Wise Children
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Narrated by:
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Tracey Ullman
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By:
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Angela Carter
About this listen
Angela Carter's last book, Wise Children, was written and published whilst she was dying from cancer, in 1991. Transcending her physical deterioration in admirable fashion, Carter made this a most life-affirming novel, in support of the vitality of 'otherness.'
This Audible exclusive production, expertly read by Tracey Ullman, stands in celebration of a legendary author known for the richness of her imagination, wit and feminist insight.
About the book
Wise Children is a richly comic tale surrounding the tangled fortunes of two theatrical families. Seen through the eyes of 75-year-old Dora Chance, and her twin Nora, the novel unfurls within the space of a day, as the sisters prepare to attend their perennially absent father's 100th birthday party.
With a wide and colourful, often rather crazy cast, the story veers off in a multitude of directions as Dora's reminiscent narrative slips from past to present suddenly and seamlessly throughout.
Packed with gags, tears, histories, mysteries, feuds and romantic (and some not-so-romantic) unions, Wise Children, doesn't miss a trick. Playing on Carter's admiration of Shakespeare and the surreal, the novel is jam-packed with entrancing magic realism and elements of the carnivalesque.
About the author
Angela Carter was born in 1940, in Sussex. She grew up in the shabbily respectable south London district of Balham, the second child of an eccentric journalist father and a neurotic housewife mother.
She studied English at Bristol University before travelling extensively, teaching and writing numerous best-selling novels. They have all received considerable critical acclaim and remain firm favourites of modern English literature.
Angela was a devout feminist throughout her life, wrote for Spare Rib magazine and voted Labour. Her novels are wholly reflective of her world views and continue to inspire new generations of men and women worldwide.
About the narrator
Tracey Ullman is a multi-award-winning television, stage and film actress, screenwriter, producer, director, author and all-round businesswoman.
First appearing on British screens in comedy sketch shows such as A Kick Up the Eighties, alongside Miriam Margolyes, Three of a Kind, with Lenny Henry, and Girls on Top, with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Tracey quickly established herself as a comedic genius.
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- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno, Piter Marik
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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An honor killing shatters and transforms the lives of Turkish immigrants in 1970s London. Internationally best-selling Turkish author Elif Shafak’s new novel is a dramatic tale of families, love, and misunderstandings that follows the destinies of twin sisters born in a Kurdish village. While Jamila stays to become a midwife, Pembe follows her Turkish husband, Adem, to London, where they hope to make new lives for themselves and their children. In London, they face a choice: stay loyal to the old traditions or try their best to fit in.
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Complex but Compelling
- By Cariola on 04-14-13
By: Elif Shafak
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The Postcard
- By: Leah Fleming
- Narrated by: Elaine Claxton
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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2002, Australia. When Melissa discovers a postcard addressed to 'Desmond' among her recently deceased father's effects, she is determined to discover this person's identity and his relationship to her father. She soon embarks on a journey that will take her across oceans and into the past...
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Meh
- By Summer Layne on 03-06-15
By: Leah Fleming
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The Ground Beneath Her Feet
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 27 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Salman Rushdie is widely considered one of a handful of truly great living writers. The internationally acclaimed, Booker Prize-winning author's storytelling shines in this epic love story, a modern retelling of the myth of Orpheus.
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Okay, Salmon, We get that you're a genious already
- By Julie A Quinn on 04-23-09
By: Salman Rushdie
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The Little Orphan Girl
- By: Sandy Taylor
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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When Cissy Ryan’s real mother comes to claim her from the workhouse, it’s not how she imagined. Her family’s tumbledown cottage has ice on the inside of its windows and is in an isolated, poverty-stricken village in the muddy Irish countryside. But when Cissy is allowed to help neighbour Colm Doyle and his horse named Blue on their milk round one morning, Cissy starts to feel as though friendship could get her through anything.
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Beautiful heart breaking story.
- By kanga2012 on 07-08-20
By: Sandy Taylor
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The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder
- By: Rebecca Wells
- Narrated by: Judith Ivey
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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A tale of family and friendship, tragedy and triumph, loss and love, The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder features the warmth, humor, soul, and wonder that have made Wells one of today's most cherished writers, and gives us an unforgettable new heroine to treasure.
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Loved it, Ya'll!
- By Ella Gracen on 08-11-09
By: Rebecca Wells
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Gone with the Wind
- By: Margaret Mitchell
- Narrated by: Linda Stephens
- Length: 49 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, Margaret Mitchell's great novel of the South is one of the most popular books ever written. Within six months of its publication in 1936, Gone With the Wind had sold a million copies. To date, it has been translated into 25 languages, and more than 28 million copies have been sold. Here are the characters that have become symbols of passion and desire....
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not to miss audible experience
- By dallas on 12-08-09
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Around the World with Auntie Mame
- By: Patrick Dennis
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Encore, Encore! The brilliant sequel to the smash bestseller Auntie Mame is back and the reviews are in....
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A classic!
- By Miss Right on 03-22-22
By: Patrick Dennis
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American Rose
- A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee
- By: Karen Abbott
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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With the critically acclaimed Sin in the Second City, best-selling author Karen Abbott “pioneered sizzle history” (USA Today). Now she returns with the gripping and expansive story of America’s coming-of-age - told through the extraordinary life of Gypsy Rose Lee and the world she survived and conquered. America in the Roaring Twenties. Vaudeville was king. Talking pictures were only a distant flicker. Speakeasies beckoned beyond dimly lit doorways; money flowed fast and free.
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Well done biography of a complicated Icon
- By Moire on 01-27-11
By: Karen Abbott
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Everywhere I Look
- By: Helen Garner
- Narrated by: Helen Garner
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Spanning 15 years of work, Everywhere I Look is an audiobook full of unexpected moments, sudden shafts of light, piercing intuition, flashes of anger and incidental humour. It takes us from backstage at the ballet to the trial of a woman for the murder of her newborn baby. It moves effortlessly from the significance of moving house to the pleasure of rereading Pride and Prejudice.
By: Helen Garner
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M. Butterfly
- By: David Henry Hwang
- Narrated by: John Lithgow, B.D. Wong, David Dukes, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 51 mins
- Original Recording
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John Lithgow and B.D. Wong here recreate their original roles from the Tony Award-winning production. Inspired by an actual espionage scandal, a French diplomat discovers the startling truth about his Chinese mistress.
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great play, but you need to know it first
- By Calliope on 06-22-13
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Great reading by Fiona Shaw.
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'The scar drew her whole face sideways, and even in profile, with the hideous thing turned away, her face was horribly lopsided, skin, features and all, dragged away from the bone. She was a beautiful girl, a white and golden girl, like moonlight on daisies, a month ago.' And yet the men still hover around her, more out of curiosity than lust, and none more so than the wildly seductive, dangerous funny man Honeybuzzard; lithe as a stick of liquorice, he is the demonic puppet master at the swirling centre of the tale.
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Expletives Deleted
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Angela Carter was one of the most important and influential writers of our time: a novelist of extraordinary power and a searching critic and essayist. This selection of her writing, which she made herself, covers more than a decade of her thought and ranges over a diversity of subjects giving a true measure of the wide focus of her interests: the brothers Grimm; William Burroughs; food writing, Elizabeth David; British writing; American writing....
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Fireworks
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
'I started to write short pieces when I was living in a room too small to write a novel in.' So says Angela Carter of this collection, written during a period living in Toyko. These exotic, sensuous stories represent Carter's first major achievement in the short story form. Lush imaginary forests, a murderous puppet show and an expressionistic vision of Japan: each one instantly conjures an atmosphere, dark and luminous in turn, and from the recognisably daring imagination of one of the great 20th-century stylists.
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Brilliant short story collection, but they are not titles in the chapter list
- By cristobal on 05-16-24
By: Angela Carter
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Overall
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Performance
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Listening to Shaking a Leg is like spending time with the funniest, wisest friend you've ever had - a person whose breadth of interest ranges from food to feminism to science fiction and everything in between. Bursting with ideas, culturally astute and sparklingly witty, this comprehensive volume of Angela Carter's journalism is the most down-to-earth and entertaining companion to latter 20th-century thought you'll ever need.
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What listeners say about Wise Children
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- Todd C
- 02-04-23
The voice made the experience
Incredible performance by Tracey Ullman. More than a book. The Bard would be proud. Kudos.
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- Anonymous User
- 10-15-20
Brilliant
Oh my God, Tracey Ullman!!! This is the best audio book performance I’ve ever heard. And the book is wonderful. What an absolute pleasure to hear masters at their finest.
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2 people found this helpful