
Vita Nostra
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Jessica Ball
About this listen
The definitive English-language translation of the internationally best-selling Russian novel - a brilliant dark fantasy with "the potential to be a modern classic" (Lev Grossman), combining psychological suspense, enchantment, and terror that makes us consider human existence in a fresh and provocative way.
Our life is brief....
While vacationing at the beach with her mother, Sasha Samokhina meets the mysterious Farit Kozhennikov under the most peculiar circumstances. The teenage girl is powerless to refuse when this strange and unusual man with an air of the sinister directs her to perform a task with potentially scandalous consequences. He rewards her effort with a strange golden coin.
As the days progress, Sasha carries out other acts for which she receives more coins from Kozhennikov. As summer ends, her domineering mentor directs her to move to a remote village and use her gold to enter the Institute of Special Technologies. Though she does not want to go to this unknown town or school, she also feels it’s the only place she should be. Against her mother’s wishes, Sasha leaves behind all that is familiar and begins her education.
As she quickly discovers, the institute’s "special technologies" are unlike anything she has ever encountered. The books are impossible to read, the lessons obscure to the point of maddening, and the work refuses memorization. Using terror and coercion to keep the students in line, the school does not punish them for their transgressions and failures; instead, their families pay a terrible price. Yet despite her fear, Sasha undergoes changes that defy the dictates of matter and time; experiences that are nothing she has ever dreamed of...and suddenly all she could ever want.
A complex blend of adventure, magic, science, and philosophy that probes the mysteries of existence, filtered through a distinct Russian sensibility, this astonishing work of speculative fiction - brilliantly translated by Julia Meitov Hersey - is reminiscent of modern classics such as Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, Max Barry’s Lexicon, and Katherine Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale, but will transport them to a place far beyond those fantastical worlds.
©2013 Sergey Dyachenko and Marina Shyrshova-Dyachenko; translation © 2013 Julia Meitov Hersey (P)2018 HarperAudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Intriguing but disturbing
- By C. Parham on 01-01-21
By: Sayaka Murata
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Rouge
- A Novel
- By: Mona Awad
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience.
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What a fun romp!
- By Barbara S on 10-10-23
By: Mona Awad
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The Rook
- A Novel
- By: Daniel O'Malley
- Narrated by: Susan Duerden
- Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Myfanwy Thomas awakes in a London park surrounded by dead bodies. With her memory gone, her only hope of survival is to trust the instructions left in her pocket by her former self. She quickly learns that she is a Rook, a high-level operative in a secret agency that protects the world from supernatural threats. But there is a mole inside the organization - and this person wants her dead.
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Tale of Two Myfanwy's
- By Tango on 03-18-13
By: Daniel O'Malley
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Plain Bad Heroines
- A Novel
- By: Emily M. Danforth
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 19 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The award-winning author of The Miseducation of Cameron Post makes her adult debut with this highly imaginative and original horror-comedy centered around a cursed New England boarding school for girls - a wickedly whimsical celebration of the art of storytelling, sapphic love, and the rebellious female spirit.
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A book unlike any other.
- By Keir on 11-10-20
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The Salt Grows Heavy
- By: Cassandra Khaw
- Narrated by: Susan Dalian
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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You may think you know how the fairytale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three “saints” who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.
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Words, Words, Words
- By Tracy on 06-18-25
By: Cassandra Khaw
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The Justice of Kings
- By: Richard Swan
- Narrated by: Lucy Paterson
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The Empire of the Wolf simmers with unrest. Rebels, heretics, and powerful patricians all challenge the power of the Imperial throne. Only the Order of Justices stands in the way of chaos. Sir Konrad Vonvalt is the most feared Justice of all, upholding the law by way of his sharp mind, arcane powers, and skill as a swordsman. At his side stands Helena Sedanka, his talented protégé, orphaned by the wars that forged the Empire.
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Give it a try. Doubtful you'll regret it.
- By Taylor Ascher on 03-13-22
By: Richard Swan
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The Traitor Baru Cormorant
- By: Seth Dickinson
- Narrated by: Christine Marshall
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
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In Seth Dickinson's highly anticipated debut The Traitor Baru Cormorant, a young woman from a conquered people tries to transform an empire in this richly imagined geopolitical fantasy. Baru Cormorant believes any price is worth paying to liberate her people - even her soul.
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Read for detail explainations, skip otherwise
- By Nathan on 10-19-15
By: Seth Dickinson
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The Last Sun
- By: K. D. Edwards
- Narrated by: Josh Hurley
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Rune Saint John, the last child of the fallen Sun Court, is hired to search for Lady Judgment's missing son, Addam, on New Atlantis, the island city where the Atlanteans moved after ordinary humans destroyed their original home. With his companion and bodyguard, Brand, he questions Addam's relatives and business contacts through the highest ranks of the nobles of New Atlantis. But as they investigate, they uncover more than a missing man: a legendary creature connected to the secret of the massacre of Rune's Court.
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Holy shit that was so good!!!
- By SMC on 10-12-18
By: K. D. Edwards
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Little, Big
- or, The Fairies' Parliament
- By: John Crowley
- Narrated by: John Crowley
- Length: 24 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Edgewood - which is not found on any map - is many houses, all put inside each other or across each other. It’s filled with and surrounded by mystery and enchantment; the further in you go, the bigger it gets. Smoky Barnable, who has fallen in love with Daily Alice Drinkwater, travels from the City on foot to Edgewood, her family home. There he finds himself on the magical border of an otherworld.
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The Farther in You Go, the Bigger it Gets
- By Jefferson on 04-19-12
By: John Crowley
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Katabasis
- A Novel
- By: R. F. Kuang
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world. That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault. Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams….
By: R. F. Kuang
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The Witness for the Dead
- Book One of the Cemeteries of Amalo Trilogy
- By: Katherine Addison
- Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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When the young half-goblin emperor Maia sought to learn who had set the bombs that killed his father and half-brothers, he turned to an obscure resident of his father’s Court, a Prelate of Ulis and a Witness for the Dead. Thara Celehar found the truth, though it did him no good to discover it. He lost his place as a retainer of his cousin the former Empress, and made far too many enemies among the many factions vying for power in the new Court. The favor of the Emperor is a dangerous coin.
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Same feel, not as satisfying as Goblin Emperor
- By CalyEk on 07-02-21
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The Historian
- By: Elizabeth Kostova
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre, Paul Michael
- Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor", and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of - a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.
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Great buildup to nowhere
- By Nifty Hokie15 on 04-03-18
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The Lamb
- By: Lucy Rose
- Narrated by: Emma Rydal
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Margot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember. When Margot is not at school, they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. People who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she satisfies her burning appetite by picking apart their bodies. But Mama’s want is stronger than her hunger sometimes.
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wow
- By Barbie on 05-24-25
By: Lucy Rose
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The Shadow of the Wind
- By: Carlos Ruiz Zafón
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 18 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Barcelona, 1945: Just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes on his 11th birthday to find that he can no longer remember his mother's face. To console his only child, Daniel's widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona's guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, waiting for someone who will care about them again.
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Have the book handy
- By Rebecca on 07-17-05
A great book.
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Enjoy the ride
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This intricate mind bending book is very well written and well read. Fair warning. There is a magical school, but it’s not Hogwarts by a long shot and a “grown up Harry Potter” this is not.
In the begining was the word
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Somewhat enchanting, tedious at times
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This book is astonishing!
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Translation was very smooth and gorgeously written, and did not feel like a translation at all. Narration was great too, though it was a bit odd that the narrator had a British accent when the book has been translated into US English.
(Side note: One of the reviews claims that the philosophy of this book is based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. I have to say that I disagree with that reviewer: I don't see that this book has anything at all to do with this [outdated] linguistics theory. While language does play a big part in the book, it's not any kind of human language.)
Non-human intelligence
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Fascinating Science Fiction
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Refreshingly Mysterious
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What in the world did I just read?
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The presence of neo platonic structures in the magic system was an unexpected and welcome surprise. I've not before seen a magic system grounded in real world philosophy so well handled.
Low stakes, slice of life, neo-Platonist fantasy
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