree to meet—only to discover that their bequest isn’t land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs.
-
-
I can't decide if I liked it
- By Lorraine Cannon on 11-03-22
-
The Slaughterman's Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Yaniv Iczkovits
- Narrated by: Tovah Feldshuh
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With her reputation as a vilde chaya (wild animal), Fanny Keismann isn’t like the other women in her shtetl in the Pale of Settlement - certainly not her obedient and anxiety-ridden sister, Mende, whose “philosopher” of a husband has run off to Minsk, abandoning her and their two children. As a young girl, Fanny felt an inexorable pull toward her father’s profession of ritual slaughterer and, under his reluctant guidance, became a master with a knife. And though she long ago gave up that unsuitable profession, Fanny still keeps the knife tied to her right leg.
-
-
The narration - why?????
- By agarista on 07-20-21
By: Yaniv Iczkovits
-
Measuring the World
- By: Daniel Kehlmann
- Narrated by: Rider Strong
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scientist-explorer Alexander von Humboldt summons the great mathematician Carl Gauss to Berlin before embarking on an ambitious expedition across Russia, determined to measure the world.
-
-
Extremely disappointing - please avoid
- By Henrik on 04-24-07
By: Daniel Kehlmann
-
Sword Stone Table
- Old Legends, New Voices
- By: Swapna Krishna, Jenn Northington
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam, Gisela Chipe, Joel Froomkin, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the vast lore surrounding King Arthur, Camelot, and the Knights of the Round Table comes an anthology of gender-bent, race-bent, LGBTQIA+ inclusive retellings.
-
-
Wonderful!!
- By Gunnar Kerschner on 03-01-23
By: Swapna Krishna, and others
-
The Lost Steps
- By: Alejo Carpentier, Adrian Nathan West - translator, Leonardo Padura - introduction
- Narrated by: Caleb Summers
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dissatisfied with his empty, Sisyphus-like existence in New York City, where he has abandoned his creative dreams for a job in corporate advertising, a highly cultured aspiring composer wants nothing more than to tear his life up from the root. He soon finds his escape hatch: a university-sponsored mission to South America to look for indigenous musical instruments in one of the few areas of the world not yet touched by civilization. Retracing the steps of time, he voyages with his lover into a land that feels outside of history.
-
-
Fantastic!
- By Amazon Customer on 09-16-23
By: Alejo Carpentier, and others
-
Measuring the World
- By: Daniel Kehlmann
- Narrated by: David Timson
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Towards the end of the 18th century, two brilliant young Germans set out to measure the world. The naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt travels down the Orinoco, climbs the highest mountain then known to man, counts head lice on the heads of the natives, and explores every hole in the ground. The mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss does not even need to leave his home in Göttingen to know that space is curved.
By: Daniel Kehlmann
-
Thistlefoot
- A Novel
- By: GennaRose Nethercott
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Yaga siblings—Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist—have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive an inheritance, the siblings agree to meet—only to discover that their bequest isn’t land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs.
-
-
I can't decide if I liked it
- By Lorraine Cannon on 11-03-22
-
The Devourers
- A Novel
- By: Indra Das
- Narrated by: Shishir Kurup, Meera Simhan
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a cool evening in Kolkata, India, beneath a full moon, as the whirling rhythms of traveling musicians fill the night, college professor Alok encounters a mysterious stranger with a bizarre confession and an extraordinary story. Tantalized by the man's unfinished tale, Alok will do anything to hear its completion. So Alok agrees, at the stranger's behest, to transcribe a collection of battered notebooks, weathered parchments, and once-living skins.
-
-
Myth brought to life of piss and carnage
- By Sarah on 09-19-16
By: Indra Das
-
The Ancients
- A Novel
- By: John Larison
- Narrated by: Dani Martineck
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A young boy and his older sisters find themselves suddenly and utterly alone, orphaned in an abandoned fishing village. Their food supplies dwindling, they set out across a breathtaking yet treacherous wilderness in search of the last of their people. Down the coast, raiders deliver the children's mother, along with the rest of their human cargo, to the last port city of a waning empire. Determined to reunite with her family, she plots her escape—while her fellow captives plan open revolt.
-
-
Sociological SF — imaginative and deeply intelligent
- By AlishaKJ on 10-26-24
By: John Larison
-
Lo Fi
- A Novel
- By: Liz Riggs
- Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most nights, you’ll find Alison Hunter at The Venue, the kind of sweaty Nashville spot that’s on the circuit for bands like Bon Iver and Death Cab. Sounds glamorous—but not for Al, who stamps hands at the door with Julien, the quiet coworker who treats her like a little sister. When she can sneak off, she bums drinks from the tattooed bartender and watches the bands, wondering if she’ll ever finish a song of her own after her disastrous attempt to play in public.
-
-
Nostalgia in Nashville
- By Kalee Barbis on 07-11-24
By: Liz Riggs
-
And Then She Fell
- A Novel
- By: Alicia Elliott
- Narrated by: Cheri Maracle, Jenna Clause
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the surface, Alice is exactly where she thinks she should be: She’s just given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Dawn; her charming husband, Steve—a white academic whose area of study is conveniently her own Mohawk culture—is nothing but supportive; and they’ve moved into a new home in a posh Toronto neighborhood. But Alice could not feel like more of an impostor. She isn’t connecting with her daughter, a struggle made even more difficult by the recent loss of her own mother, and every waking moment is spent hiding her despair from Steve and their ever-watchful neighbors.
-
-
hau day own day!
- By Karli on 11-06-23
By: Alicia Elliott
-
The Majority
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth L. Silver
- Narrated by: Sierra Prasada
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Half of the United States is waiting for Justice Sylvia Olin Bernstein to die. The other half is praying for her to hold on. At 83, “the contemptuous S.O.B.” doesn’t have much time left. What she has is a story, one she has wrested from the grip of history to tell herself—of how she rose to her historic position on the Supreme Court, and the barriers she broke along the way.
-
-
Unusual story - what makes a supreme court justice
- By Angela on 07-14-23
-
Native Speaker
- By: Chang-rae Lee
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henry Park has spent his entire life trying to become a true American—a native speaker. But even as the essence of his adopted country continues to elude him, his Korean heritage seems to drift further and further away. Park's harsh Korean upbringing has taught him to hide his emotions, to remember everything he learns, and most of all to feel an overwhelming sense of alienation. In other words, it has shaped him as a natural spy.
-
-
Great novel. Strange narrator choice.
- By Andy P on 08-10-22
By: Chang-rae Lee
-
The Burning Island
- By: Hester Young
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Journalist Charlie Cates has always believed in facts, in what can be proved - her career depends on it. Which is why she has never truly accepted the supernatural visions that guide her to children in danger. After her work on a high-profile missing-child case brings unwanted fame, she reluctantly flees to the lush Big Island of Hawaii with her best friend, Rae. Determined to avoid her disturbing visions, Charlie begins writing what seems to be a harmless interview of a prominent volcanologist. But soon, she's haunted by dreams of a local girl who went missing six weeks earlier.
-
-
I enjoyed the story
- By M. Abrego on 03-04-20
By: Hester Young
-
Popisho
- A Novel
- By: Leone Ross
- Narrated by: Leone Ross
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Somewhere far away - or maybe right nearby - lies an archipelago called Popisho. A place of stunning beauty and incorrigible mischief, destiny, and mystery, it is also a place in need of change. A storm is brewing. Before it comes, before the end of the day, this wildly imaginative narrative will take us across the islands, their history, and into the lives of unforgettable characters.
-
-
Moving and Lyrical
- By Nicole Ivy on 08-28-21
By: Leone Ross
-
The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill
- By: Rowenna Miller
- Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky
- Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is no magic on Prospect Hill—or anywhere else, for that matter. But just on the other side of the veil is the world of the Fae. Generations ago, the first farmers on Prospect Hill learned to bargain small trades to make their lives a little easier. Much of that old wisdom was lost as the riverboats gave way to the rail lines and the farmers took work at mills and factories. Alaine Fairborn’s family, however, was always superstitious, and she still hums the rhymes to find a lost shoe and to ensure dry weather on her sister’s wedding day.
-
-
Characters and world building
- By Amandahawkes on 02-14-24
By: Rowenna Miller
-
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
- By: K. J. Parker
- Narrated by: Ray Sawyer
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A siege is approaching, and the city has little time to prepare. The people have no food and no weapons, and the enemy has sworn to slaughter them all. To save the city will take a miracle, but what it has is Orhan. A colonel of engineers, Orhan has far more experience with bridge-building than battles, is a cheat and a liar, and has a serious problem with authority. He is, in other words, perfect for the job. Sixteen Ways To Defend a Walled City is the story of Orhan, son of Siyyah Doctus Felix Praeclarissimus, and his history of the Great Siege.
-
-
Great setting but self defeatist.
- By Kamil on 05-06-25
By: K. J. Parker
-
The Unraveling
- By: Melanie Hamrick
- Narrated by: Summer Morton
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jocelyn Banks has always felt like an outsider in the ballet world. She was raised in rural Louisiana, taught to scrap and hustle for the life she wanted. And ever since Jocelyn found ballet, she has been able to take her life into her own hands. After years of success at the North American Ballet, she is now on a hiatus to enjoy life in London. But in an instant, Jocelyn’s world is turned upside down and she’s forced find a way back into the ballet world. But the ballet scene in London is completely different from the one in America.
-
-
Twisty unexpected dance drama
- By Pony2018 on 08-30-24
By: Melanie Hamrick
-
Perish
- A Novel
- By: LaToya Watkins
- Narrated by: Jeremy Michael Durm, Keyonni James, Chanté McCormick, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bear it or perish yourself. Those are the words Helen Jean hears that fateful night in her cousin’s outhouse that change the trajectory of her life. Spanning decades, Perish tracks the choices Helen Jean—the matriarch of the Turner family—makes and the way those choices have rippled across generations, from her children to her grandchildren and beyond. This family’s “reunion” unearths long-kept secrets and forces each member to ask themselves important questions about who is deserving of forgiveness and who bears the cross of blame.
-
-
listened twice...great performance
- By Carol on 09-20-22
By: LaToya Watkins
Brilliant.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Gratitude Excercise
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A gem
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautiful
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The book was originally published in German. Firdous Bamji's narration is excellent, as he's able to cast a spell of foreboding, while also adding a note of subtle, bittersweet humor.
Tyll, made of air!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Spellbinding
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This story appears to meander between vignettes for the first few chapters, but eventually, it becomes clear that it's following the range set of characters across time. Certain sections seem to be arranged non-chronologically, but it's not difficult to follow.
I feel like I will need to reread this to see all of the connections in full, but I quite enjoyed it.
Good story with unique characters
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Superb
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Told in prose not seen in American novels about a subject not known to American readers, this unsentimental story of a time before the Enlightenment is a must-read.
And the audible reader is masterful in capturing the author’s —and characters’ —voices.
This has Pulitzer Prize written all over it
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A Weird and Wonderful Book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.