The Wooden King
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The Wooden King
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Narrated by:
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Stefan Rudnicki
About this listen
Czechoslovakia, 1939. Snow is falling over the city when the Nazis invade. Before the ice on the roads has a chance to melt, everything has changed for the country - and for Viktor Trn.
It isn't obvious at first. The day-to-day realities of occupation take time to sink in. After losing his job as a history professor, Trn remains optimistic, preserving what little he can of his family's dwindling freedom. In his family's small apartment, the radio brings worsening news as Europe surrenders to Germany. Friends are arrested; men are hanged in the local school. Trn must protect his young son, but he understands leaving their homeland could prove too dangerous.
In the spirit of Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale and Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See, The Wooden King explores denial, desire, and family drama against the lyrically rendered backdrop of World War II, deftly navigating "the simple difference between what we do and what we ought to do" in the face of rising totalitarianism.
©2018 Thomas McConnell, Susan Hanfield (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
As young widow Rehana Haque awakes one March morning, she might be forgiven for feeling happy. Today she will throw a party for her son and daughter. In the garden of the house she has built, her roses are blooming, her children are almost grown, and beyond their doorstep, the city is buzzing with excitement after recent elections. Change is in the air.
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5 out of 5 stars
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sad, poignant, thought-provoking, beautiful
- By Rio Delta Wild on 06-04-08
By: Tahmima Anam
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The Janissary Tree
- A Novel
- By: Jason Goodwin
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 417
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 288
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Story4 out of 5 stars 291
It is 1836. Europe is modernizing, and the Ottoman Empire must follow suit. But just before the sultan announces sweeping changes, a wave of murders threatens the balance of power in his court. Who is behind them? Only one intelligence agent can be trusted to find out: Yashim Togalu, a man both brilliant and near-invisible in this world. You see, Yashim is a eunuch.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Interesting premise, annoying narrator
- By Phillipa Somerville on 09-18-07
By: Jason Goodwin
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The Kite Runner
- By: Khaled Hosseini
- Narrated by: Khaled Hosseini
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 20,323
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 14,139
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 14,145
Why we think it’s a great listen: Never before has an author’s narration of his fiction been so important to fully grasping the book’s impact and global implications. Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of its monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Worhty Read
- By P. C..S. on 08-17-03
By: Khaled Hosseini
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The Peculiar
- By: Stefan Bachmann
- Narrated by: Peter Altschuler
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4 out of 5 stars 42
Don't get yourself noticed and you won't get yourself hanged. In the faery slums of Bath, Bartholomew Kettle and his sister Hettie live by these words. Bartholomew and Hettie are changelings - Peculiars - and neither faeries nor humans want anything to do with them. One day a mysterious lady in a plum-colored dress comes gliding down Old Crow Alley. Bartholomew watches her through his window. Who is she? What does she want? And when Bartholomew witnesses the lady whisking away, in a whirling ring of feathers, the boy who lives across the alley - Bartholomew forgets the rules and gets himself noticed.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An Unexpected Adventure
- By Shannon on 05-30-13
By: Stefan Bachmann
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Declare
- By: Tim Powers
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 21 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 380
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 326
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 328
As a young double agent infiltrating the Soviet spy network in Nazi-occupied Paris, Andrew Hale finds himself caught up in a secret, even more ruthless war. Two decades later, a coded message draws Professor Andrew Hale back into Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Elements from his past are gathering in Beirut, including ex-British counterespionage chief and Soviet mole Kim Philby, and a beautiful former Spanish Civil War soldier-turned-intelligence operative.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Oh Fish. Art Thou Constant???
- By art on 03-11-11
By: Tim Powers
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Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories
- By: Kelly Link - editor, Gavin J. Grant - editor
- Narrated by: Sarah Coomes, Nico Evers-Swindell, Shannon McManus, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 110
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 93
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Story4 out of 5 stars 94
Imagine an alternate universe where romance and technology reign. Where tinkerers and dreamers craft and recraft a world of automatons, ornate clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that. Where scientists and schoolgirls, fair folk and Romans, intergalactic bandits, and intrepid orphans - decked out in corsets, clockwerk suits, and tall black boots - solve dastardly crimes, escape from monstrous predicaments, consult oracles, and hover over volcanoes in steam-powered airships.
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4 out of 5 stars
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MMMM, Orca Bacon
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 09-14-13
By: Kelly Link - editor, and others
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The Survivors
- By: Kate Furnivall
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 175
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 160
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 160
Germany, 1945. Klara Janowska and her daughter, Alicja, have walked for weeks to get to Graufeld Displaced Persons camp. In the cramped, dirty, dangerous conditions they, along with 3,200 others, are the lucky ones. They have survived and will do anything to find a way back home. But when Klara recognises a man in the camp from her past, a deadly game of cat and mouse begins. He knows exactly what she did during the war to save her daughter. She knows his real identity. What will be the price of silence? And will either make it out of the camp alive?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Really interesting
- By Karen on 11-10-18
By: Kate Furnivall
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The Clockwork Three
- By: Matthew Kirby
- Narrated by: Marc Thompson
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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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 53
A team of unlikely friends - an orphaned street musician, a hard-working girl from the tenements, and a talented clockmaker's apprentice - discover that together they can overcome even the darkest of fears.
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2 out of 5 stars
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HASTY CLIMBERS SUFFER SUDDEN FALLS
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 09-17-17
By: Matthew Kirby
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The Dutch Wife
- By: Ellen Keith
- Narrated by: Abby Craden, Eric Martin, Charlie Thurston
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 162
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 144
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Story4 out of 5 stars 143
Amsterdam, May 1943. As the Nazis tighten their grip across the city, the last signs of Dutch resistance are being swept away. Marijke de Graaf and her husband are arrested and deported to different concentration camps in Germany. Marijke is given a terrible choice: to suffer a slow death in the labor camp or - for a chance at survival - join the camp brothel. On the other side of the barbed wire, SS Officer Karl Müller arrives at the camp hoping to meet his father’s expectations of wartime glory. When he encounters the newly arrived Marijke, their lives change forever.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Holocaust Porn???
- By Peteylovesyou on 08-03-19
By: Ellen Keith
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The Romanov Conspiracy
- A Thriller
- By: Glenn Meade
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 83
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Story4 out of 5 stars 77
Dr. Laura Pavlov, an American forensic archaeologist, is about to unravel a mystery that promises to solve one of the twentieth century’s greatest enigmas. Dr. Pavlov is a member of an international team digging on the outskirts of the present-day Russian city of Ekaterinburg, where the Romanov royal family was executed by their captors in July 1918. When Pavlov discovers two bodies perfectly preserved in permafrost in a disused mine shaft, they offer dramatic new clues to the disappearance of the Romanovs and, in particular, their famous daughter, Princess Anastasia, whose murder has always been shrouded in doubt.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Ho- Hum
- By monet on 10-03-12
By: Glenn Meade
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Ratlines
- By: Stuart Neville
- Narrated by: Alan Smyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 179
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 162
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Story4 out of 5 stars 161
Ireland 1963. As the Irish people prepare to welcome President John F. Kennedy to the land of his ancestors, a German national is murdered in a seaside guesthouse. Lieutenant Albert Ryan, Directorate of Intelligence, is ordered to investigate. The German is the third foreigner to die within a few days, and Minister for Justice Charles Haughey wants the killing to end lest, a shameful secret be exposed: the dead men were all Nazis granted asylum by the Irish government in the years following World War II.
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3 out of 5 stars
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excellent novel; loses authenticity in narration
- By connie on 01-06-13
By: Stuart Neville
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Velva Jean Learns to Drive
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Niven
- Narrated by: Jenna Lamia
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 901
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 755
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 752
Set in Appalachia in the years before World War II, Velva Jean Learns to Drive is a poignant story of a spirited young girl growing up in the gold-mining and moonshining South. Before she dies, Velva Jean's mother urges her to "live out there in the great wide world." Velva Jean dreams of becoming a big-time singer in Nashville until she falls in love with Harley Bright, a handsome juvenile delinquent turned revival preacher.
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4 out of 5 stars
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If Jenna Lamia reads it, I'll listen to it!
- By Susan on 12-17-09
By: Jennifer Niven
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The October Country
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 371
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 326
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 326
Haunting, harrowing, and downright horrifying, this classic collection from the modern master of the fantastic features: "The Small Assassin": a fine, healthy baby boy was the new mother's dream come true - or her nightmare.... "The Emissary": the faithful dog was the sick boy's only connection with the world outside - and beyond.... "The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone": a most remarkable case of murder - the deceased was delighted! And more!
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5 out of 5 stars
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The October Country
- By steven richard pohl on 09-17-19
By: Ray Bradbury
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The Road Back
- A Novel
- By: Erich Maria Remarque
- Narrated by: Graham Halstead
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 130
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 119
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 119
After four grueling years, the Great War has finally ended. Now Ernst and the few men left from his company cannot help wondering what will become of them. The town they departed as eager young men seems colder, their homes smaller, the reasons their comrades had to die even more inexplicable. For Ernst and his friends, the road back to peace is more treacherous than they ever imagined. Suffering food shortages, political unrest, and a broken heart, Ernst undergoes a crisis that teaches him what there is to live for - and what he has that no one can ever take away.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Successor to All Quiet on the Western Front
- By BARRY on 02-20-19