Call Me Zebra

By: Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi

Narrated by: Leila Buck

From an award-winning young author, a novel following a feisty heroine's idiosyncratic quest to reclaim her past by mining the wisdom of her literary icons - even as she navigates the murkier mysteries of love.

Zebra is the last in a line of anarchists, atheists, and autodidacts. When war came, her family didn't fight; they took refuge in books. Now alone and in exile, Zebra leaves New York for Barcelona, retracing the journey she and her father made from Iran to the United States years ago.

Books are Zebra's only companions - until she meets Ludo. Their connection is magnetic; their time together fraught. Zebra overwhelms him with her complex literary theories, her concern with death, and her obsession with history. He thinks she's unhinged; she thinks he's pedantic. Neither are wrong; neither can let the other go. They push and pull their way across the Mediterranean, wondering with each turn if their love, or lust, can free Zebra from her past?

An adventure tale, a love story, and a paean to the power of language and literature starring a heroine as quirky as Don Quixote, as introspective as Virginia Woolf, as whip-smart as Miranda July, and as spirited as Frances Ha, Call Me Zebra will establish Van der Vliet Oloomi as an author "on the verge of developing a whole new literature movement" (Bustle).

©2018 Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi (P)2018 Recorded Books

Probably a better read than listen

This is a bizarre review, but it's my experience: Zebra is quite a character, and she knows it. The hard-hitting narration is perfect for the character, but became nearly untenable because of the sharp speech - which is fitting, just way too harsh for my ears. I will happily follow Zebra's fascinating and often-hilarious story, but I'll have to do it the old-fashioned way. I can't fault anyone really... A character like Zebra should have a strident voice! It just became almost physically painful to listen (at any volume.) I love a goid audiobook, but for me, this one was too precise. YMMV, of course. I got through half of chapter 12 before I just couldn't stand having to take breaks to give my ears a rest. Can't wait to read the end.

To manage life as an orphan

Author is well read, her references to literature and art. It was a torturous journey to come to realize and accept love at the end.

What in the world???

Terrible narration; difficult to follow; could not force myself to finish. This was a bookclub selection and no one in the group could finish it and we have some avid and seasoned readers!

Ugh

Awful narrative and horrible narrator. I sped it up to get through it faster and still couldn't stand it.

pompous with false erudition

200 pages too long. wrought with philosophical nonsense. bastardized, shallow understanding of literature. disappointingly eurocentric, though I would rather read the authors she incessantly name-drops. plot fully unconvincing, not even as comedy. characters are all caricatures, no exceptions.
author evidently didn't read any of the giants of anarchism and misunderstood the concept.
so fucking repetitive.

audiobook performer ok, but didn't know how to pronounce basic italian, Castilian, and Catalan.

an unending bore.