A Fado for the River

The Trilogy for Freedom, Book 1

De: Geoffrey Wells

Narrado por: Cameron Smith

Gida works for the shipping company and knows too much. In Mozambique, on the verge of revolution three warring factions want the name of the ship smuggling guns. Her life is in danger…if they find her. But she meets Raf, a visiting student on vacation. His curiosity about the country—and her, draws the attention of the secret police and soon they must flee across the border. But first she needs to disappear.

Raf fakes her death. However, the lovers split up, disagreeing about their commitment to the freedom fighters struggling for the self-determination of the Mozambican people. Loveless years slip by, until Raf, now an American TV executive gets a blackmail note, accusing him of murdering Gida. Now he must find her. As if destined to be forever caught up in the fado, the shadow song of the Portuguese people, his regret and melancholy compels him to prove he did not murder her. Yearning to be liberated from his own emotional apathy, he sets out to uncover her treacherous life as a double agent. This is the first book of The Trilogy for Freedom.

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Chaos of civil war

The author brings you through a labyrinth of chance and connection as you bounce from current to past events. He captures the slow growth of intrigue to the full chaos of civil war with its intersecting tensions of political and personal motivations. An exciting and eye opening read.

excellent historical fiction with superb narration

A Fado for the River is a tumultuous adventure through one person's life that begs the question, what is freedom?

If you're like me and had never heard the word "fado," and therefore have no idea what it means: Merriam-Webster definition of fado: a plaintive Portuguese folk song.

📖 The plot is great. I was fully encorselled from beginning to end in this action-adventure filled, thrilling, mysterious tale. I enjoyed that we get the past and present for the MMC, Raf. Wells differentiates them clearly and effectively.

🎧 I love the way the narrator, Cameron Smith, changes his voice to evoke the various characters. He changes the accent, timbre, and tone just enough to make it clear which character it is, but doesn't overly exaggerate. I personally dislike overly exaggerated voice changes, they take me out of the story.

✍️🏼 I found the writing to be excellent. Wells kept me absorbed, engaged, and not wanting to have to press stop (or pause).

⏳️The pacing is great. Action is well placed to keep things tense, as was the bits of romance. I never felt bored nor overwhelmed.

👥️ The characters are well developed, full of nuance with so much personality.

💞 Romance is definitely a sub plot, and that works quite well for this book. I enjoyed that we're given just a bit of it, but it isn't enough to detract from the central plot and the heavy topics. It being there does take a bit of heaviness out, to keep it from being overwhelming, which I appreciate. Wells found that fine line with adding romance in a book like this and beautifully danced up to it. It felt natural and real. I love the second chance aspect and feel it's well executed.

I love that it makes the reader look and think more deeply about big topics like: what defines freedom? If you're only fighting the government, can you still call yourself a freedom fighter? Is helping people doing enough in the fight for freedom? A Fado for the River brings awareness of the cyclical nature of violence prevalent in Mozambique as well as the failed attempt to colonize Portugal to the reader. Both are things that I knew little to nothing about before this book. I have more to learn about East African politics, but I appreciate that this book enlightened me to my ignorance in these areas and provided an opportunity to start learning.

I've never read this author before, but I'm excited to read more of his work. If you enjoy historical fiction and/or political thrillers, I highly recommend this author (and this book, of course 😆).

🎧 If you're an audiobook fan, this audiobook was exceedingly well done. The narrator, Cameron Smith, does a superb job bringing the various characters and their nuances to life. The way he uses inflection, stresses certain words or parts of words was perfection.

📚 If you like: The Poisonwood Bible, The Constant Gardener, or Out of Africa I think you would enjoy this book.

** I like to include quotes in my reviews, to give writing and vibe examples. I listened to it while driving, cooking, cleaning, etc, and therefore I was unable to write any quotes down.

☆Highly recommend♡

I was hooked from the start! The story is so fascinating and super easy to enjoy. I was lucky enough to listen to the audio version, and the narration was amazingly done! I loved the historical aspects and the new perspectives it gave!

Tropes:
Second chance
Civil War
Military
Black mail

A FANTASTIC AUDIOBOOK OF AN EQUALLY BRILLIANT EBOOK!

First of all, my disclaimer: I received a complimentary audiobook in return for my honest review of Geoffrey Wells's novel A FADO FOR THE RIVER. This is the first novel in THE TRIOLOGY FOR FREEDOM.

Although I got this audiobook as a free download, unlike ARC ebooks, Audible does not allow ALC to be given prior to the release date. I can understand that restriction, since the author, publisher and Audible as well as everyone else involved in the production of an audiobook all lose terribly if a copy is unlawfully distributed prior to its release. But, I did promise to post my truthful review on its release date, and I will never post a review without listening to the entire audiobook.

I think this book is one of the best audio performances that I have ever listened to, and my Audible library has about 1,600 audiobooks since 2014.
I seriously benefitted from listening to the audiobook while reading along with the Kindle edition ebook.

Because this novel deals with political and moral ambiguities, almost 50 years of history about an area of the world I knew little of, sometimes my mind would wonder when I was just reading the ebook; but listening to the audiobook at the same time kept me focused on all the intrigue and action taking place in the novel.

I don't ever want to ruin a reader or listener's experience with spoilers so I don't discuss what happens in a work I review. But I would strongly encourage anyone interested in espionage, social unrest, difficult moral and ethical dilemmas, as well as anyone who wants to learn about the history of Portugal and Mozambique from before the 1970s until today to enjoy this great audiobook!

🦛📑

✨️💚✨️Audio Book Review✨️💚✨️

Book: A Fado For The River
Author: Geoffrey Wells
Rating: 4.5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟.5

Wow, what an intriguing read!

I was hooked right from the beginning and actually finished it within a couple of days.

It had so much going on and it dealt with super deep subjects.

It gave me a completely new perspective on civil war & the military and touched on a world issue that I didn't even know about.

I loved the added second chance romance sub plot since it made you connect more with the MMC.

You get:
• Tough Subjects
• Political Intrigue
• Second Chance Romance
• Military
• Kidnapping
• Black Mail
• Civil War

I highly recommend this one! The audiobook narrator was amazing. Available on ebook, paperback, and audiobook.