Things I Don't Want to Know
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Things I Don't Want to Know
Buy for $21.60
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Juliet Stevenson
-
By:
-
Deborah Levy
About this listen
A luminescent treatise on writing, love, and loss, a witty response to George Orwell's influential essay "Why I Write"
Things I Don't Want to Know is the first in Deborah Levy's essential three-part "living autobiography" on writing and womanhood.
Taking George Orwell's famous essay, "Why I Write", as a jumping-off point, Deborah Levy offers her own indispensable reflections of the writing life. With wit, clarity, and calm brilliance, she considers how the writer must stake claim to that contested territory as a young woman and shape it to her need. Things I Don't Want to Know is a work of dazzling insight and deep psychological succor, from one of our most vital contemporary writers.
©2014 Deborah Levy (P)2021 Hamish HamiltonListeners also enjoyed...
-
August Blue
- A Novel
- By: Deborah Levy
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 21
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 21
At the height of her career, the piano virtuoso Elsa M. Anderson—former child prodigy, now in her thirties—walks off the stage in Vienna, mid-performance. Now she is in Athens, watching an uncannily familiar woman purchase a pair of mechanical dancing horses at a flea market. Elsa wants the horses too, but there are no more for sale. She drifts to the ferry port, on the run from her talent and her history. So begins her journey across Europe, shadowed by the elusive woman who seems to be her double.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Unsure about this
- By Maryanne T. on 12-31-23
By: Deborah Levy
-
Writers on Walks: A BBC Radio 3 Collection
- 30 Reflections from Exploring on Foot
- By: Robert Macfarlane, Deborah Levy, Jenn Ashworth, and others
- Narrated by: Various
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 3
22 writers talk about their memorable excursions and the act of walking, and share their creative observations. In these six series, taken from BBC Radio 3's The Essay, an array of novelists, poets, journalists and biographers chart the varied and inspiring walks they have taken around Britain and elsewhere. Here are treks taken at daybreak and after dark; in winter and in spring; in the footsteps of the past; and - in the case of Robert Macfarlane - along the ridges of the South Downs.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What a Treasury!
- By Grateful Listener SME on 04-03-23
By: Robert Macfarlane, and others
-
The Man Who Saw Everything
- By: Deborah Levy
- Narrated by: George Blagden
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 83
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 73
It is 1988 and Saul Adler, a narcissistic young historian, has been invited to Communist East Berlin to do research; in exchange, he must publish a favorable essay about the German Democratic Republic. As a gift for his translator's sister, a Beatles fanatic who will be his host, Saul's girlfriend will shoot a photograph of him standing in the crosswalk on Abbey Road, an homage to the famous album cover. As he waits for her to arrive, he is grazed by an oncoming car, which changes the trajectory of his life.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Delicately written, but not holding together entirely
- By Lilly Marlène on 10-19-19
By: Deborah Levy
-
The Little Red Chairs
- By: Edna O'Brien
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 502
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 445
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 446
Vlad, a stranger from Eastern Europe masquerading as a healer, settles in a small Irish village where the locals fall under his spell. One woman, Fidelma McBride, becomes so enamored that she begs him for a child. All that world is shattered when Vlad is arrested, and his identity as a war criminal is revealed.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Red, as Scarlet, as Enraging, as Bloody
- By W Perry Hall on 04-17-16
By: Edna O'Brien
-
The Road Home
- By: Rose Tremain
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 67
Winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2008, The Road Home is the best-selling story of Lev, a middle-aged migrant from Eastern Europe, who moves to London in search of work after losing his wife and job. Lev's London is awash with money, celebrity and complacency. The world Tremain creates is both convincing and poignant.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
OK - nice narration - good characters
- By bea on 02-21-11
By: Rose Tremain
-
Tremor
- A Novel
- By: Teju Cole
- Narrated by: Atta Otigba, Yetide Badaki
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
A weekend spent antiquing is shadowed by the colonial atrocities that occurred on that land. A walk at dusk is interrupted by casual racism. A loving marriage is riven by mysterious tensions. And a remarkable cascade of voices speaks out from a pulsing metropolis. We’re invited to experience these events and others through the eyes and ears of Tunde, a West African man working as a teacher of photography on a renowned New England campus.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Fractured narrative line but little gained from splicing of stories
- By Kirsten Scheid on 03-14-24
By: Teju Cole
-
August Blue
- A Novel
- By: Deborah Levy
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 21
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 21
At the height of her career, the piano virtuoso Elsa M. Anderson—former child prodigy, now in her thirties—walks off the stage in Vienna, mid-performance. Now she is in Athens, watching an uncannily familiar woman purchase a pair of mechanical dancing horses at a flea market. Elsa wants the horses too, but there are no more for sale. She drifts to the ferry port, on the run from her talent and her history. So begins her journey across Europe, shadowed by the elusive woman who seems to be her double.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Unsure about this
- By Maryanne T. on 12-31-23
By: Deborah Levy
-
Writers on Walks: A BBC Radio 3 Collection
- 30 Reflections from Exploring on Foot
- By: Robert Macfarlane, Deborah Levy, Jenn Ashworth, and others
- Narrated by: Various
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 3
22 writers talk about their memorable excursions and the act of walking, and share their creative observations. In these six series, taken from BBC Radio 3's The Essay, an array of novelists, poets, journalists and biographers chart the varied and inspiring walks they have taken around Britain and elsewhere. Here are treks taken at daybreak and after dark; in winter and in spring; in the footsteps of the past; and - in the case of Robert Macfarlane - along the ridges of the South Downs.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What a Treasury!
- By Grateful Listener SME on 04-03-23
By: Robert Macfarlane, and others
-
The Man Who Saw Everything
- By: Deborah Levy
- Narrated by: George Blagden
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 83
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 73
It is 1988 and Saul Adler, a narcissistic young historian, has been invited to Communist East Berlin to do research; in exchange, he must publish a favorable essay about the German Democratic Republic. As a gift for his translator's sister, a Beatles fanatic who will be his host, Saul's girlfriend will shoot a photograph of him standing in the crosswalk on Abbey Road, an homage to the famous album cover. As he waits for her to arrive, he is grazed by an oncoming car, which changes the trajectory of his life.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Delicately written, but not holding together entirely
- By Lilly Marlène on 10-19-19
By: Deborah Levy
-
The Little Red Chairs
- By: Edna O'Brien
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 502
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 445
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 446
Vlad, a stranger from Eastern Europe masquerading as a healer, settles in a small Irish village where the locals fall under his spell. One woman, Fidelma McBride, becomes so enamored that she begs him for a child. All that world is shattered when Vlad is arrested, and his identity as a war criminal is revealed.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Red, as Scarlet, as Enraging, as Bloody
- By W Perry Hall on 04-17-16
By: Edna O'Brien
-
The Road Home
- By: Rose Tremain
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 67
Winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2008, The Road Home is the best-selling story of Lev, a middle-aged migrant from Eastern Europe, who moves to London in search of work after losing his wife and job. Lev's London is awash with money, celebrity and complacency. The world Tremain creates is both convincing and poignant.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
OK - nice narration - good characters
- By bea on 02-21-11
By: Rose Tremain
-
Tremor
- A Novel
- By: Teju Cole
- Narrated by: Atta Otigba, Yetide Badaki
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
A weekend spent antiquing is shadowed by the colonial atrocities that occurred on that land. A walk at dusk is interrupted by casual racism. A loving marriage is riven by mysterious tensions. And a remarkable cascade of voices speaks out from a pulsing metropolis. We’re invited to experience these events and others through the eyes and ears of Tunde, a West African man working as a teacher of photography on a renowned New England campus.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Fractured narrative line but little gained from splicing of stories
- By Kirsten Scheid on 03-14-24
By: Teju Cole
-
Also a Poet
- A Memoir
- By: Ada Calhoun
- Narrated by: Ada Calhoun, Lili Taylor, Josephine Brill
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 189
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 160
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 158
When Ada Calhoun stumbled upon old cassette tapes of interviews her father, celebrated art critic Peter Schjeldahl, had conducted for his never-completed biography of poet Frank O’Hara, she set out to finish the book her father had started 40 years earlier. As a lifelong O’Hara fan who grew up amid his bohemian cohort in the East Village, Calhoun thought the project would be easy, even fun, but the deeper she dove, the more she had to face not just O’Hara’s past, but also her father’s and her own.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Pretty Interesting
- By Michele A. Cacano-Green on 08-02-22
By: Ada Calhoun
-
The Years
- By: Annie Ernaux
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 213
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 186
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 187
The Years is a personal narrative of the period of 1941 to 2006 told through the lens of memory, impressions past and present - even projections into the future - photos, books, songs, radio, television, and decades of advertising and headlines, contrasted with intimate conflicts and written notes from six decades of diaries. Local dialect, words of the time, slogans, brands, and names for ever-proliferating objects are given a voice here. The voice we recognize as the author's continually dissolves and re-emerges.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Mixed Feelings
- By Elin VanD on 05-10-20
By: Annie Ernaux
-
The Morning Star
- By: Karl Ove Knausgaard
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan, Edoardo Ballerini, Elisabeth Rodgers, and others
- Length: 23 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 267
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 240
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 238
It's a normal night in August. Literature professor Arne and artist Tove are with their children at the resort in Sørlandet. Their friend, Egil, a driver by day, is staying in a cabin nearby. Kathrine, a priest, is on her way home from a seminar; the journalist Jostein is out on the town; and his wife, Turid, who is an assistant nurse, has a night shift. Above them all, a huge star suddenly appears in the sky. No one, not even the astronomers, knows for sure what kind of phenomenon it is.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Great read for religious scholars
- By matt m on 01-13-22
-
You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- A Memoir
- By: Maggie Smith
- Narrated by: Maggie Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 337
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 305
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 305
In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins with one woman’s personal, particular heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful, relatable, profound
- By Betty Blue on 04-16-23
By: Maggie Smith
-
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
- By: Phaedra Patrick
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,358
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,900
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,885
Sixty-nine-year-old Arthur Pepper lives a simple life. He gets out of bed at precisely 7:30 a.m., just as he did when his wife, Miriam, was alive. He dresses in the same gray slacks and mustard sweater-vest; waters his fern, Frederica; and heads out to his garden. But on the one-year anniversary of Miriam's death, something changes. Sorting through Miriam's possessions, Arthur finds an exquisite gold charm bracelet he's never seen before.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Disappointing.
- By BikeVON on 05-17-16
By: Phaedra Patrick
-
The God of Small Things
- By: Arundhati Roy
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,707
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,409
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 2,405
Likened to the works of Faulkner and Dickens when it was first published 20 years ago, this extraordinarily accomplished debut novel is a brilliantly plotted story of forbidden love and piercing political drama, centered on the tragic decline of an Indian family in the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India. Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, the twins Rahel and Esthappen fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Worthy Booker winner!
- By Saman on 08-10-17
By: Arundhati Roy
-
Monsters
- A Fan's Dilemma
- By: Claire Dederer
- Narrated by: Claire Dederer
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 240
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 202
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 202
Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters is certain to incite a conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I needed this book.
- By Jennifer E. Glapion on 05-16-23
By: Claire Dederer
-
Life of One's Own
- Nine Women Writers Begin Again
- By: Joanna Biggs
- Narrated by: Hannah Curtis
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars 2
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2
A few years into her marriage and feeling societal pressure to surrender to domesticity, Joanna Biggs found herself longing for a different kind of existence. Was this all there was? She divorced without knowing what would come next. Newly untethered, Joanna returned to the free-spirited writers of her youth and was soon reading in a fever—desperately searching for evidence of lives that looked more like her own, for the messiness and freedom, for a possible blueprint for intellectual fulfillment.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
brilliant literary review combined with memoir
- By Franny on 01-17-24
By: Joanna Biggs
-
Cat's Eye
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 866
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 769
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 774
Disturbing, humorous, and compassionate, Cat’s Eye is the story of Elaine Risley, a controversial painter who returns to Toronto, the city of her youth, for a retrospective of her art. Engulfed by vivid images of the past, she reminisces about a trio of girls who initiated her into the the fierce politics of childhood and its secret world of friendship, longing, and betrayal.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent
- By Sarah on 08-24-15
By: Margaret Atwood
-
The Robber Bride
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 20 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 870
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 774
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 777
From the best-selling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments - one of Margaret Atwood’s most unforgettable characters lurks at the center of this intricate novel like a spider in a web. The glamorous, irresistible, unscrupulous Zenia is nothing less than a fairy-tale villain in the memories of her former friends. Roz, Charis, and Tony - university classmates decades ago - were reunited at Zenia’s funeral and have met monthly for lunch ever since, obsessively retracing the destructive swath she once cut through their lives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
BORED with her own novel?
- By Darwin8u on 05-16-12
By: Margaret Atwood
-
A Woman's Story
- By: Annie Ernaux, Tanya Leslie
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 1 hr and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
Upon her mother’s death from Alzheimer’s, Annie Ernaux embarks on a daunting journey back through time, as she seeks to “capture the real woman, the one who existed independently from me, born on the outskirts of a small Normandy town, and who died in the geriatric ward of a hospital in the suburbs of Paris.” She explores the bond between mother and daughter, tenuous and unshakable at once, the alienating worlds that separate them, and the inescapable truth that we must lose the ones we love.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful Tribute, Beautiful Writing
- By Amazon Customer on 07-07-23
By: Annie Ernaux, and others
-
Habibi
- By: Naomi Shihab Nye
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 62
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 55
For 14-year-old Liyana Abboud, life in St. Louis, Missouri is perfect. She loves shopping in the nearby stores and walking down streets where she knows everyone. Even better, she has just had her first kiss. But her father is moving the family to Jerusalem - the land where he was born. Suddenly Liyana finds herself a stranger in a threatening world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very good Performance
- By Muhammad on 04-07-15
By: Naomi Shihab Nye
Critic reviews
“[A] contemplation of what it means to be a contemporary woman.... Levy’s books are slim, but no less wondrous; she packs astounding insight and clarity into every passage.” (The Globe and Mail)
"Levy successfully weaves historical, political, and personal threads together to form a nuanced account of her life and why she writes. Her graceful memoir/essay emphasizes a woman’s need to speak out even if she has to use a quiet voice. For feminists and memoir enthusiasts." (Library Journal)
"A lively, vivid account of how the most innocent details of a writer's personal story can gain power in fiction." (New York Times Book Review)
Related to this topic
-
Habibi
- By: Naomi Shihab Nye
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 62
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 55
For 14-year-old Liyana Abboud, life in St. Louis, Missouri is perfect. She loves shopping in the nearby stores and walking down streets where she knows everyone. Even better, she has just had her first kiss. But her father is moving the family to Jerusalem - the land where he was born. Suddenly Liyana finds herself a stranger in a threatening world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very good Performance
- By Muhammad on 04-07-15
By: Naomi Shihab Nye
-
The Road Home
- By: Rose Tremain
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 67
Winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2008, The Road Home is the best-selling story of Lev, a middle-aged migrant from Eastern Europe, who moves to London in search of work after losing his wife and job. Lev's London is awash with money, celebrity and complacency. The world Tremain creates is both convincing and poignant.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
OK - nice narration - good characters
- By bea on 02-21-11
By: Rose Tremain
-
The Visiting Privilege
- New and Collected Stories
- By: Joy Williams
- Narrated by: Richard Powers, Emily Woo Zeller, Elisabeth Rodgers, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 48
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 42
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 41
Joy Williams has been celebrated as a master of the short story for four decades, her renown passing from one generation to the next even in the shifting landscape of contemporary writing. And at long last the incredible scope of her singular achievement is put on display: 33 stories drawn from three much-lauded collections and another 13 appearing here for the first time in book form.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
I sure tried.
- By A.C. CALLOWAY on 01-28-24
By: Joy Williams
-
Owls Do Cry
- By: Janet Frame
- Narrated by: Heather Bolton
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
Owls Do Cry is Janet Frame's first novel. She describes her idea behind it in the second volume of her autobiography: 'Pictures of great treasure in the midst of sadness and waste haunted me and I began to think, in fiction, of a childhood, home life, hospital life, using people known to me as a base for main characters, and inventing minor characters.'
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
well told but a wee bit depressing.
- By Muzza on 11-03-19
By: Janet Frame
-
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
- A Novel
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 474
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 415
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 414
Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Another Kate Atkinson multi-generational story
- By Satisfied Customer on 11-08-18
By: Kate Atkinson
-
The Blind Assassin
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Margot Dionne
- Length: 18 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,089
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,398
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,391
For the past twenty-five years, Margaret Atwood has written works of striking originality and imagination. In The Blind Assassin, she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious. The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Good book, TERRIBLE audio!
- By Whitney on 04-27-09
By: Margaret Atwood
-
Habibi
- By: Naomi Shihab Nye
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 62
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 55
For 14-year-old Liyana Abboud, life in St. Louis, Missouri is perfect. She loves shopping in the nearby stores and walking down streets where she knows everyone. Even better, she has just had her first kiss. But her father is moving the family to Jerusalem - the land where he was born. Suddenly Liyana finds herself a stranger in a threatening world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very good Performance
- By Muhammad on 04-07-15
By: Naomi Shihab Nye
-
The Road Home
- By: Rose Tremain
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 67
Winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2008, The Road Home is the best-selling story of Lev, a middle-aged migrant from Eastern Europe, who moves to London in search of work after losing his wife and job. Lev's London is awash with money, celebrity and complacency. The world Tremain creates is both convincing and poignant.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
OK - nice narration - good characters
- By bea on 02-21-11
By: Rose Tremain
-
The Visiting Privilege
- New and Collected Stories
- By: Joy Williams
- Narrated by: Richard Powers, Emily Woo Zeller, Elisabeth Rodgers, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 48
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 42
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 41
Joy Williams has been celebrated as a master of the short story for four decades, her renown passing from one generation to the next even in the shifting landscape of contemporary writing. And at long last the incredible scope of her singular achievement is put on display: 33 stories drawn from three much-lauded collections and another 13 appearing here for the first time in book form.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
I sure tried.
- By A.C. CALLOWAY on 01-28-24
By: Joy Williams
-
Owls Do Cry
- By: Janet Frame
- Narrated by: Heather Bolton
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
Owls Do Cry is Janet Frame's first novel. She describes her idea behind it in the second volume of her autobiography: 'Pictures of great treasure in the midst of sadness and waste haunted me and I began to think, in fiction, of a childhood, home life, hospital life, using people known to me as a base for main characters, and inventing minor characters.'
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
well told but a wee bit depressing.
- By Muzza on 11-03-19
By: Janet Frame
-
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
- A Novel
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 474
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 415
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 414
Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Another Kate Atkinson multi-generational story
- By Satisfied Customer on 11-08-18
By: Kate Atkinson
-
The Blind Assassin
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Margot Dionne
- Length: 18 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,089
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,398
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,391
For the past twenty-five years, Margaret Atwood has written works of striking originality and imagination. In The Blind Assassin, she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious. The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Good book, TERRIBLE audio!
- By Whitney on 04-27-09
By: Margaret Atwood
-
Fragile Things
- By: Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Neil Gaiman
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,492
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,692
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,672
Marvelous creations, including a short story set in the world of The Matrix and others set in the worlds of gothic fiction and children's fiction, can be found in this extraordinary collection, which showcases Gaiman's storytelling brilliance as well as his entertaining (and dark) sense of humor.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Perhaps a different format?
- By Karen on 11-03-10
By: Neil Gaiman
-
Trumpet
- By: Jackie Kay
- Narrated by: Cathleen McCarron
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 73
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 66
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
The death of legendary jazz trumpeter Joss Moody exposes an extraordinary secret. Unbeknown to all but his wife Millie, Joss was a woman living as a man. The discovery is most devastating for their adopted son, Colman, whose bewildered fury brings the press to the doorstep and sends his grieving mother to the sanctuary of a remote Scottish village. Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize, Trumpet by Jackie Kay is a starkly beautiful modern classic about the lengths to which people will go for love.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful and True
- By Colin on 05-24-17
By: Jackie Kay
-
Prayers for the Stolen
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Clement
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 60
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 50
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
Ladydi Garcia Martinez was born into a world where being a girl is a dangerous thing. In the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico, women must fend for themselves, as their men have left to seek opportunities elsewhere. While her mother waits in vain for her husband's return, Ladydi and her friends dream of a future that holds more promise than mere survival, finding humor, solidarity, and fun in the face of so much tragedy. When Ladydi is offered work as a nanny for a wealthy family in Acapulco, she seizes the chance and finds her first taste of love with a young caretaker there.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I don’t know how to feel about this...
- By Candice on 01-21-21
By: Jennifer Clement
-
I Couldn't Love You More
- A Novel
- By: Esther Freud
- Narrated by: Niamh Cusack
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 29
A sweeping story of three generations of women, crossing from London to Ireland and back again, and the enduring effort to retrieve the secrets of the past.
By: Esther Freud
-
Priestdaddy
- A Memoir
- By: Patricia Lockwood
- Narrated by: Patricia Lockwood
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 949
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 856
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 854
Father Greg Lockwood is unlike any Catholic priest you have ever met - a man who lounges in boxer shorts, who loves action movies, and whose constant jamming on the guitar reverberates "like a whole band dying in a plane crash in 1972". His daughter is an irreverent poet who long ago left the church's country. When an unexpected crisis leads her and her husband to move back into her parents' rectory, their two worlds collide.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Terrible narration--read, don't listen
- By Penelope on 08-06-17
-
Pennies for Hitler
- By: Jackie French
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52
It's 1939, and for Georg, son of an English academic living in Germany, life is full of cream cakes and loving parents. It is also a time when his teacher measures the pupils' heads to see which of them have the most 'Aryan'- shaped heads. But when a university graduation ceremony turns into a pro-Nazi demonstration, Georg is smuggled out of Germany to war-torn London and then across enemy seas to Australia where he must forget his past and who he is in order to survive. Hatred is contagious, but Georg finds that kindness can be, too.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
This could be a Bryce Courtenay novel
- By K Cornwinkle on 07-02-14
By: Jackie French
-
Above Us Only Sky
- By: Michele Young-Stone
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 81
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 73
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 75
Prudence Eleanor Vilkas was born with a pair of wings molded to her back. Considered a birth defect, her wings were surgically removed, leaving only the ghost of them behind. Growing up in Los Vientos, Florida, Prudence meets her long-estranged Lithuanian grandfather and discovers a miraculous lineage beating and pulsing with past Lithuanian bird-women.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
I'm So Glad I Listened to It!
- By Elizabeth on 08-22-16
-
Brick Lane
- By: Monica Ali
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Sastre
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 240
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 97
Nanzeen's inauspicious birth in a Bangladeshi village imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents. Married off to a man old enough to be her father, Nanzeen moves to London and cares for her family. But gradually she begins to question whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny. She discovers both the complexity that comes with free choice and the depth of her attachment to her husband, her daughters and her new world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A truly wonderful book!
- By A M on 11-24-03
By: Monica Ali
-
Homesick for Another World
- Stories
- By: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan, Richard Poe
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 299
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 265
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 265
There's something eerily unsettling about Ottessa Moshfegh's stories, something almost dangerous, while also being delightful and even laugh-out-loud funny. Her characters are all unsteady on their feet in one way or another; they all yearn for connection and betterment, though each in very different ways, but they are often tripped up by their own baser impulses and existential insecurities.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Funny, Dynamic Writing
- By Sofia Macht on 06-13-18
By: Ottessa Moshfegh
-
The Bell Jar
- By: Sylvia Plath
- Narrated by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,840
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,874
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,845
The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful but slowly going under - maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A must-read for every woman
- By Julie W. Capell on 05-06-16
By: Sylvia Plath
-
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules (Unabridged Selections)
- By: Edited by David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris, Mary-Louise Parker, Cherry Jones
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 359
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 216
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 217
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules is a collection of short stories, some classic, others impending, selected and introduced by David Sedaris.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great stories but only 5 of 17 are included
- By Terri Kirk on 07-13-12
-
Our Tiny, Useless Hearts
- By: Toni Jordan
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 42
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 38
Henry has ended his marriage to Caroline and headed off to Noosa with Mercedes' grade three teacher, Martha. Caroline, having shredded a wardrobe-full of Henry's suits, has gone after them. Craig and Lesley have dropped over briefly from next door to catch up on the fallout from Henry and Caroline's all-night row. And Janice, Caroline's sister, is staying for the weekend to look after the girls because Janice is the sensible one.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Caroline Lee enhances every story she narrates
- By stella on 12-02-18
By: Toni Jordan