The Glass Kingdom
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Sura Siu
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By:
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Lawrence Osborne
About this listen
A New York Times Notable Book
A New York Times Editors’ Choice
A tense, stunningly well-observed novel of a young American on the run, from Lawrence Osborne, “an heir to Graham Greene” (The New York Times Book Review).
“Bangkok is the star of this accomplished novel. Its denizens are aliens to themselves, glittering on the horizon of their own lives, moving - restless and rootless and afraid - though a cityscape that has more stories than they know.” (Hilary Mantel, Booker Prize-winning author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies)
Escaping New York for the anonymity of Bangkok, Sarah Mullins arrives in Thailand on the lam with nothing more than a suitcase of purloined money. Her plan is to lie low and map out her next move in a high-end apartment complex called the Kingdom, whose glass-fronted façade boasts views of the bustling city and glimpses into the vast honeycomb of lives within.
It is not long before she meets the alluring Mali doing laps in the apartment pool, a fellow tenant determined to bring the quiet American out of her shell. An invitation to Mali’s weekly poker nights follows, and - fueled by shots of yadong, good food, and gossip - Sarah soon falls in with the Kingdom’s glamorous circle of expat women. But as political chaos erupts on the streets below and attempted uprisings wrack the city, tensions tighten within the gilded compound.
When the violence outside begins to invade the Kingdom in a series of strange disappearances, the residents are thrown into suspicion: both of the world beyond their windows and of one another. And under the constant surveillance of the building’s watchful inhabitants, Sarah’s safe haven begins to feel like a snare.
From a master of atmosphere and mood, The Glass Kingdom is a brilliantly unsettling story of civil and psychological unrest and an enthralling study of karma and human greed.
©2020 Lawrence Osborne (P)2020 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
The first audiobook which appeared in Georges Simenon's famous Maigret series, in a gripping new translation by David Bellos.Inevitably Maigret was a hostile presence in the Majestic. He constituted a kind of foreign body that the hotel's atmosphere could not assimilate. Not that he looked like a cartoon policeman. He didn't have a moustache and he didn't wear heavy boots. His clothes were well cut and made of fairly light worsted. He shaved every day and looked after his hands. But his frame was proletarian. He was a big, bony man.
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Long live Maigret
- By Adeliese Baumann on 11-19-14
By: Georges Simenon, and others
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Life for Sale
- By: Yukio Mishima
- Narrated by: Kotaro Watanabe
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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After botching a suicide attempt, salaryman Hanio Yamada decides to put his life up for sale in the classifieds section of a Tokyo newspaper. Soon interested parties come calling with increasingly bizarre requests and what follows is a madcap comedy of errors, involving a jealous husband, a drug-addled heiress, poisoned carrots - even a vampire. For someone who just wants to die, Hanio can't seem to catch a break, as he finds himself enmeshed in a continent-wide conspiracy that puts him in the crosshairs of both his own government and a powerful organized-crime syndicate.
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Book is good - Narration is just terrible
- By Vyacheslav Varlakov on 03-12-21
By: Yukio Mishima
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Fault Lines
- A Novel
- By: Emily Itami
- Narrated by: Lydia Wilson
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Mizuki is a Japanese housewife. She has a hardworking husband, two adorable children, and a beautiful Tokyo apartment. It’s everything a woman could want, yet sometimes she wonders whether she would rather throw herself off the high-rise balcony than spend another evening not talking to her husband and hanging up laundry.
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Confused by the choice of narrator
- By Bri T. on 02-13-22
By: Emily Itami
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56 Days
- By: Catherine Ryan Howard
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket queue in Dublin and start dating the same week COVID-19 reaches Irish shores. When lockdown threatens to keep them apart, Oliver suggests they move in together. Ciara sees a unique opportunity for a relationship to flourish without the scrutiny of family and friends. Oliver sees a chance to hide who - and what - he really is.
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A bit disappointing
- By SB on 08-18-21
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What Storm, What Thunder
- By: Myriam J.A. Chancy
- Narrated by: Ella Turenne
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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The Earth had buckled, and, in that movement, all that was not in its place fell upon the Earth’s children, upon the blameless as well as the guilty, without discrimination. At the end of a long sweltering day, as markets and businesses begin to close for the evening, an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude shakes the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. Award-winning author Myriam J. A. Chancy masterfully charts the inner lives of the characters affected by the disaster
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We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
- By AuthorAnnaBella on 03-15-22
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Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions
- Auntie Poldi, Book 1
- By: Mario Giordano
- Narrated by: Matt Addis
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Auntie Poldi can think of no finer place to wait for death than Sicily. All she asks is a sea view, fine wine (and plenty of it), and her family close around. When death instead takes her handsome young friend Valentino - and under mysterious circumstances at that - Poldi will not take it lying down. Perhaps it's in her blood, but Auntie Poldi's hunting instincts have never felt more alive. Justice must be served - if it's the last thing she does....
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More fun and murder in Sicily!
- By MolllyT on 02-19-18
By: Mario Giordano
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Victoria’s Most Haunted
- Ghost Stories from BC’s Historic Capital City
- By: Ian Gibbs
- Narrated by: Brennan Storr
- Length: 3 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Beautiful, charming Victoria is world renowned for its seaside attractions, flourishing gardens, and breathtaking ocean views. But looming behind its picture-perfect façade is a city shrouded in mystery, with restless, disembodied beings that whisper ghastly tales of mystery, violence, and horror.
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Very good!
- By Trkmec on 03-13-22
By: Ian Gibbs
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Before You Knew My Name
- A Novel
- By: Jacqueline Bublitz
- Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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When she arrived in New York on her eighteenth birthday carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen camera, Alice Lee was looking for a fresh start. Now, just one month later, she is the city’s latest Jane Doe. She may be dead but that doesn’t mean her story is over. Meanwhile, Ruby Jones is also trying to reinvent herself. After travelling halfway around the world, she’s lonelier than ever in the Big Apple. Until she stumbles upon a woman’s body by the Hudson River, and suddenly finds herself unbreakably tied to the unknown dead woman.
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Excellent
- By cristina on 11-11-22
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Lady Oracle
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Lorelei King
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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From fat girl to thin, from red hair to mud brown, from London to Toronto, from Polish count to radical husband - Joan Foster is utterly confused by her life of multiple identities. She decides to escape to an Italian hill town to take stock of her life. But first, she must organize her own death.
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A Feminist Romp
- By annkpowers on 07-02-22
By: Margaret Atwood
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Beautiful Animals
- A Novel
- By: Lawrence Osborne
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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On a hike during a white-hot summer break on the Greek island of Hydra, Naomi and Samantha make a startling discovery: a man named Faoud, sleeping heavily, exposed to the elements, but still alive. As the two women learn more about the man, a migrant from Syria and a casualty of the crisis raging across the Aegean Sea, their own burgeoning friendship intensifies. But when their seemingly simple plan to help Faoud unravels, all must face the horrific consequences they have set in motion.
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please offer more of this author's books
- By S. Liskey on 07-20-17
By: Lawrence Osborne
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The Night Raven
- Crow Investigations, Book 1
- By: Sarah Painter
- Narrated by: Kate Rawson
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Lydia has always known she has no power, especially next to her infamous and more-than-slightly dodgy family. Which is why she carved her own life as a private investigator far away from London. When a professional snafu forces her home, the head of the family calls in a favour, and Lydia finds herself investigating the disappearance of her cousin, Maddie.
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Ask yourself
- By Ijw on 10-21-19
By: Sarah Painter
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Dry Bones
- By: Peter May
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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What happened to Jacques Gaillard? The brilliant teacher at the École Nationale d’Administration, who trained some of France’s best and brightest as future prime ministers and presidents, vanished ten years ago, presumably from Paris. This ten-year-old mystery inspires a bet—one that Enzo Macleod, a biologist teaching in Toulouse, France, instead of pursuing a brilliant career in forensics back home in Scotland, can ill afford to lose.
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Engaging hero, stellar narration
- By Janice on 11-01-13
By: Peter May
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The Wapshot Chronicle
- By: John Cheever
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Based in part on Cheever's adolescence in New England, the novel follows the destinies of the impecunious and wildly eccentric Wapshots of St. Botolphs, a quintessential Massachusetts fishing village. Here are the stories of Captain Leander Wapshot, venerable sea dog and would-be suicide; of his licentious older son, Moses; and of Moses' adoring and errant younger brother, Coverly.
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Beautiful 1950s Great Expectations-like Novel
- By Darwin8u on 05-31-13
By: John Cheever
What listeners say about The Glass Kingdom
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Reed Ramlow
- 12-29-21
A decent entry by Osborne
Enjoyed this, but Hunters in the Dark was the better effort by Osborne. An excellent rendering of Bangkok and its expats.
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- John
- 06-09-24
Moody Novel
I most enjoyed the moody, languid atmosphere in this novel. It’s almost a character in itself.
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- Lilly Marlène
- 12-15-20
Mediocre story + mediocre narrator
A book that starts fairly interestingly, but looses momentum quite quickly and subsequently fails to hold the listener's interest. The narrator seems quite inexperienced as well. I gave it two stars for "meh."
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3 people found this helpful
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- Billye Kay
- 08-29-21
Nothing Happens By Chance
The Glass Kingdom by Lawrence Osborne is an intruiging story in a beautiful and mysterious setting. The protagonist is a young literary assistant who uses her position of trust to abscond with a large amount of money. She hides in Bangkok, Thailand and soon falls in with a small group of young women who are each also shady in their own ways. The setting, culture, and political events push and pull the story and the characters. The story is fast moving and well written. The characters are complicated and simple at the same time. The narration performance by Sura Siu supports the story and brings it to life very well. This book exceeded my expectations. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy stories about crime, mysteries, exotic settings, culture clashes, and Karma.
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- California Guy
- 09-06-20
Osborne has a handle on internal struggles
I like reading novels no one else could have written and The Glass Kingdom by Lawrence Osborne is one such book. As with many of Osborne's books it is setting driven with characters mixed in that pair well with the locale. As for the plot The Glass Kingdom is an improvement over Beautiful Animals, Osborne's previous novel, particularly in the writing of the American woman, Sarah Jennings - very believable. Are there implausibilities? Sure. But never enough to ruin the story. In writing the characters Osborne contrasts the East vs the West with the East scoring most of the advantages. His distinctions between the Japanese salarymen in Bangkok vs the American expats are spot on. A brooding and moody tale with a slow-burning fuse - I went back and forth between the hardcover and the audio book. My plan was to finish up on paper but I so enjoyed the voice work of Sura Siu that I went with an aural ending. It would have been fine either way. Whether you love or hate Thailand there will be much to love about The Glass Kingdom and a bit to hate too. Like a good martini with a lot of bitters - how it goes down will depend on your taste. A Yin Yang story with emphasis on the Yings. Stylish to the very end.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Josh
- 05-08-22
Dont buy, narrator intolerable!
The narrator breaks the sentences up inappropriately into phrases pitched in a sing-song cadence that distracts from the meaning of the text, as if concentrating on pronunciation at the cost of overall meaning.
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- Sean Ramsay
- 09-14-20
Of the few I’ve read, it’s Lawrence Osborne’s best
I know Bangkok. I know those characters. But now I know them much better. And I believe them. Osborne’s roaming voice is very compelling. The heavy existential foreboding is something akin to Andre Malraux, dark and hidden. When the new lost soul washes up on the shores of the lovely dreamscape where antiquity and the modern mingle and morph, I’m with it all the way. Especially like the end. It’s so masterfully insightful, seems quite magical.
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4 people found this helpful