A Free State
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A Free State
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Narrated by:
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John Pruden
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By:
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Tom Piazza
About this listen
The year is 1855. Blackface minstrelsy is the most popular form of entertainment in a nation about to be torn apart by the battle over slavery. Henry Sims, a fugitive slave and a brilliant musician, has escaped to Philadelphia. He is befriended by a leader of a popular minstrel troupe struggling to compete with similar ensembles. Henry's skill could help the struggling troupe. Black and white performers are not allowed to appear together onstage.
Together, the two concoct a masquerade to protect Henry's identity. Even as their plan begins to reverse the troupe's decline, a brutal slave hunter named Tull Burton has been employed to track down the runaway and retrieve him by any means necessary.
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-
Story4 out of 5 stars 141
In the year 1780, Harriet Westerman, the willful mistress of a country manor in Sussex, finds a dead man on her grounds with a ring bearing the crest of Thornleigh Hall in his pocket. Not one to be bound by convention or to shy away from adventure, she recruits a reclusive local anatomist named Gabriel Crowther to help her find the murderer, and historical suspense's newest investigative duo is born.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not The Best, But Not Too Bad...
- By MJ on 01-13-13
By: Imogen Robertson
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The Last Ballad
- A Novel
- By: Wiley Cash
- Narrated by: Karen White, Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 193
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 168
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 169
Twelve times a week, 28-year-old Ella May Wiggins makes the two-mile trek to and from her job on the night shift at American Mill No. Two in Bessemer City, North Carolina. The insular community considers the mill's owners - the newly arrived Goldberg brothers - white but not American and expects them to pay Ella May and other workers less because they toil alongside African Americans like Violet, Ella May's best friend. While the dirty, hazardous job at the mill earns Ella May a paltry nine dollars for 72 hours of work each week, it's the only opportunity she has.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Dryer than a popcorn fart
- By Scott Wilson on 02-11-18
By: Wiley Cash
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The Orchardist
- By: Amanda Coplin
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,701
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,487
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,482
At the turn of the 20th century, in a rural stretch of the Pacific Northwest, a reclusive orchardist, William Talmadge, tends to apples and apricots as if they were loved ones. A gentle man, he's found solace in the sweetness of the fruit he grows and the quiet, beating heart of the land he cultivates. One day, two teenage girls appear and steal his fruit from the market; they later return to the outskirts of his orchard to see the man who gave them no chase. Feral, scared, and very pregnant, the girls take up on Talmadge's land and indulge in his deep reservoir of compassion.
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2 out of 5 stars
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"Somebody tell a joke!"
- By Deborah on 10-29-12
By: Amanda Coplin
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The House Girl
- A Novel
- By: Tara Conklin
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,254
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,101
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,106
The year is 2004: Lina Sparrow is an ambitious young lawyer working on a historic class-action lawsuit seeking reparations for the descendants of American slaves. The year is 1852: Josephine is a 17-year-old house slave who tends to the mistress of a Virginia tobacco farm - an aspiring artist named Lu Anne Bell. It is through her father, renowned artist Oscar Sparrow, that Lina discovers a controversy rocking the art world: Art historians now suspect that the revered paintings of Lu Anne Bell, an antebellum artist known for her humanizing portraits of the slaves who worked her Virginia tobacco farm, were actually the work of her house slave, Josephine.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing
- By Jeanette Finan on 02-21-13
By: Tara Conklin
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The First Assassin
- By: John J. Miller
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 128
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 111
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Story4 out of 5 stars 109
Washington, D.C., 1861: As the United States teeters on the brink of civil war, Colonel Charles P. Rook organizes security in the nation’s capital and monitors the death threats pouring into the White House. He surrounds Abraham Lincoln with bodyguards, covers rooftops with sharpshooters, and investigates rumors of conspiracy fomented by secessionists. Yet amid the chaos and confusion, a mysterious killer slips into the teeming city.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Entertaining start for a little known writer
- By Julie on 07-22-14
By: John J. Miller
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Winter Collection
- Six Historical Short Stories (A Timeless Romance Anthology, Book 1)
- By: Sarah M. Eden, Heidi Ashworth, Annette Lyon, and others
- Narrated by: Karen Peakes
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 119
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 112
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Story4 out of 5 stars 112
Six award-winning authors have contributed brand new stories to A Timeless Romance Anthology: Winter Collection. A collection unlike any other, listeners will love this compilation of six sweet historical romance novellas, set in varying eras, yet all with one thing in common: Romance.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Winter
- By Manila J. Dobbs on 08-12-23
By: Sarah M. Eden, and others
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The Bastard
- The Kent Family Chronicles, Book 1
- By: John Jakes
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,169
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,035
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,032
Set against the colorful tumult of events that gave rise to our fledgling nation, this novel of romance and adventure introduces Phillipe Charboneau. The illegitimate son of an English nobleman, Phillipe flees Europe and, as Philip Kent, joins the men who set our course for freedom. The Bastard is the first volume in the Kent Family Chronicles, a series of novels that details one family's journey in the early years of the American nation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Amazing Tale
- By will on 11-06-13
By: John Jakes
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Wild Lavender
- By: Belinda Alexandra
- Narrated by: Kate Hood
- Length: 20 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 397
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 334
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 332
Simone Fleurier is wrenched from her home on a Provencal lavender farm at the age of 14 after the accidental death of her father. Forced to become a maid at the boarding house of her Aunt Augustine in Marseilles, Simone's life is hard and impoverished. But one of her aunt's boarders, the beautiful Camille Casal, a star at the local music hall, gives Simone a dream: that one day she too will be a famous singer and dancer.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Extrodinary Story
- By Wade on 08-16-08
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Walk on Earth a Stranger
- By: Rae Carson
- Narrated by: Erin Mallon
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 432
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 391
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 394
Lee Westfall has a strong, loving family. She has a home she loves and a loyal steed. She has a best friend - who might want to be something more. She also has a secret.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Better than expected
- By elenne on 10-11-15
By: Rae Carson
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Varina
- A Novel
- By: Charles Frazier
- Narrated by: Molly Parker
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 815
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 709
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Story4 out of 5 stars 706
With her marriage prospects limited, teenage Varina Howell agrees to wed the much-older widower Jefferson Davis, with whom she expects a life of security as a landowner. He instead pursues a career in politics and is eventually appointed president of the Confederacy, placing Varina at the white-hot center of one of the darkest moments in American history - culpable regardless of her intentions. The Confederacy falling, her marriage in tatters, and the country divided, Varina and her children escape Richmond and travel south on their own, now fugitives.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Read it rather than listen
- By Anonymous on 08-31-18
By: Charles Frazier
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The Queen of the Night
- By: Alexander Chee
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 19 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 500
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 455
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 453
Lilliet Berne is a sensation of the Paris Opera, a legendary soprano with every accolade except an original role, every singer's chance at immortality. When one is finally offered to her, she realizes with alarm that the libretto is based on a hidden piece of her past. Only four could have betrayed her: one is dead, one loves her, one wants to own her. And one, she hopes, never thinks of her at all.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Not my typical choice
- By fadedcharacter on 02-15-16
By: Alexander Chee
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Midnight Cowboy
- By: James Leo Herlihy
- Narrated by: Michael Urie
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 108
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 109
Midnight Cowboy is considered by many to be one of the best American novels published since World War II. The main story centers around Joe Buck, a naive but eager and ambitious young Texan, who decides to leave his dead-end job in search of a grand and glamorous life he believes he will find in New York City. But the city turns out to be a much more difficult place to negotiate than Joe could ever have imagined. He soon finds himself and his dreams compromised. Buck's fall from innocence and his relationship with the crippled street hustler Ratso Rizzo form the novel's emotional nucleus.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Superb
- By Macala Shon on 01-26-21
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The Spymaster's Lady
- By: Joanna Bourne
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 707
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 503
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 497
She's braved battlefields. She's stolen dispatches from under the noses of heads of state. She's played the worldly courtesan, the naive virgin, the refined British lady, even a Gypsy boy. But Annique Villiers, the elusive spy known as the Fox Cub, has finally met the one man she can't outwit... British spymaster Robert Grey must enter France and bring back the brilliant, beautiful - and dangerous - Fox Cub. His duty is to capture her and her secrets for England.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Highly enjoyable; Audiobook is fantastic
- By Emily London on 12-28-10
By: Joanna Bourne
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Grand Central
- Original Stories of Postwar Love and Reunion
- By: Melanie Benjamin, Amanda Hodgkinson, Pam Jenoff, and others
- Narrated by: Carla Mercer-Meyer
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
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Story4 out of 5 stars 65
On any particular day, thousands upon thousands of people pass through New York City's Grand Central Terminal, through the whispering gallery, beneath the ceiling of stars, and past the information booth and its beckoning four-faced clock, to whatever destination is calling them. It is a place where people come to say hello and good-bye. And each person has a story to tell.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Grand Central: Memories
- By ZacharyKindle Customer on 05-03-17
By: Melanie Benjamin, and others
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The Ballad of the Sad Café
- By: Carson McCullers
- Narrated by: David Ledoux, Joe Barrett, Therese Plummer, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 151
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 127
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Story4 out of 5 stars 128
A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers' best stories, including her beloved novella The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose cafe serves as the town's gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes "Wunderkind", McCullers' first published story, written when she was only 17, about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Literate short stories
- By RueRue on 02-23-16
By: Carson McCullers
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Rosa
- A Novel
- By: Jonathan Rabb
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 15 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 101
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 64
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Story4 out of 5 stars 66
In the last days of the First World War, socialist revolution swept across Germany, sending Kaiser Wilhelm into exile and transforming Berlin into a battleground. But for Detective Inspector Nikolai Hoffner and his young assistant, Hans Fichte, the revolution is a mere inconvenience. Four women from the slums of Berlin have turned up dead, all with identical markings etched into their backs, and Hoffner and Fichte have spent the better part of six weeks trying to crack the bizarre case.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Imaginative Historical Thriller
- By Buzz on 03-12-11
By: Jonathan Rabb
What listeners say about A Free State
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dave
- 09-14-20
Gripping, Tragic and Inspiring
We've all read about this time period. Piazza and Pruden bring it to life.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 12-22-15
Engaging but incomplete
What did you like best about A Free State? What did you like least?
I enjoyed the portrait of Philadelphia and the minstrel bands in the pre Civil War era
Would you recommend A Free State to your friends? Why or why not?
Probably not. The book dealt with some important themes of the pre Civil War era but did not develop them leaving me a bit dissatisfied.
Any additional comments?
This book is a fictional representation of a slave (Henry) who escapes to freedom and the north but is hunted by a slave catcher. Henry is musically talented and very smart setting up a fictional opportunity to examine stereotypes of the era and how that might have played out on both the slave owners and the slaves. The premise and setting were promising but the author did not delve into these interesting issues making it a little disappointing. The narration was excellent, and in spite of these problems with the book, my interest was engaged throughout. In fact I was a little surprised when it suddenly ended. there is lots of material here that just wasn't developed.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jim Craig
- 01-28-17
Beautiful
A beautiful and moving story. I only wish the songs have been actually performed on the audiobook.
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