In Sunlight and in Shadow
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Narrated by:
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Sean Runnette
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By:
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Mark Helprin
About this listen
Mark Helprin’s enchanting and sweeping novel asks a simple question: can love and honor conquer all?
New York in 1947 glows with postwar energy. Harry Copeland, an elite paratrooper who fought behind enemy lines in Europe, returns home to run the family business. In a single, magical encounter on the Staten Island ferry, the young singer and heiress Catherine Thomas Hale falls for him instantly but too late to prevent her engagement to a much older man. Harry and Catherine pursue one another in a romance played out in postwar America’s Broadway theaters, Long Island mansions, the offices of financiers, and the haunts of gangsters. Catherine’s choice of Harry over her longtime fiancé endangers Harry’s livelihood - and eventually threatens his life.
Entrancing in its lyricism, In Sunlight and in Shadow so powerfully draws you into New York at the dawn of the modern age that, as in a vivid dream, you will not want to leave.
About the author: Mark Helprin was educated at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and Oxford. He served in the Israeli military and the British Merchant Navy. He is the acclaimed author of Winter’s Tale and numerous other works.
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It's June 1941, and the low point of the war. England throws wave after wave of RAF bombers across the Channel, but somehow the Luftwaffe is able to shoot them down at will. The skies, indeed, the war itself seem to belong to Hitler.
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An Outstanding Spy Novel
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Good, but not great.
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Alone and un-tethered, feeling lost in the country he had come to regard as home, Hans stumbles upon the vibrant New York subculture of cricket, where he revisits his lost childhood and, thanks to a friendship with a charismatic and charming Trinidadian named Chuck Ramkissoon, begins to reconnect with his life and his adopted country. Ramkissoon, a Gatsby-like figure who is part idealist and part operator, introduces Hans to an "other" New York populated by immigrants and strivers of every race and nationality.
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Get Your Post-Colonial Gatsby ON!
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“In wartime,” Winston Churchill wrote, “truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” For Britain’s counterintelligence operations, this meant finding the unlikeliest agent imaginable - a history professor named Alfred Vicary, handpicked by Churchill himself to expose a highly dangerous, but unknown, traitor. The Nazis, however, have also chosen an unlikely agent.
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The Unlikely Spy
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Gravity's Rainbow
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Winner of the 1973 National Book Award, Gravity's Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the 20th century as Joyce's Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force.
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"Time to touch the person next to you"
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The Glass Palace
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Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose love will shape his life. He cannot forget her, and years later, as a rich man, he goes in search of her.
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I struggled to finish... enough said.
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Stormbreaker
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They said his uncle Ian died in a car accident. Alex Rider knows that's a lie, and the bullet holes in his uncle's car confirm the truth. But nothing can prepare him for the news that the uncle he always thought he knew was really a spy for Britain's top-secret intelligence agency. Enlisted to find his uncle's killers and complete Ian's final mission, Alex suddenly finds himself caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse, with no way out.
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Okay action story held up by an great narrator
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Captain Cleve Connell has already made a name for himself among pilots when he arrives in Korea during the war there to fly the newly operational F-86 fighters against the Soviet MIGs. His goal, like that of every fighter pilot, is to chalk up enough kills to become an ace. But things do not turn out as expected.
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The Hunters
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Annie Dunne
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It is 1959 in Wicklow, Ireland, and Annie and her cousin Sarah are living and working together to keep Sarah’s small farm running. Suddenly, Annie’s young niece and nephew are left in their care. Unprepared for the chaos that two children inevitably bring, but nervously excited nonetheless, Annie finds the interruption of her normal life and her last chance at happiness complicated further by the attention being paid to Sarah by a local man with his eye on the farm.
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Splendid
- By Shady on 06-21-23
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What listeners say about In Sunlight and in Shadow
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Concerned Reader
- 01-21-13
Too long and romaticized
Any additional comments?
Years ago I read Helprin’s A Soldier in the Great War and found it to be an impressive description of the stupidity of war. In Sunlight and in Shadow he jumps back to WWII from a somber post WWII present. The portions of the book that cover the war are first rate. Unfortunately his descriptions of Harry’s romance with a young singer in NYC is too sophomoric and so overwhelmingly romanticized they are difficult to listen to. The words cloy. Perhaps this is due to the bated breath or the reader; as if this love affair between a thirty something vet and Katherine (no virgin) were something on the pedestal of adolescence. There is a bit of F. Scott Fitzgerald to the scenes in the Hamptons among the well-heeled set. This is juxtaposed to the gritty business of protection rackets in NYC. The book is also interminably long due to rambling descriptions and a fondness for employing an excess of adjectives. If you can get past the saccharine romance and the ponderous verbiage there is a good story with a bit of depressing and maybe inevitable ending.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Martha Finney
- 07-08-13
Great Helprin; Narrator wrecks it
What did you like best about In Sunlight and in Shadow? What did you like least?
I love all Helprin books. They're truly transporting. His stories are always vivid, dialog fantastic, and he puts you "right there." Have just started this one -- am deep enough into it to be engaged.
How did the narrator detract from the book?
He's sonorous, ponderous, pompous and DULL! It's hard enough staying with any Helprin novel but this narrator will put you out as sure as an anvil dropped on your head. In fact, sometimes I'd prefer the anvil.
Do you think In Sunlight and in Shadow needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
No.
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2 people found this helpful
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- David
- 09-29-19
Helprin does it again
The story is so good that I often wanted to skip the beautiful prose, the perfectly crafted sentences, the lovely and delicate insights. But I didn’t, and am the richer for it.
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- Eleanor H. Watts
- 01-14-19
An absprbomg read
Why is it so absorbing to red a book set in a very familiar setting? Mark Halprin takes you into many different New York City venues, from the Staten Island ferry to Grand Central Terminal and beyond for his tale of intrigue and romance. His leading lady and her smitten beau struggle to find the time to live out their passion while she launches a career on Broadway and he, having survived WW II as a paratrooper, is determined to avenge the damage inflicted by the Mafia on his family business. A bit long on descriptions and details but well worth the time.
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- Chiwiz
- 10-19-14
Sometimes brilliant writing, bogs down often
I do not remember being so torn by an experience with an audio book. When mr. Helprin focuses on plot I have not read a better writer. WOW is he could at telling a story. And then..... He gets bogged down in philosophizing, describing, ruminating, detailing, zooming in on some aspect of society and spending pages discussing it from all angles. Ok, a certain amount of this is very interesting, he has great things to say and it is fun listening to his perceptive view UP TO A POINT!
Where was his editor for this book?
I love everything about this book as a story. This the Perfect novel to turn into a movie because you could leave everything out except the actual story and you would have a blockbuster movie that you could bring in for around two-plus hours.
That being said, I did not like the way it ended. Too abrupt. Wanted to know a little more about the lives of those 'left behind.' See? I love his storytelling and as far as I am concerned the book could,go on and on with the story and I would be a happy listener.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Optimistic skeptic
- 10-16-12
Worth the effort
If you could sum up In Sunlight and in Shadow in three words, what would they be?
Lyrical, gorgeous and romantic.
What other book might you compare In Sunlight and in Shadow to and why?
The Piano, Frank Conroy: New York City; the 1940s; Glorious romantic style. Overcoming great obstacles against hard reality; growing into adulthood through travail and an unwillingness to give up.
What does Sean Runnette bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Enunciation, an ability to manage voices well and convincingly. Easy to listen to for nearly 30 hours.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
It made me patiently watch and engage, unusual for me.
Any additional comments?
Give this book a chance, but be prepared to sip. This is poetry as well as fiction, and it requires time and attention. I found it well worth it.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Lisa Taylor
- 01-24-15
Touching, So Humanx Slow Going
I got this because I loved The movie, "A Winter's Tale" by the same author. I was disappointed to find the writing for that different movie was much better for me than the written book and audio book.
The writing is smooth, lilting and poetic. The book made me feel like I was living with the characters just after WWII.
It is highly romantic. The author and narrator took me to a time and place I wish existed, if ever people were really that romantic, perfect and selfless.
Enjoyable. .. but I was glad when it was over. This is not a page turner. There are very long descriptions ... perhaps too wordy .
I enjoyed it as an audio book but doubt I'd have continued to the end if I had to read the words. .. and I love to read.
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- leo19348
- 12-05-12
In sunlight and shadow--superb novel
If you could sum up In Sunlight and in Shadow in three words, what would they be?
Couldn't stop listening
Who was your favorite character and why?
Harry Copeland
Have you listened to any of Sean Runnette’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
First time--super good job
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
No laughs--some tears
Any additional comments?
Halprin may be the best American Novelist writing today.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Diana Forgy
- 08-06-20
Brilliant, As One Would Expect from Helprin
Mark Helprin is without doubt one of America's finest living authors. An absolute master of both the short story and the novel, his fiction never ceases to delight this reader.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-03-13
A lyrical masterpiece
I LOVED this book, though the ending broke my heart. I couldn't, couldn't believe that Helprin would persevere, would end it as he did. And yet, all the way through this stunning, brilliant book, he never compromised, always told the truth. The language is simply ravishing, direct and yet so illuminating, so unanticipated. Often very funny, even. I loved his description of society dames:
"Evelyn, were she in the slightest bit malevolent, could concentrate upon him the female death ray that only a mother-in-law or potential mother-in-law can deploy, that comes from frustration of a hundred types, that is as old as the monkeys, and for which there is no antidote.
"Park Avenue and its environs". . . "were full of caked and powdered reptilian women and florid panting men who lived to shop and eat, with muscles evolved mainly for approaching a maitre d', lifting a poodle, or carrying glistening packages. At home these people did not breathe. There was no air, no room to move, no space to stretch out an arm without shattering Lalique, no sunshine, no water, no waves, only a coffin-like bella figura of life as still as a wax dummy."
A tour de force, a simply wonderful wonderful book. I can't praise it enough.
And Sean Runnette's gentle voice was perfect for this book. Peaceful and lovely to listen to--a very fine matching of voice and book.
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4 people found this helpful