We Meant Well
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Rishma Malik Scott
About this listen
“Unsparing and compassionate … A novel of harrowing eloquence, We Meant Well explores compelling cultural contrasts and the ambiguity of charitable outreach.” — Foreword Reviews
A propulsive debut that grapples with timely questions about what it means to be charitable, who deserves what, and who gets the power to decide
It’s the middle of the night in Los Angeles when Maya, a married mother of one, receives the phone call. Her colleague Marc has been accused of assaulting a local girl in Likanni, where they operate a charitable orphanage. Can she get on the next flight?
When Maya arrives, protesters surround the compound. The accuser is Lele, her former protégé and the chief’s daughter. There are no witnesses, no proof of any crime.
What happened that night? And what will happen to the orphanage if this becomes a scandal? Caught between Marc and Lele, the charity and the villagers, her marriage and new temptations, and between worlds, Maya lives the secret contradictions of the aid worker: there to serve the most deprived, but ultimately there to govern.
As Maya feels the pleasures, freedoms, and humanity of life in Likanni, she recognizes that her American life is inextricably woven into this violent reality—and that dishonesty in one place affects the realities in another.
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Critic reviews
“With a daring use of craft both exacting in detail and sensual in tone, Erum Shazia Hasan has written a compelling novel of one woman’s struggle to restore her equilibrium, her humanity, and ultimately her truth amid the betrayals of her personal world and the threatening chaos of her professional life. We Meant Well is a remarkable literary debut by a gifted new voice.” — CS Richardson, award-winning author of All the Colour in the World
“We Meant Well is an urgent and engrossing read about intention versus impact. Hasan’s storytelling shines as her international aid worker protagonist confronts the scandal and heartbreak of a sexual assault accusation, while coping with her own messy and crumbling personal life.” — Farzana Doctor, award-winning author of Seven and Six Metres of Pavement
“Unsparing and compassionate … A novel of harrowing eloquence, We Meant Well explores compelling cultural contrasts and the ambiguity of charitable outreach.” — Foreword Reviews
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Story
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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Lifted by the Great Nothing
- By: Karim Dimechkie
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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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Before You Knew My Name
- A Novel
- By: Jacqueline Bublitz
- Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When she arrived in New York on her eighteenth birthday carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen camera, Alice Lee was looking for a fresh start. Now, just one month later, she is the city’s latest Jane Doe. She may be dead but that doesn’t mean her story is over. Meanwhile, Ruby Jones is also trying to reinvent herself. After travelling halfway around the world, she’s lonelier than ever in the Big Apple. Until she stumbles upon a woman’s body by the Hudson River, and suddenly finds herself unbreakably tied to the unknown dead woman.
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Excellent
- By cristina on 11-11-22
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The Snakes
- A Novel
- By: Sadie Jones
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Snakes exposes the damage wreaked by parents on children as observed by a new member of the family, Dan, a mixed-race man from Peckham who marries Bea, the daughter who refuses to take any of her father’s filthy money. But when Bea’s brother, Alex (who runs a shabby hotel in Paligny, France), dies suddenly in unexplained circumstances, the confusion and suspicion which arise bring other dark family secrets - and violence - to the surface. And none of the family, even the good members, go untouched.
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Extraordinary!
- By Bibliophile on 07-21-19
By: Sadie Jones
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Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors
- A Novel
- By: Sonali Dev
- Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Dr. Trisha Raje is San Francisco’s most acclaimed neurosurgeon. But that’s not enough for the Rajes, her influential immigrant family who’s achieved power by making its own nonnegotiable rules: Never trust an outsider, never do anything to jeopardize your brother’s political aspirations, and never, ever, defy your family. Trisha is guilty of breaking all three rules. But now, she has a chance to redeem herself. So long as she doesn’t repeat old mistakes.
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From the Male Perspective
- By Consumer Products Tech Geek on 05-20-19
By: Sonali Dev
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Embassy Wife
- A Novel
- By: Katie Crouch
- Narrated by: Marni Penning
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Persephone Wilder, a displaced genius posing as the wife of an American diplomat in Namibia, takes her job as a representative of her country seriously and comes up with an intricate set of rules to survive a range of problems: how to dress in hundred-degree weather without showing too much skin, how not to look drunk at embassy functions, and how to eat roasted oryx with grace. She also suspects her husband is not actually the ambassador’s general counsel but instead a secret agent in the CIA. She takes the new trailing spouse, Amanda Evans, under her wing....
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Have narrator re-record this book
- By Amazon Customer on 09-30-21
By: Katie Crouch
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In the Absence of Miracles
- By: Michael J. Malone
- Narrated by: Angus King
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
John Docherty’s mother has just been taken into a nursing home following a massive stroke and she’s unlikely to be able to live independently again. With no other option than to sell the family home, John sets about packing up everything in the house. In sifting through the detritus of his family’s past he’s forced to revisit, and revise his childhood. For in a box, in the attic, he finds undeniable truth that he had a brother who disappeared when he himself was only a toddler.
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Wonderful Book
- By Amazon Customer on 03-16-21