Walking the Bowl
A True Story of Murder and Survival Among the Street Children of Lusaka
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Narrated by:
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Hlonela Ngqwebo
About this listen
For readers of Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Nothing to Envy, this is a breathtaking real-life story of four street children in contemporary Zambia whose lives are drawn together and forever altered by the mysterious murder of a fellow street child.
Based on years of investigative reporting and unprecedented fieldwork, Walking the Bowl immerses readers in the daily lives of four unforgettable characters: Lusabilo, a determined waste picker; Kapula, a burned-out brothel worker; Moonga, a former rock crusher turned beggar; and Timo, an ambitious gang leader. These children navigate the violent and poverty-stricken underworld of Lusaka, one of Africa’s fastest growing cities.
When the dead body of a ten-year-old boy is discovered under a heap of garbage in Lusaka’s largest landfill, a murder investigation quickly heats up due to the influence of the victim’s mother and her far-reaching political connections. The children’s lives become more closely intertwined as each child engages in a desperate bid for survival against forces they could never have imagined.
Gripping and fast-paced, the book exposes the perilous aspects of street life through the eyes of the children who survive, endure and dream there, and what emerges is an ultimately hopeful story about human kindness and how one small good deed, passed on to others, can make a difference in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2022 Chris Lockhart, Daniel Mulilo Chama (P)2022 Harlequin Enterprises, LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
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- Unabridged
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When brothers Tushar and Nakul Khurana, two Delhi schoolboys, pick up their family's television at a repair shop with their friend, Mansoor Ahmed, one day in 1996, disaster strikes without warning. A bomb - one of the many "small" bombs that go off seemingly unheralded across the world - detonates in the Delhi marketplace, instantly claiming the lives of the Khurana boys, to the devastation of their parents. Mansoor survives, bearing the physical and psychological effects of the bomb.
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A tragedy of manners
- By jdukuray on 07-22-16
By: Karan Mahajan
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Stand on Zanzibar
- By: John Brunner, Bruce Sterling - foreword
- Narrated by: Erik Bergmann
- Length: 21 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Niblock House is a rising executive at General Technics, one of a few all-powerful corporations. His work is leading General Technics to the forefront of global domination, both in the marketplace and politically - it's about to take over a country in Africa. Donald Hogan is his roommate, a seemingly sheepish bookworm. But Hogan is a spy, and he's about to discover a breakthrough in genetic engineering that will change the world...and kill him. Society is squeezed into hive-living madness by god-like mega computers and mass-marketed psychedelic drugs.
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perfect audio experience
- By Darryl on 03-24-14
By: John Brunner, and others
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Bangkok 8
- By: John Burdett
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Witnessed by a throng of gaping spectators, a charismatic Marine sergeant is murdered under a Bangkok bridge inside a bolted-shut Mercedes Benz. Among the witnesses are the only two cops in the city not on the take, but within moments one is murdered and his partner, Sonchai Jitpleecheep - a devout Buddhist and the son of a Thai bar girl and a long-gone Vietnam War G.I. - is hell-bent on wreaking revenge. On a vigilante mission to capture his partner’s murderer, Sonchai is begrudgingly paired with a beautiful FBI agent named Jones....
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Very dissapointing
- By Dennis on 05-29-13
By: John Burdett
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Tears of the Desert
- A Memoir of Survival in Darfur
- By: Halima Bashir, Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Halima Bashir was born into the Zaghawa tribe, whose customs have remained unchanged for centuries, in the remote western deserts of Sudan in the region of South Darfur. Halima's father named his daughter after the traditional medicine woman of the village, and she grew up in a happy and close-knit childhood environment. Her father became a wealthy man by his tribe's standards, so he could afford to send Halima to school and university. Halima went on to study medicine, and at 24 she returned to her tribe and began practicing as their first ever qualified doctor.
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A story that takes you there
- By Justicepirate on 05-22-17
By: Halima Bashir, and others
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Dreams from My Father
- A Story of Race and Inheritance
- By: Barack Obama
- Narrated by: Barack Obama
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a Black African father and a White American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a Black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father - a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man - has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey - first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family.
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Powerful
- By Gene R. on 10-26-21
By: Barack Obama
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Tigerman
- By: Nick Harkaway
- Narrated by: Matt Bates
- Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Lester Ferris needs a rest. He's spent his life being shot at, and Afghanistan was the last stop on his road to exhaustion. Mancreu is the ideal place for Lester to relax. A former British colony, soon to be destroyed because of its very special version of toxic pollution. But Lester Ferris makes a friend: a street kid with a comicbook fixation who will need a home - who might, Lester hopes, become an adopted son. But in a place like Mancreu, just what sort of hero will the boy need?
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Slow start - but very touching
- By Cath on 08-25-14
By: Nick Harkaway
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Kaffir Boy
- The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa
- By: Mark Mathabane
- Narrated by: Mark Mathabane
- Length: 18 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Mark Mathabane was weaned on devastating poverty and schooled in the cruel streets of South Africa’s most desperate ghetto, where bloody gang wars and midnight police raids were his rites of passage. Like every other child born in the hopelessness of apartheid, he learned to measure his life in days, not years. Yet Mark Mathabane, armed only with the courage of his family and a hard-won education, raised himself up from the squalor and humiliation to win a scholarship to an American university.
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Tragic yet we'll written
- By ARM on 10-07-16
By: Mark Mathabane
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Jar City
- By: Arnaldur Indridason
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Gold Dagger Award winner Arnaldur Indridason’s novels featuring Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson became international sensations on their way to selling millions of copies worldwide. The debut of morose detective Sveinsson finds the inspector and his team delving into the murder of a retiree with horrifying secrets.
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Cerebral Police Procedural
- By Aaron on 09-14-13
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Murder City
- Ciudad Juarez and The Global Economy's New Killing Fields
- By: Charles Bowden
- Narrated by: Charles Bowden
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Charles Bowden writes, “this book is not about how the world ends but how a new world is being born.” Murder City explores this new world, focusing on the idea that Mexico is collapsing into a permanent culture of violence. Bowden focuses on Ciudad Juarez, which lies just across the Rio Grande from El Paso. Infamously known as the place where women disappear, last year alone 1,607 people were murdered, a number that is set to accelerate in 2009.
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Listen Up!
- By Roy on 04-04-10
By: Charles Bowden
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Find Me Unafraid
- Love, Loss, and Hope in an African Slum
- By: Kennedy Odede, Jessica Posner
- Narrated by: Korey Jackson, Mandy Siegfried, P.J. Ochlan (foreword)
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Find Me Unafraid tells the uncommon love story between two uncommon people whose collaboration sparked a successful movement to transform the lives of vulnerable girls and the urban poor. With a foreword by Nicholas Kristof.
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A difficult and rewarding listen
- By R. MCRACKAN on 08-23-18
By: Kennedy Odede, and others
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A Fraction of the Whole
- By: Steve Toltz
- Narrated by: Colin McPhillamy, Craig Baldwin
- Length: 25 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Stewing in an Australian prison, Jasper Dean reflects on his relationship with his dead father and recounts the many zany adventures they shared together.
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A Funny and Thought-provoking Tale of Human Nature
- By Asha Ember on 01-27-10
By: Steve Toltz
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Wife of the Gods
- A Novel
- By: Kwei Quartey
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Detective Inspector Darko Dawson, a good family man and a remarkably intuitive sleuth, is sent to the village of Ketanu---the site of his mother's disappearance many years ago---to solve the murder of an accomplished young AIDS worker. While battling his own anger issues and concerns for his ailing son, Darko explores the motivations and secrets of the residents of Ketanu.
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Engrossing Mystery in a Fascinating Setting
- By Tracey Rains on 04-19-10
By: Kwei Quartey
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Every Dead Thing
- By: John Connolly
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 15 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Former NYPD detective Charlie "Bird" Parker is on the verge of madness. Tortured by the unsolved slayings of his wife and young daughter, he is a man consumed by guilt, regret, and the desire for revenge. When his former partner asks him to track down a missing girl, Parker finds himself drawn into a world beyond his imagining - one where 30 year old killings remain shrouded in fear and lies, a world where the ghosts of the dead torment the living....
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Horrible narration
- By arleneshapiro21 on 05-01-13
By: John Connolly
What listeners say about Walking the Bowl
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Nancy J Carbone
- 03-06-24
Wonderful book; Excellent narrator
This was a beautifully written story based on years of research and experience by a team working in Lusaka. The characters are incredibly compelling, the plot draws you in and the prose is beautiful. I loved the narrator's style and voice. At first I wondered if the accent would prove distracting to me, but his beautiful voice and cadence carries you along in the story and his accent serves to place you firmly in the setting. Highly recommend!
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- Matthew Unrath
- 01-15-23
Heartbreaking but with a dash of hope
I bought this book because i had an intuition about how different the lives of street children in Zambia would be from suburban America. Those differences were stark - even having listened to stories of others growing up in poverty (like Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime) didn’t prepare me for it.
Even so, the children keep on living. Despite the system crushing them and the (almost) absence of hope. I found myself still listening to find out what happened each of the several street youth characters, even the anti-heroes.
Docked points on the performance because the narrator volume came out pretty uneven - I had to keep cranking the car stereo up and down to hear properly.
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- Jennifer
- 08-07-22
Heartbreaking, Unforgettable, Stumning
This most incredible piece of literary journalism I have ever read. Despite all the darkness and evil in this book, the beauty of kindness looms larger. Having lived in South Africa, I am overwhelmed by the raw honesty of this story. To those who wrote it, to those who walked the bowl, I am forever in awe of you.
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- Patrick C
- 10-28-22
Amazing.
Heartbreaking and also very bittersweet. I enjoyed the storytelling in the book so much. I highly recommend this for anyone. Even when it seems all hope is lost there is always a bit hope. Just such a wonderful story of hope and kindness in the midst of darkness and despair.
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- AsaJohnson
- 02-28-22
Gripping and Informative
This book uses the narrative of a murder among street children to cast a light on the plight of children in quickly mushrooming African urban areas. It is most powerful as a window on the systemic exploitation rife in the world and the feble response of NGOs and governments. Walking the Bowl is a bit less satisfying as art being heavy-handed at times as obvious themes are driven home repeatedly. Over all this was an enjoyable read by a skilled narrator.
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- Anonymous User
- 05-16-24
Walking The Bowl
The story was good but hard to follow at times. The ending made the book worth reading. It was excellent.
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- Brendon Newman
- 03-19-22
Highly Recommend
Such an emotional story… wow. So glad that I took time to listen to this.
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- Julie O'Brien
- 09-02-22
Wow
What an exceptional story. Better than fiction. Also, this book was so well-written. I was very impressed by the writer’s ability to describe a situation with such perfect and poetic words. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this.
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- Itzel
- 08-27-23
Beautiful story and beautifully narrated
A story of hardship and misfortune and the small acts of kindness that can make all the difference to those who need hope. It was reminiscent of Slum Dog Millionaire with its emotional gut punches, yet somehow still able to leave you with a feeling of hope. Highly recommended.
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- Stephen
- 02-20-22
Walking the Bowl
The world has something like 100 million street children. This is the true story of one city and a few of those children. It's pretty horrible what goes on with the rape and violence. Older children are predators of younger kids, who then grow up and repeat the cycle. There are gangs. Glue sniffing. Forced prostitution of young boys. It's a trip through hell really. It makes Lord of the Flies seem civilized. But this is true. The main story concerns the hunt for the killer of a street boy. Normally this would go unnoticed, but the deceased was the bastard son of a famous prostitute and she wants answers from the police who pressure one kid to get answers, or take the blame himself. He goes on a journey through the underworld (literally) encountering a wide variety of people and situations as he gathers leads and clues to the identity of the killer. It has novelistic qualities if you can stomach the indignities and horrors. It's more than a thriller though, it has a lesson about treating others humanely. That's what the cryptic title means, left for the reader to discover.
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1 person found this helpful