Arturo's Island
A Novel
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Arturo's Island
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Narrated by:
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P.J. Ochlan
About this listen
Once considered the greatest writer of Italy's postwar generation - and admired by authors as varied as John Banville and Rivka Galchen - Elsa Morante is experiencing a literary renaissance, marked not least by Ann Goldstein's translation of Arturo's Island, the novel that brought Morante international fame.
Imbued with a spectral grace, as if told through an enchanted looking glass, the novel follows the adolescent Arturo through his days on the isolated Neapolitan island of Procida, where - his mother long deceased, his father often absent, and a dog as his sole companion - he roams the countryside and the beaches or reads in his family's lonely, dilapidated mansion. This quiet, meandering existence is upended when his father brings home a beautiful 16-year-old bride, Nunziatella.
A novel of longing and thwarted desires, filled with Morante's "brutal directness and familial torment" (James Wood), Arturo's Island reemerges in this splendid translation to take its rightful place in the world literary canon.
©2019 Elsa Morante Estate; translation copyright 2019 by Ann Goldstein (P)2019 HighBridge CompanyListeners also enjoyed...
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-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 82
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 81
Immediately following the death of her young son, distraught and heartbroken, a woman sends a heart-wrenching letter to the only man she has ever loved, chronicling their love affair, opening with, "To you, who have never known me."
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3 out of 5 stars
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Tough 2 Hear With Background Music & Sound Effects
- By DK on 09-19-15
By: Stefan Zweig
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The Fairy Tales of Herman Hesse
- By: Hermann Hesse, Jack Zipes - translator
- Narrated by: Donovan
- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
- Highlights
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 55
Step into a world of visions, philosophy, and passion in which dreamers, seekers, princesses, and wandering poets dwell. The 6 wonderful, romantic tales in this collection are reminiscent of ancient Oriental and German fairy tales. The selections, "The Poet," "The Flute Dream," "The Dwarf," "Faldum," "Ziegler," and "Dream of the Gods" were hand-picked by the narrator, legendary folk and rock musician Donovan.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The reading is quiet and heavenly
- By Atalante Lemuria on 11-12-20
By: Hermann Hesse, and others
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The Leopard
- A Novel
- By: Giuseppe di Lampedusa, Archibald Colquhuon - translator
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 108
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 91
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Story4 out of 5 stars 90
Set in the 1860s, The Leopard tells the spellbinding story of a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy threatened by the approaching forces of democracy and revolution. The dramatic sweep and richness of observation, the seamless intertwining of public and private worlds, and the grasp of human frailty imbue The Leopard with its particular melancholy beauty and power, and place it among the greatest historical novels of our time.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Timeless
- By Robert Massarella on 12-05-23
By: Giuseppe di Lampedusa, and others
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Les Misérables
- Penguin Classics
- By: Christine Donougher, Victor Hugo, Robert Tombs
- Narrated by: Adeel Akhtar, Natalie Simpson, Adrian Scarborough, and others
- Length: 65 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 221
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 194
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Story5 out of 5 stars 192
Victor Hugo's tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat: by his own conscience and by the relentless investigations of the dogged Policeman, Javert. It is not simply for himself that Valjean must stay free, however, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine, driven to prostitution by poverty.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Book, Great Translation, 5 Great Narrators
- By Rain Wiegartner on 06-07-20
By: Christine Donougher, and others
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Narcissus and Goldmund
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,071
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 908
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 909
Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a passionate yet uneasy friendship between two men of opposite character. Narcissus, an ascetic instructor at a cloister school, has devoted himself solely to scholarly and spiritual pursuits. One of his students is the sensual, restless Goldmund, who is immediately drawn to his teacher's fierce intellect and sense of discipline.
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5 out of 5 stars
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My favorite of Hesse's novels, wonderfully read.
- By David on 10-21-11
By: Hermann Hesse
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The Count of Monte Cristo
- By: Alexandre Dumas
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 52 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 19,395
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 17,728
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Story5 out of 5 stars 17,686
On the eve of his marriage to the beautiful Mercedes, having that very day been made captain of his ship, the young sailor Edmond Dantès is arrested on a charge of treason, trumped up by jealous rivals. Incarcerated for many lonely years in the isolated and terrifying Chateau d'If near Marseille, he meticulously plans his brilliant escape and extraordinary revenge.
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4 out of 5 stars
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This is the one to spend 50 hours listening to!
- By james on 03-05-13
By: Alexandre Dumas
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Galilee
- By: Clive Barker
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 23 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 278
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 248
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Story4 out of 5 stars 251
The Barbarossa family’s roots are far more ancient and ethereal, but they are bound to the Gearys by a shared history of murder, insanity, and adultery. When Rachel Geary and Galilee, the seductive prince of the Barbarossa clan, fall in love, they unleash powerful enmities that could destroy both dynasties. Shorter and more conventional than some of Barker’s other work, this novel is especially rich with complex, passionate, three-dimensional characters, lush settings, and elegant language.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Audiophile's Dream
- By Joseph on 09-01-11
By: Clive Barker
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The Girl in the Castle
- A Novel
- By: Santa Montefiore
- Narrated by: Genevieve Swallow
- Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 657
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 606
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 604
Born on the ninth day of the ninth month in the year 1900, Kitty Deverill grows up in Castle Deverill, on the sunning green hills of West Cork, Ireland - the same place her ancestors have always dwelt. She isn't fully Irish, as the son of the local veterinarian likes to tease her; but this doesn't stop Kitty and Jack O'Leary from falling in love....
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1 out of 5 stars
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Explicitness
- By Billie on 04-28-17
By: Santa Montefiore
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My Name Is Red
- By: Orhan Pamuk, Erdag Goknar - translator
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 559
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 416
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Story4 out of 5 stars 420
At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of 16th-century Istanbul, from one of the most prominent contemporary Turkish writers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Complex and interesting
- By Kathleen on 05-13-10
By: Orhan Pamuk, and others
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The Adolescent
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Richard Pevear - translator, Larissa Volokhonsky - translator
- Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
- Length: 28 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
The narrator and protagonist of Dostoevsky's novel The Adolescent (first published in English as A Raw Youth) is Arkady Dolgoruky, a naive 19-year-old boy bursting with ambition and opinions. The illegitimate son of a dissipated landowner, he is torn between his desire to expose his father's wrongdoing and the desire to win his love. He travels to St. Petersburg to confront the father he barely knows, inspired by an inchoate dream of communion and armed with a mysterious document that he believes gives him power over others.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Oft-Forgotten Dostoevsky Gem
- By Ben on 02-09-20
By: Fyodor Dostoevsky, and others
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The Stories of Eva Luna
- By: Isabel Allende
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Pena
- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 103
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4 out of 5 stars 70
Immerse yourself in a world of love, vengeance, compassion, and irony with the evocative stories of Eva Luna. Author Isabel Allende introduced this well-loved character to audiences in her earlier novel, Eva Luna. Listen to Allende talk about the role of writing in her life in Giving Birth, Finding Form. This program also features Alice Walker and Jean Shinoda Bolen.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Better some Allende than no Allende
- By Perschon on 12-04-14
By: Isabel Allende
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The Satanic Verses
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Sam Dastor
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,917
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,662
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,652
Inextricably linked with the fatwa called against its author in the wake of the novel’s publication, The Satanic Verses is, beyond that, a rich showcase for Salman Rushdie’s comic sensibilities, cultural observations, and unparalleled mastery of language. The book begins with two Indians plummeting from the sky after the explosion of their airliner, and proceeds through a series of metamorphoses, dreams and revelations.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Use an audiobook to really enjoy Satanic Verses
- By David Edelberg on 11-24-12
By: Salman Rushdie
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The Magus
- By: John Fowles
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 26 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 915
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 806
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Story4 out of 5 stars 815
John Fowles’s The Magus was a literary landmark of the 1960s. Nicholas Urfe goes to a Greek island to teach at a private school and becomes enmeshed in curious happenings at the home of a mysterious Greek recluse, Maurice Conchis. Are these events, involving attractive young English sisters, just psychological games, or an elaborate joke, or more? Reality shifts as the story unfolds. The Magus reflected the issues of the 1960s perfectly, and it continues to create tension and concern today.
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4 out of 5 stars
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One of the best novels that I really think I hate.
- By Darwin8u on 01-29-14
By: John Fowles
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The Moor's Last Sigh
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 20 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 73
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 69
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 69
Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie combines a ferociously witty family saga with a surreally imagined and sometimes blasphemous chronicle of modern India and flavors the mixture with peppery soliloquies on art, ethnicity, religious fanaticism, and the terrifying power of love. Moraes "Moor" Zogoiby, the last surviving scion of a dynasty of Cochinese spice merchants and crime lords, is also a compulsive storyteller and an exile.
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3 out of 5 stars
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The performance is enchanting.
- By Kelly on 05-04-18
By: Salman Rushdie
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Memories of My Melancholy Whores
- By: Gabriel García Márquez
- Narrated by: Thom Rivera
- Length: 3 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 267
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 232
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Story4 out of 5 stars 231
On the eve of his 90th birthday, a bachelor decides to give himself a wild night of love with a virgin. As is his habit - he has purchased hundreds of women - he asks a madam for her assistance. The 14-year-old girl who is procured for him is enchanting, but exhausted as she is from caring for siblings and her job sewing buttons, she can do little but sleep. Yet with this sleeping beauty at his side, it is he who awakens to a romance he has never known. Tender, knowing, and slyly comic, Memories of My Melancholy Whores is an exquisite addition to a master's work.
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4 out of 5 stars
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-the consolation you have when you can't have Love
- By Darwin8u on 09-16-21
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The Museum of Innocence
- By: Orhan Pamuk, Maureen Freely (translator)
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 326
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 246
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Story4 out of 5 stars 246
Kemal, scion of one of the city's wealthiest families, is about to become engaged to Sibel, daughter of another prominent family, when he encounters Füsun, a beautiful shopgirl and a distant relation. Once the long-lost cousins violate the code of virginity, a rift begins to open between Kemal and the world of the Westernized Istanbul bourgeosie - a world, as he lovingly describes it, with opulent parties and clubs, society gossip, picnics, and mansions on the Bosphorus, infused with the melancholy of decay.
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5 out of 5 stars
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one of the very best I've ever heard
- By Rebecca Lindroos on 03-06-10
By: Orhan Pamuk, and others
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The Jewel of Seven Stars
- By: Bram Stoker
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 740
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 635
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Story4 out of 5 stars 635
The warning was inscribed on the entrance of the hidden tomb, forgotten for millennia in the sands of mystic Egypt. Then the archaeologists and grave robbers came in search of the fabled Jewel of Seven Stars, which they found clutched in the hand of the mummy. Few heeded the ancient warning, until all who came in contact with the Jewel began to die in a mysterious and violent way, with the marks of a strangler around their neck.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Mother of all Mummy-Stories
- By Dorothea on 03-15-08
By: Bram Stoker
What listeners say about Arturo's Island
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- NP
- 06-24-22
If only I could give less than 1 star!
The narrator is a disaster!
The book was highly recommended to me but the struggle to continue listening to the totally robotic narration was infuriating.
I managed to complete it - but... I would have enjoyed it much more if the narration was human!
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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
- eretz73
- 02-05-23
Among the best books of my life
Amazing book it grabs you tightly and never really leaves you. Not even after the bit ter sweet ending. I’ve read it years ago and loved it like no other book, but listening to it was a wholly different experience which made it magic. A MUST READ book. The book was so mesmerizing I forgot the narrator … so I guess he was pretty good at it … isn’t this, finally, the goal of every narrator ? Giving voice to the book itself and disappear in this task?
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- P Davis
- 04-03-23
Awful
Way toooo long. Just could not follow and did not finish this rambling makes no sense depressing story. No redeeming factors.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ayelet O. Kindler
- 08-01-21
What a bad narration
Couldn’t read more than 5 min
Wish you had chosen a woman narrator. Hillary Huber would have been a perfect narrator for this book. Instead you chose a robot?
Very disappointing.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Rocco Priore
- 03-14-19
Difficult Listen
The narrator read almost in a monotone which distracted from the story. Did not finish book as a result
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4 people found this helpful