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Stories from the Tenants Downstairs
- Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Nile Bullock, Sidik Fofana, Dominic Hoffman, DePre Owens, André Santana, Bahni Turpin, Jade Wheeler
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
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Publisher's summary
SELECTED FOR THE RUSA 2023 LISTEN LIST FOR OUTSTANDING AUDIOBOOK NARRATION!
WINNER of the Gotham Book Prize * Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award, and the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence * Longlisted for the Story Prize
Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by NPR, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Chicago Review of Books, LitHub, and Electric Lit
“A standout achievement…American speech is an underused commodity in contemporary fiction and it’s a joy to find such a vital example of it here.”—The Wall Street Journal
From a superb new literary talent, a rich, lyrical collection of stories about a tight-knit cast of characters grappling with their own personal challenges while the forces of gentrification threaten to upend life as they know it.
At Banneker Terrace, everybody knows everybody, or at least knows of them. Longtime tenants’ lives are entangled together in the ups and downs of the day-to-day, for better or for worse. The neighbors in the unit next door are friends or family, childhood rivals or enterprising business partners. In other words, Harlem is home. But the rent is due, and the clock of gentrification—never far from anyone’s mind—is ticking louder now than ever.
In eight interconnected stories, Sidik Fofana conjures a residential community under pressure. There is Swan, in apartment 6B, whose excitement about his friend’s release from prison jeopardizes the life he’s been trying to lead. Mimi, in apartment 14D, hustles to raise the child she had with Swan, waitressing at Roscoe’s and doing hair on the side. And Quanneisha B. Miles, in apartment 21J, is a former gymnast with a good education who wishes she could leave Banneker for good, but can’t seem to escape the building’s gravitational pull. We root for the tight-knit cast of characters as they weave in and out of one another’s narratives, working to escape their pasts and blaze new paths forward for themselves and the people they love. All the while we brace, as they do, for the challenges of a rapidly shifting future.
Stories from the Tenants Downstairs brilliantly captures the joy and pain of the human experience in this “singular accomplishment from a writer to watch” (Library Journal, starred review).
Critic reviews
"After a moody jazz riff, Sidik Fofana and a stand-out cast of performers transport listeners to the Banneker Terrace apartments in Harlem. Written in vibrant Black American vernacular, these witty, sad, uplifting stories are ideal for audio. Joniece Abbott-Pratt’s Mimi is a beautician behind on the rent. Fofana’s Swan might mess up because of a visitor. André Santana’s Darius tries to earn funds by offering therapy instead of prostitution. Bahni Turpin’s Ms. Dallas is a classroom aide bossed too often by a Harvard-educated teacher. DePre Owens’s Kandese manages a candy-selling ring of girls. Nile Bullock’s Najee and pals dance for tips in the subway. Jade Wheeler’s Quanneisha handles residents she doesn’t like. Dominic Hoffman’s Mr. Murray earns money playing chess. They’re all unforgettable."—AudioFile Magazine
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Devil in a Blue Dress
- An Easy Rawlins Mystery
- By: Walter Mosley
- Narrated by: Michael Boatman
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Los Angeles, 1948: Easy Rawlins is a black war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. Easy is drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage, when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Money, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs.
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Beware of Mysterious Sexy Women with Big Suitcases
- By Jefferson on 02-13-11
By: Walter Mosley
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Tyrell
- By: Coe Booth
- Narrated by: Barrie Buckner
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Tyrell is a young African-American teen who can't get a break. He's living (for now) with his spaced-out mother and little brother in a homeless shelter. His father's in jail. His girlfriend supports him, but he doesn't feel good enough for her - and seems to be always on the verge of doing the wrong thing around her. There's another girl at the homeless shelter who is also after him, although the desires there are complicated. Tyrell feels he needs to score some money to make things better. Will he end up following in his father's footsteps?
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Great book for Teenagers
- By Anonymous User on 10-10-22
By: Coe Booth
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Perfect Chemistry
- By: Simone Elkeles
- Narrated by: Roxanne Hernandez, Blas Kisic
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created perfect life is about to unravel before her eyes. She's forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she's worked so hard for her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect.
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Perfect Chemisty has perfect chemistry.
- By Leslie on 04-21-10
By: Simone Elkeles
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We Were Here
- By: Matt de la Pena
- Narrated by: Henry Leyva
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When it happened Miguel was sent to Juvi. The judge only gave him a year in a group home - said he had to write in a journal so some counselor could try to figure out how he thinks. The judge had no idea that he'd actually done Miguel a favor. Ever since it happened Miguel’s mom can't even look him in the eye. Any home besides his would be a better place to live. But Miguel didn’t bet on meeting Rondell or Mong or on any of what happened after they broke out. He only thought about Mexico and getting across the border to where he could start over....
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Loved it!!!
- By Emmanuel Mangata on 03-17-18
By: Matt de la Pena
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Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
- By: Rebecca Wells
- Narrated by: Judith Ivey
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Vivi and Siddalee Walker, an unforgettable mother-daughter team, get into a savage fight over a New York Times article that refers to Vivi as a "tap-dancing child abuser", the fallout is felt from Louisiana to New York to Seattle. Siddalee, a successful theater director with a huge hit on her hands, panics and postpones her upcoming wedding to her lover and friend, Connor McGill. Vivi's intrepid gang of lifelong girlfriends, the Ya-Yas, sashay in and conspire to bring everyone back together.
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As usual the book is better than the movie
- By Denzil and Judy's Account on 03-25-10
By: Rebecca Wells
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The Sweet By and By
- A Novel
- By: Todd Johnson
- Narrated by: Becky Ann Baker, Adriane Lenox, Robin Miles, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Among the longleaf pines and family farms of eastern North Carolina, days seem to pass without incident for Margaret Clayton and Bernice Stokes until they discover each other in a friendship that will take them on the most important journey of their lives. Margaret, droll and whip smart, has a will of iron that never fails her even when her body does, while Bernice, an avid country-music fan, is rarely lucid.
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Great 2/3 of a book.
- By Tracy on 07-09-12
By: Todd Johnson
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The Turner House
- By: Angela Flournoy
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Turners have lived on Yarrow Street for over 50 years. Their house has seen 13 children grown and gone - and some returned; it has seen the arrival of grandchildren, the fall of Detroit's East Side, and the loss of a father. The house still stands despite abandoned lots, an embattled city, and the inevitable shift outward to the suburbs. But now, as ailing matriarch Viola finds herself forced to leave her home and move in with her eldest son, the family discovers that the house is worth just a 10th of its mortgage.
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The narrator's performance made the difference.
- By KT on 06-11-15
By: Angela Flournoy
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The Skin I'm In
- By: Sharon G. Flake
- Narrated by: Sisi Aisha Johnson
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Maleeka Madison is a dark skinned African-American girl. She feels uncomfortable and wishes she had lighter skin. When her teacher, Miss Saunders, who suffers from a rare skin condition, shows that there is more to people than the color of their skin, Maleeka learns to appreciate and accept who she truly is.
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For the young Black women
- By Romee on 12-04-07
By: Sharon G. Flake
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American Street
- By: Ibi Zoboi
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vie - a good life. But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola's mother is detained by US immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate her loud American cousins - Chantal, Donna, and Princess - the grittiness of Detroit's West Side, a new school, and a surprising romance all on her own.
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A lot to unpack
- By AudioBookHoe on 07-18-17
By: Ibi Zoboi
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The Residue Years
- By: Mitchell S. Jackson
- Narrated by: Corey Allen
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Mitchell S. Jackson grew up black in a neglected neighborhood in America’s whitest city, Portland, Oregon. In the ’90s, those streets and beyond had fallen under the shadow of crack cocaine and its familiar mayhem. In his commanding autobiographical novel, Mitchell writes what it was to come of age in that time and place, with a break-out voice that’s nothing less than extraordinary. The Residue Years switches between the perspectives of a young man, Champ, and his mother, Grace.
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Dense in cultural details
- By Angel on 12-04-15
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Mexican WhiteBoy
- By: Matt de la Pena
- Narrated by: Henry Leyva
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Danny's tall and skinny. Even though he's not "built", his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce that any college scout would sign him on the spot. Ninety-five-mile-an-hour fastball, but the boy's not even on a team. Every time he gets up on the mound, he loses it. Ball ends up so far out of the strike zone it's laughable. But at his private school, they don't expect much else from him. Danny's brown. Half-Mexican brown....
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Where does a Mexican whiteboy fit in?
- By Thin Lizzy on 03-19-21
By: Matt de la Pena
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Dear Carolina
- By: Kristy Woodson Harvey
- Narrated by: Carla Mercer-Meyer, Meredith Mitchell
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Frances "Khaki" Mason has it all: a thriving interior design career, a loving husband and son, homes in North Carolina and Manhattan - everything except the second child she has always wanted. Jodi, her husband's 19-year-old cousin, is fresh out of rehab, pregnant, and alone.
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A Sweet Summer Read
- By Mona-Alisa on 06-10-20
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Pronto
- By: Elmore Leonard
- Narrated by: Alexander Adams
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The feds want Miami bookmaker Harry Arno to squeal on his wiseguy boss. So they're putting word out on the street that Arno's skimming profits from "Jimmy Cap" Capotorto - which he is, but everybody does it. He was planning to retire to Italy someday anyway, so Harry figures now's a good time to get lost. U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens knows Harry's tricky - the bookie ditched him once in an airport while in the marshal's custody - but not careful.
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Great character, even better dialogue!
- By Ron on 11-15-11
By: Elmore Leonard
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Girls Like Us
- By: Gail Giles
- Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo, Brittany Pressley
- Length: 3 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Quincy and Biddy are both graduates of their high school's special ed program, but they couldn't be more different: suspicious Quincy faces the world with her fists up, while gentle Biddy is frightened to step outside her front door. When they're thrown together as roommates in their first "real world" apartment, it initially seems to be an uneasy fit.
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Worth Hearing a Second Time!!!
- By Daizy on 10-30-17
By: Gail Giles
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so delightful, and relatable
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Pete Rose is a legend. A baseball god. He compiled more hits than anyone in the history of baseball, a record he set decades ago, which still stands. At the same time, he was a working-class white guy from Cincinnati who made it; less talented than tough, and rough around the edges. He was everything that America wanted and needed him to be, the American dream personified, until he wasn’t. Charlie Hustle tells the full story of one of America’s most epic tragedies, the rise and fall of Pete Rose, one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
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Unflinching look at America through Baseball and Pete Rose
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Pete Rose is a legend. A baseball god. He compiled more hits than anyone in the history of baseball, a record he set decades ago, which still stands. At the same time, he was a working-class white guy from Cincinnati who made it; less talented than tough, and rough around the edges. He was everything that America wanted and needed him to be, the American dream personified, until he wasn’t. Charlie Hustle tells the full story of one of America’s most epic tragedies, the rise and fall of Pete Rose, one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
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Jean McConville's abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville's children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress--with so many kids, she had always kept it handy for diapers or ripped clothes.
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From the New York Times bestselling author of Midnight in Chernobyl comes the definitive, dramatic, minute-by-minute story of the Challenger disaster, based on fascinating in-depth reporting and new archival research—a riveting history that flows like a thriller.
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Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest.
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gah!
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When the Reckoning Comes
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More than a decade ago, Mira fled her small, segregated hometown in the south to forget. With every mile she traveled, she distanced herself from her past: from her best friend Celine, mocked by their town as the only white girl with black friends; from her old neighborhood; from the eerie Woodsman plantation rumored to be haunted by the spirits of slaves; from the terrifying memory of a ghost she saw that terrible day when a dare-gone-wrong almost got Jesse—the boy she secretly loved—arrested for murder. But now Mira is back to attend Celine's wedding at the plantation.
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I don’t think I’m the audience
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The Deep
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Yetu holds the memories for her people - water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners - who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one - the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu. Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities.
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why was this read by a dude?
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Told in alternating viewpoints, Long After We Are Gone is a searing portrait on the power of family and letting go of things that no longer serve you, exploring the burden of familial expectations, the detriment of miscommunication, and the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children.
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Mesmerizing !
- By Marcia Baynes on 06-30-24
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True Grit
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Mattie Ross, a 14-year-old girl from Dardanelle, Arkansas, sets out to avenge her Daddy who was shot to death by a no-good outlaw. Mattie convinces one-eyed "Rooster" Cogburn, the meanest U.S. marshal in the land, to ride along with her. In True Grit, we have a true American classic, as young Mattie, as vital as she is innocent, outdickers and outmaneuvers the hard-bitten men of the trail in a legend that will last through the ages.
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So worth it!
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The Covenant of Water
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Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
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Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
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Brokedown Prophets
- By: S. A. Cosby, Kevin Hart, Charlamagne Tha God, and others
- Narrated by: full cast
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- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Meet Preach, Digit, and Maria, three lost and damaged souls trying to make it on the streets of New York City, running petty scams to stay alive. A twist of events changes their lives forever when they accidently kill a man connected to the mob and find a small fortune. Now on the run, the trio tries to escape a notorious hit man called B-Boy. Along the way, they run into more shady characters and more trouble. Seduced by the siren call of the money and struggling with their own demons, Preach, Digit, and Maria will soon discover even the closest bonds can't overcome their past traumas.
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Great performance, terrible delivery.
- By Anonymous User on 12-21-23
By: S. A. Cosby, and others
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Lone Women
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Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear. The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, forcing her to flee California in a hellfire rush and make her way to Montana as a homesteader.
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Amazing story, Phenomenal Narration
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What listeners say about Stories from the Tenants Downstairs
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- kristinATL
- 02-06-23
Not when I expected.
This is an urban story about a tenement in Harlem. I guess I didn’t read about it well, enough, because I wasn’t aware of that. The first story is interesting. Second one painful, third one excellent. I was hooked from there. It really leaves you wanting to know more about each of the people.
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- Leslie Schroer
- 01-30-23
Real life glimpse into others lives.
This truly is a real life glimpse into what life is like for some - a bit graphic at times but raw and real. I worked in an urban area in property management - including managing apartment complexes - for 15 years. These stories pulled me right back into that time of my life and reminded me of friends I haven't talked to in awhile. made me wonder what other obstacles they are facing currently. Sidenote: the narration is fantastic! I've listened to thousands of audio books and this is well done! Thanks for all who worked hard to make this happen and to bring to light a world that many have not entered, and that many live in every day.
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- J. Nickey
- 08-23-22
Interesting
An interesting collection of interwoven stories from different perspectives of tenants in the same building. I enjoyed the range of style and storytelling in this
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- lovewearinboots
- 01-24-23
Loved these stories!
It’s always good to view life experiences from different perspectives, encouraging folks learn and respect the truth(s) from those most affected.
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- Jlajoanne
- 02-17-23
Excellent & Original Stories & Performance
The recording and dialogues were like sitting at the best theatre. Congratulations to the author and the readers of this original collection of stories!
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- JrAtch
- 02-05-23
not what I expected
This book is very well written and narrated but it was not at all what I expected. It's also out of my awareness zone which is why I listened through to the end. I am really, really glad that I did.
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- Lamya Elias
- 09-26-23
Couldn’t have been any better
And actually wish there had been more stories. Excellent writing, excellent stories, excellent cast for the reading. Thank you for your labeling us on this wild roll and coaster!
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- Jefferson
- 02-02-24
Slices of Harlem Life: “Is it despair or prevail?”
Stories from the Tenants Downstairs (2022) is a set of eight slice of life tales depicting various inhabitants of Banneker Terrace apartment building in Harlem: Mimi, a young single mother trying multiple strategies to come up with $350 for rent, hindered by her sweet lead poison brain damaged little son Fortune; Swan, the boy’s father still living in his mother’s apartment realizing that despite a black president he and his freshly out of prison friend will never really change; Ms. Dallas, Swan’s mother trying to earn rent money while working two jobs, one as “para” chaperoning a special needs child at the precarious Sojourner Truth Middle School; an anonymous girl living in Clinton and mutely falling under the spell of Kandese, who, after being expelled from Sojourner Truth, stays the summer with her grandmother; Dary, a young gay man trying to become a hairdresser while not becoming a prostitute; Najee, a twelve-year-old writing a letter explaining how he came to start dancing for money on trains and cause a tragic accident; Neisha, an ex-gymnast and university dropout returning to Banneker to work on the Committee of Concern connecting a lawyer to residents on the eviction list (including the childhood friend who ruined her gymnastics dream); and Mr. Murray, a philosophical old man who likes keeping a low profile and sitting on the sidewalk playing chess with passersby.
Many of the stories end abruptly without our learning how the protagonist is going to be. We get hints as to that when characters from earlier stories are referenced in later ones, but the stories are not linked plot-wise. In Swan’s story, he never mentions his son or Mimi; in Najee’s story, he doesn’t really mention Kandese; in Ms. Dallas’ story, she never mentions her grandson or Mimi). It’s not a composite novel.
The stories mostly lack epiphanies and metamorphoses and often end on a note of quiet devastation. The characters have their dreams, but we know (and they mostly come to know) they ain’t coming true. The rap-like “Intro” ends, “Everybody got a story, everybody got a tale/ Question is: Is it despair or prevail?” And Fofana’s people rarely “prevail.” So I wince whenever a character says something like, “Imma get a job and buy a house for my mother.” I also get frustrated at key moments when the sensitive but often passive characters know they should say or do something but end up staying silent or watching. Fofana is showing how the difficult and stressful lives of people of color drain positive vigor from them, and it often makes for depressing reading.
On the plus side, some of the characters have an impressively uncompromising pride and ethical standard. Although when pushed to it Mimi will charge double to do her friend’s daughter’s hair and use her son’s backpack to shoplift diapers, she will NOT move back home with her tail between her legs to live with her mother and four sisters on welfare; although Dary will have sex with a stranger in a DC hotel room, he will NOT take money for it. Small moments of resistance and integrity if not victory.
These are stories FROM the tenants, so seven of them are first person, one second person, and each has a distinctive, savory, demotic, AAVE voice talking to the reader, like in this excerpt from the first story, “Rent Manual—Mimi, 14D”:
“Banneker Terrace on 129th and Fred Doug ain't pretty, but it's home. Until now, it's been the same since you moved here when you was pregnant with Fortune. One long gray-ass building, twenty-five floors, three hundred suttin apartments. Four elevators that got minds of they own. Laundry full of machines that don't wash clothes right. Bingo room that the old folks hog up and a trash chute that smell like rotten milk.”
Fofana writes conversations without quotation marks:
You gonna go over there and live by yourself? Your ma asked.
That’s what I said, Ma, didn’t I?
Chase after a man that don’t want nothin to do with no baby? And how you gonna make for rent?
Imma get a job like responsible people.
I heard that before.
And he writes lots of the n word and lots of the mf word and lots of slang and expressions like “be like that's what I'm tryna say,” or “I know suttin that make you happy,” or “big-ass pot.”
The distinct voices of the character-narrators are enhanced by each story having a different—excellent—audiobook reader. My favorite is Dominic Hoffman as the old chess playing Mr. Murray (what a savory voice!), but Bahni Turpin as Mimi is also great.
There is some telling social criticism, like about liberal white people naively thinking they can enrich ghetto kids’ lives by making them read literature* or about the trend in companies forcing low-income residents out and renovating apartments to get higher paying ones and upscale restaurants replacing older ones.
*Actually, young and white Mr. Broderick, who constantly boasts about graduating from Harvard, force feeds Steinbeck and Shakespeare to the poor Sojourner Truth kids, and unfairly resents and scorns Ms. Dallas is a little too clueless to believe.
As I am white, grew up comfortably, and only once temporarily got a mild taste of poverty (living on a TA’s salary in graduate school) and disappointment (having my cv rejected 300 times), it was illuminating, moving, and sobering to read these stories.
I would read another book by Fofana.
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- w.l.
- 01-19-23
Good, despite not usually liking short stories.
This is a collection of stories revolving around the residents of Banneker Homes, a Harlem High Rise. Each story has a different angle on the goings-on in the building, and each is read by a different narrator. It works!
Banneker Homes has a new owner bent on enforcing evictions in order to raise the rent and attract a higher end clientele. The residents, whether working or just getting by, can rarely pay their rent - some through poor spending habits, others through circumstances. Their association has warned them this will happen and has tried to help them, but it does not look good.
The stories each show a different attitude, vocabulary, and personality. Some can be quite vulgar, others achingly sad. The thread that holds the stories together is the threat of homelessness. I was pleasantly surprised by the final story, "The Federation of the Like-minded," told in the words of an elderly man who enjoyed sitting out on the sidewalk waiting to play chess with anyone. it was beautiful.
A stunning collection.
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- DavidT
- 04-11-23
Wonderful stories
Totally enjoyed this book the last story rounds the series out in a sweet way.
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