And After the Fire
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Xe Sands
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Simon Vance
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By:
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Lauren Belfer
About this listen
The New York Times best-selling author of A Fierce Radiance and City of Light returns with a new powerful and passionate novel - inspired by historical events - about two women and the mysterious choral masterpiece by Johann Sebastian Bach that changes both their lives.
In the ruins of Germany in 1945, at the end of World War II, American soldier Henry Sachs takes a souvenir, an old music manuscript, from a seemingly deserted mansion and mistakenly kills the girl who tries to stop him.
In America in 2010, Henry's niece, Susanna Kessler, struggles to rebuild her life after she experiences a devastating act of violence on the streets of New York City. When Henry dies soon after, she uncovers the long-hidden music manuscript. She becomes determined to discover what it is and to return it to its rightful owner, a journey that will challenge her preconceptions about herself and her family's history - and offer her an opportunity to make peace with the past.
In Berlin, Germany, in 1796, amid the city's glittering salons where aristocrats and commoners, Christians and Jews, mingle freely despite simmering anti-Semitism, Sara Itzig Levy, a renowned musician, conceals the manuscript of an anti-Jewish cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, an unsettling gift to her from Bach's son, her teacher. This work and its disturbing message will haunt Sara and her family for generations to come.
Interweaving the stories of Susanna and Sara and their families, And After the Fire traverses over 200 years of history, from the 18th century through the Holocaust and into today, seamlessly melding past and present, real and imagined. Lauren Belfer's deeply researched, evocative, and compelling narrative resonates with emotion and immediacy.
Weaving together the stories of Susanna and Sara, Lauren Belfer creates a majestic narrative that spans lifetimes and continents, encompassing both the best and the worst of the human spirit. The cantata's troubled, riveting journey reveals that the two women have more in common than the score, and what Susanna learns may be what finally allows her to heal and move on.
©2016 Lauren Belfer (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Kemal, scion of one of the city's wealthiest families, is about to become engaged to Sibel, daughter of another prominent family, when he encounters Füsun, a beautiful shopgirl and a distant relation. Once the long-lost cousins violate the code of virginity, a rift begins to open between Kemal and the world of the Westernized Istanbul bourgeosie - a world, as he lovingly describes it, with opulent parties and clubs, society gossip, picnics, and mansions on the Bosphorus, infused with the melancholy of decay.
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one of the very best I've ever heard
- By Rebecca Lindroos on 03-06-10
By: Orhan Pamuk, and others
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Mata Hari's Last Dance
- A Novel
- By: Michelle Moran
- Narrated by: Zara Ramm
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Paris, 1917. The notorious dancer Mata Hari sits in a cold cell awaiting freedom...or death. Alone and despondent, she is as confused as the rest of the world about the charges she's been arrested on: treason leading to the deaths of thousands of French soldiers. As she waits for her fate to be decided, she relays the story of her life to a reporter who is allowed to visit her in prison.
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Throughly enjoyable
- By scalante on 09-07-16
By: Michelle Moran
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The Personal Librarian
- By: Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps create a world-class collection.
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A Treat For This Academic Librarian!
- By AlTonya on 07-14-21
By: Marie Benedict, and others
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The Magnolia Palace
- A Novel
- By: Fiona Davis
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Eight months since losing her mother in the Spanish flu outbreak of 1919, 21-year-old Lillian Carter's life has completely fallen apart. For the past six years, under the moniker Angelica, Lillian was one of the most sought-after artists' models in New York City, with statues based on her figure gracing landmarks from the Plaza Hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge
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This isn't my favorite but entertaining
- By Linda on 02-01-22
By: Fiona Davis
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And Only to Deceive
- Lady Emily, Book 1
- By: Tasha Alexander
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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For Emily, accepting the proposal of Philip, the viscount Ashton, was an easy way to escape her overbearing mother, who was set on a grand society match. So when Emily's dashing husband died on safari soon after their wedding, she felt little grief. After all, she barely knew him. Now, nearly two years later, she discovers that Philip was a far different man from the one she had married so cavalierly.
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Tiresome
- By nkevinsc on 03-05-15
By: Tasha Alexander
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The Fortune Teller
- By: Gwendolyn Womack
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan, Robin Miles
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Semele Cavnow appraises antiquities for an exclusive Manhattan auction house. When she discovers a manuscript written in the time of Cleopatra, she knows it will be the find of her career. Its author tells the story of a priceless tarot deck, now lost to history. As Semele delves further, she realizes the manuscript is more than it seems. Both a memoir and a prophecy, it appears to be the work of a powerful seer, describing devastating wars and natural disasters in detail thousands of years before they occurred.
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*THE* one!!
- By Lisa H on 05-16-18
By: Gwendolyn Womack
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What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours
- Stories
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon, Piter Marek, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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In "Books and Roses", one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers' fates. In "Is Your Blood as Red as This?", an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. "'Sorry' Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea" involves a "house of locks", where doors can be closed only with a key - with surprising unobservable developments. And in "If a Book Is Locked There's Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think", a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason).
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clever
- By jared rogerson on 03-15-18
By: Helen Oyeyemi
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The Blood Doctor
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Robert Powell
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
The First Lord Nanther, expert in blood diseases, particularly the royal disease of Heamophilia, and favoured physician to Queen Victoria, clearly hoped to be the subject of an admiring posthumous biography. But when his great-grandson, Martin Nanther begins to research his life for a biography, the Martin comes to suspect that his great-grandfather’s old records conceal more than they reveal.
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clever, excellent storytelling
- By connie on 07-09-11
By: Barbara Vine
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Language Arts
- By: Stephanie Kallos
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Charles Marlow is a Seattle English teacher who instructs his students to expand their worlds through language. Lately, however, with one child off to college and the pressure from his ex-wife to make plans for their severely autistic son who's about to age out of the system, he prefers the company of the ghosts he turns up in the storage boxes in his crawl space.
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The beauty of the broken
- By SJ Evans on 04-27-18
By: Stephanie Kallos
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The Lost Carousel of Provence
- By: Juliet Blackwell
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Long, lonely years have passed for the crumbling Château Clement, nestled well beyond the rolling lavender fields and popular tourist attractions of Provence. Once a bustling and dignified ancestral estate, now all that remains is the château's gruff, elderly owner and the softly whispered secrets of generations buried and forgotten. But time has a way of exposing history's dark stains, and when American photographer Cady Drake finds herself drawn to the château and its antique carousel, she longs to explore the relic's shadowy origins.
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Loved It!
- By T Heskett on 09-23-18
By: Juliet Blackwell
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At Home with the Templetons
- By: Monica McInerney
- Narrated by: Ulli Birve
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When the Templeton family from England takes up residence in a stately home in country Australia, they set the locals talking – and with good reason. From the outside, the seven Templetons seem so bohemian, peculiar even. No one is more intrigued by the family than their neighbours, single mother Nina Donovan and her young son Tom. Before long, the two families' lives become entwined in unexpected ways.
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A dreadful mistake
- By Julie on 11-14-10
By: Monica McInerney
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Needs to be abridged!
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Gave up
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I’ve read hundreds of historical fiction books....
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This is a difficult book to review
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What listeners say about And After the Fire
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Robin
- 09-05-17
can't wait to discuss this at book club
The only moment that i was disappointed in this story was when it ended. I wanted it to keep going. Multiple narraters makes the flip flop between past and present easier to tecognize.
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2 people found this helpful
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- judy sheffield
- 03-19-19
Learned a lot
An engrossing book that is informative about classical music, history, Germany, much more. Unfortunately the female voice narration was so distracting, over-acted, that I had to read the actual book to enjoy those chapters
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1 person found this helpful
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- Karen Peterson
- 03-28-17
Lovely story with much history
Loved the passage from past to current time and learning more about the world through this history and full story
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3 people found this helpful
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- Jerry Riley
- 08-01-16
Bach, History, Mystery, and Jewish Heritage
A well written mystery which covers several hundred years and then the impact of a Bach Contatta on people over centuries who werevJewish and non-jewish! Well done!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Carol
- 03-25-18
Interesting but tedious
This should have been an hour shorter. The historical sections lacked clear transitions and parts could have been eliminated.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Diana G
- 08-22-24
Felt like Non-Fiction
each time period was concisely illustrated. kudos to an author who brought this tale to life; a 'must' read.
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-18-19
Incredible tapestry of signed Bach manuscript.
Intriguing story beautifully narrated spanning several centuries reflecting the impact of Judaism on the generations involved.
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1 person found this helpful
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- MWC
- 05-27-19
Erratic volume
The story was quite good, and one of the readers was fine and I would give him 5 stars. However I had problems with the cadence and volume of the womans's performance. It isn't possible to listen to this while someone is on the adjacent treadmill because her voice drops and rises so much that one can't adjust the volume adequately to listen comfortably. When listening otherwise it becomes necessary to back up and raise the volume frequently to know what is being said. Tedious!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anne Carpenter
- 06-14-19
Interesting story
Interesting story—liked how the different story lines moved closer to one another—only issue I had with this book was one of the narrators—the female voice kept trailing off—-very hard to follow—didn’t like.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Caitlin Irvin
- 09-05-17
ok story, narrating ruins it.
The story line was ok, but I was completely irritated with the reading style of the narrator from minute 1. When she reads, she has this tendency to trail off at the end of every sentence. I wouldn't recommend.
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1 person found this helpful