[null, {"document_url": "https://www.audible.com/listener/A2S1LM03J2REHS", "unformatted_src": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51sNguvtZvL._SL320_.jpg", "src": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51sNguvtZvL._SL320_.jpg", "formatted_filename": "sNguvtZvL", "alt_text": "The Year of the Runaways audiobook cover art", "rendered_width": "100%"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.audible.com/listener/A2S1LM03J2REHS", "unformatted_src": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/6176vbgUbAL._SL320_.jpg", "src": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/6176vbgUbAL._SL320_.jpg", "formatted_filename": "vbgUbAL", "alt_text": "In Morocco audiobook cover art", "rendered_width": "100%"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.audible.com/listener/A2S1LM03J2REHS", "unformatted_src": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Jr3upHo4L._SL320_.jpg", "src": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Jr3upHo4L._SL320_.jpg", "formatted_filename": "Jr upHo L", "alt_text": "The New York Times Audio Digest, March 11, 2014 audiobook cover art", "rendered_width": "100%"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.audible.com/listener/A2S1LM03J2REHS", "unformatted_src": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/613H3SBpTdL._SL320_.jpg", "src": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/613H3SBpTdL._SL320_.jpg", "formatted_filename": "H SBpTdL", "alt_text": "The Savage Detectives audiobook cover art", "rendered_width": "100%"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.audible.com/listener/A2S1LM03J2REHS", "unformatted_src": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51q3VYUOxyL._SL320_.jpg", "src": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51q3VYUOxyL._SL320_.jpg", "formatted_filename": "q VYUOxyL", "alt_text": "Alexander of Macedon audiobook cover art", "rendered_width": "100%"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.audible.com/listener/A2S1LM03J2REHS", "unformatted_src": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Rlx48qIGL._SL320_.jpg", "src": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Rlx48qIGL._SL320_.jpg", "formatted_filename": "Rlx qIGL", "alt_text": "The Peloponnesian War, Volume 2 audiobook cover art", "rendered_width": "100%"}, null]
Thirteen young men live in a house in Sheffield, each in flight from India and in desperate search of a new life. Tarlochan, a former rickshaw driver, will say nothing about his past in Bihar, and Avtar has a secret that binds him to protect the choatic Randeep. Randeep, in turn, has a visa wife in a flat on the other side of town: a clever, devout woman whose cupboards are full of her husband's clothes, in case the immigration men surprise her with a call.

Shown not told

Reviewed: 07-05-17

Where does The Year of the Runaways rank among all the audiobooks youâve listened to so far?

The author forces you to pay attention to details by not explaining. It's refreshing: you must learn like a child or a foreigner. The story is tense and dramatic. Wonderful, really. The best novel I've read in a long, long time. The ending was a tad weak, but that can be forgiven.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Year of the Runaways?

Oh God, I don't know. Everything was interconnected.

What about Sartaj Garewalâs performance did you like?

It was just perfect. Inflected with an Indian accent but easy to understand. He stayed out of the way, didn't overdo it as some readers do.

I don't know what a tag line is.


Sahota takes Americans to absolutely new places.
 In Morocco is Edith Wharton's remarkable account of her journey to that country during World War I. With her characteristic sense of adventure, Wharton set out to explore Morocco and its people, traveling by military jeep to Rabat, Moulay Idriss, Fez, and Marrakech, from the Atlantic coast to the high Atlas. Along the way, she witnessed religious ceremonies and ritual dances, visited the opulent palaces of the Sultan, and was admitted to the mysterious world of his harem.

Recording and Content



What was most disappointing about Edith Whartonâs story?

Her superficial treatment of the place and her constant reminding me of how badly the pathetic people there needed the French "help" they were now getting.

Would you be willing to try another one of Anna Fieldsâs performances?

Maybe, but I would listen carefully first. This recording is faulty. Her pronunciations are incorrect very often.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from In Morocco?

I would suggest that she abandon the project.


Terrible recording of a dated and depressing book.
 

New York Times podcast

Reviewed: 03-11-14



The writing is good.

What didnât you like about The New York Timesâs performance?

Everything. The reader doesn't seem to have any sense of what he's saying. It eventually began to drive us crazy.




I want to cancel my subscription to this, but can't figure out how. The late Chilean writer Roberto BolaÃ±o has been called the GarcÃ­a Marquez of his generation. The Savage Detectives is a hilarious and sexy, meandering and melancholy, companionable and complicated road trip through Mexico City, Barcelona, Israel, Liberia, and finally the desert of northern Mexico. It is the first of BolaÃ±o's two giant works, with 2666, to be translated into English and is already being hailed as a masterpiece.

Amazing experience


Reviewed: 01-04-10

The story is told by large cast of characters who seem to be responding verbally to questions about two poets, a Mexican and a Chilean. But somehow, these two end up seeming mythical and insubstantial while the supporting characters become full blown companions through their unique voices telling stories combining the mundane and bizarre. A latticework of detail is provided (You always know the date and place of a narration.), but motivation almost always remains mysterious. By some inexplicable means, the narrative tension is sustained through many adventures in Mexico City and Europe.
The readers are absolutely great. I'm sure that their good pronunciation of Spanish words (as well as German and even Latin) and the excellent definition of the characters through their voices and accents made this novel a much greater pleasure to listen to than it would have been to read in print.
 The enigma of Alexander the Great has remained with us for 2,300 years. In spite of the best efforts of historians, Alexander is no less a mystery to us now than he probably was during his own lifetime. There was no one like him before or since. In the pages of Harold Lamb's intriguing Alexander of Macedon, we find some of the answers to the great riddle of his character.

Exciting! Historically accurate?


Reviewed: 10-22-09

Mr. Griffin did his usual fine job of reading the book, but the book itself is pretty bad. I guess the problem is that nobody really knows enough about Alexander and most writers keep having to say, "Well, maybe it was like this..." But, Lamb didn't worry about it and just made up the parts he didn't know, quite romantically.

1 of 5 people found this review helpful If ever a tragedy of Olympian proportions could be ascribed to an historic event, it would surely be appropriate to use that term in relation to the great city state of Athens. John Ruskin referred to the Peloponnesian War as "the suicide of Greece". It is an apt phrase. For never in history has a community reached such sublime heights of civilized life only to plummet to ignominious defeat within a single lifetime.

Choose This Version!


Reviewed: 02-14-09

I'd already listened to half of The Peloponnesian War by the other reader and was on the point of giving up. Then I switched to this one and don't want it to end! Mr. Griffin shows an understanding of the material that brings the story (a distant, difficult one) wonderfully to life.
