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The Madonnas of Leningrad
- Narrated by: Yelena Shmulenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
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Publisher's summary
Bit by bit, the ravages of age are eroding Marina's grip on the everyday. An elderly Russian woman now living in America, she cannot hold on to fresh memories - the details of her grown children's lives, the approaching wedding of her grandchild - yet her distant past is miraculously preserved in her mind's eye.
Vivid images of her youth in war-torn Leningrad arise unbidden, carrying her back to the terrible fall of 1941, when she was a tour guide at the Hermitage Museum and the German army's approach signaled the beginning of what would be a long, torturous siege on the city. As the people braved starvation, bitter cold, and a relentless German onslaught, Marina joined other staff members in removing the museum's priceless masterpieces for safekeeping, leaving the frames hanging empty on the walls to symbolize the artworks' eventual return. As the Luftwaffe's bombs pounded the proud, stricken city, Marina built a personal Hermitage in her mind - a refuge that would stay buried deep within her, until she needed it once more....
If she's lucky, she will return from this journey. But there will be a cost.
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- By Debbie on 04-18-15
By: Talia Carner
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The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
- By: Leslye Walton
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Magical realism, lyrical prose, and the pain and passion of human love haunt this hypnotic generational saga. Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender.
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Beautiful and Haunting Fairytale
- By FanB14 on 07-24-15
By: Leslye Walton
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A Golden Age
- A Novel
- By: Tahmima Anam
- Narrated by: Madhur Jaffrey
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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As young widow Rehana Haque awakes one March morning, she might be forgiven for feeling happy. Today she will throw a party for her son and daughter. In the garden of the house she has built, her roses are blooming, her children are almost grown, and beyond their doorstep, the city is buzzing with excitement after recent elections. Change is in the air.
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sad, poignant, thought-provoking, beautiful
- By Rio Delta Wild on 06-04-08
By: Tahmima Anam
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Revenge
- Eleven Dark Tales
- By: Yoko Ogawa
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith, Johanna Parker
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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An aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Elsewhere, an accomplished surgeon is approached by a cabaret singer, whose beautiful appearance belies the grotesque condition of her heart. And while the surgeon's jealous lover vows to kill him, a violent envy also stirs in the soul of a lonely craftsman. Desire meets with impulse and erupts, attracting the attention of the surgeon's neighbor - who is drawn to a decaying residence that is now home to instruments of human torture.
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Maybe, more Gray then Dark?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 10-28-14
By: Yoko Ogawa
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Orphan Number Eight
- A Novel
- By: Kim van Alkemade
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt, Ginny Auer
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In 1919, Rachel Rabinowitz is a vivacious four-year-old living with her family in a crowded tenement on New York City's Lower East Side. When tragedy strikes, Rachel is separated from her brother, Sam, and sent to a Jewish orphanage where Dr. Mildred Solomon is conducting medical research. Subjected to X-ray treatments that leave her disfigured, Rachel suffers years of cruel harassment from the other orphans.
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Stopped after a few hours
- By Tamara on 01-03-20
By: Kim van Alkemade
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The War Girls
- By: V. S. Alexander
- Narrated by: Kelli Tager
- Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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It's not just a thousand miles that separates Hanna Majewski from her younger sister, Stefa. There is another gulf—between the traditional Jewish ways that Hanna chose to leave behind in Warsaw, and her new, independent life in London. But as autumn of 1940 draws near, Germany begins a savage aerial bombing campaign in England, killing and displacing tens of thousands. Hanna, who narrowly escapes death, is recruited as a spy in an undercover operation that sends her back to her war-torn homeland.
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Courageous Sisters
- By Sara on 08-10-22
By: V. S. Alexander
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Black & White
- By: Dani Shapiro
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Clara Brodeur has spent her entire adult life pulling herself away from her famous mother, the renowned and controversial photographer Ruth Dunne, whose towering reputation rests on the unsettling nude portraits she took of her young daughter from the ages of three to 14. As Clara charts a path connecting her childhood with her adult life, Shapiro's novel weaves together past and present in images as stark and intense as the photographs that tore the Dunnes apart.
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It was okay
- By Lucy7 on 02-13-19
By: Dani Shapiro
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In the Country
- Stories
- By: Mia Alvar
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu, Don Castro
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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These nine globe-trotting, unforgettable stories from Mia Alvar, a remarkable new literary talent, vividly give voice to the women and men of the Filipino diaspora. Here are exiles, emigrants, and wanderers uprooting their families from the Philippines to begin new lives in the Middle East, the United States, and elsewhere - and sometimes turning back again.
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My introduction to Filipino literature and culture
- By Amazon Customer on 03-28-16
By: Mia Alvar
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Buddhaland Brooklyn
- A Novel
- By: Richard C. Morais
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Growing up in a quaint mountainside village in Japan, Seido Oda spent his boyhood fishing in clear mountainside streams and helping his parents run their small inn. At the age of 11, Oda is sent to study with the monks at a nearby Buddhist temple. This peaceful, quiet refuge in the remote mountains of Japan becomes home for the introverted monk - until he approaches his 40th birthday and is ordered by his superior to cross the ocean and open a temple in Brooklyn. Ripped from the isolated, serene life of his homeland temple, Oda receives a shock to his system in New York - a motley crew of American Buddhists with misguided practices.
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engaging listen
- By connie on 07-25-12
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Secrets of a Charmed Life
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden--one that will test her convictions and her heart.
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Rare 5-Star Across the Board!
- By Imamomof4 on 06-14-15
By: Susan Meissner
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The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In this luminous novel, Dominic Smith reinvents the life of one of photography's founding fathers. In 1839, Louis Daguerre's invention took the world by storm. A decade later, he is sinking deep into delusions brought on by exposure to mercury, the very agent that allowed his daguerreotype process. Believing the world will end within one year, he creates his "Doomsday List", 10 items he must photograph before the final day. It includes a woman he has always loved but has not seen in half a century.
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Dud
- By Deborah on 01-31-08
By: Dominic Smith
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Letters from Paris
- By: Juliet Blackwell
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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After surviving the accident that took her mother's life, Claire Broussard worked hard to escape her small Louisiana hometown. But these days, she feels something lacking. Abruptly leaving her lucrative job in Chicago, Claire returns home to care for her ailing grandmother. There, she unearths a beautiful sculpture that her great-grandfather sent home from Paris after World War II. At her grandmother's urging, Claire travels to Paris to track down the centuries old mask-making atelier where the sculpture was created.
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love story, a mystery, a historical novel, or all
- By Bonnie on 11-15-16
By: Juliet Blackwell
What listeners say about The Madonnas of Leningrad
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Robyn Saylor
- 04-07-18
The Madonas of Lebbingrad
Story was good but slightly long. It was a goodread for a women's book group.
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- D. A. Smith
- 03-17-14
Skillful Evocation of Time and Place
What did you love best about The Madonnas of Leningrad?
This book is well written, flowing, intriguing. The blending of recollection into the narrative is stunning. It captures so well the way recollection feels -- its unevenness, its gaps, its uncertainties, and yet, its extraordinary power over the present.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mary
- 12-20-18
Want to hear more from this author!
Very much enjoyed the book, the author brought out so many visuals which the story is more about than the characters themselves. I wish the ending allowed Marina to pass on her secrets to her daughter, but life is not always like that. A Wonderful book.
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- Astrid Dahl
- 10-15-12
A tender account of the survival instinct
This is a GEM of a book! It talks non-judgmentally of human frailties yet expands on the unfathomable strength of the need to survive in most people. The injustices of war and the meaningless posturing of waring nations (or the people in charge) which only goes towards disruption, destruction and death. We should ask - and for what purpose? It tracks two people's lives during and after the invasion into Russia by Germany. Beautifully written with well informed comments about Art, sweet tender responses to the aging process and how the younger members react.A wonderful book which I did not want to end. The narrator was superb with just enough Russian inflection without it being overdone. I highly recommend this book!!
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7 people found this helpful
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- Sharon E. Gurry
- 10-07-19
Awesome History Lesson
After visiting Russia last summer this was a wonderful read!
I learned so much about WWII and Leningrad.
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- Daryl
- 03-26-14
Audio Is Not The Best Platform For This Book
This book is probably best read from a printed book rather than audio. Why? Because it's written in a kind of "stream of consciousness" manner that uses the elderly character's dementia as the vehicle that tells the story. Confused? So was I. I recently visited the Hermitage in St. Petersburg (Leningrad) so I thought this would be a good book about how the museum's art work survived the cruel siege. However, it really wasn't that kind of book. The setting is present day America, but the protagonist's mind keeps slipping back to the siege of 1941. Because of the seamless and without warning changes from present day to 1941, the book was confusing. Because of that, I would recommend this book in the form of a printed book. The author had some great descriptions of paintings and the paintings' emotional connection to the protagonist. The ending was abrupt and did not resolve anything for the character's family members. It was as if the author got tired of writing and just quit. At any rate, the narrator did a superb job, but the story was just okay. I think the author's idea to use an elderly person's dementia as a tool to introduce flashbacks was very clever, but it was empty at the end because the other family members were left in the dark regarding the character's past life. So I give this book 3 stars, it was okay, but could have been a lot better.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Joyce D.
- 11-02-15
Tender human story
I absolutely loved this book. Well written, moved along rapidly, and gave a glimpse of how a people were able to endure great hardships imposed by man, while preserving great beauty, artistic treasures, created by man.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-04-17
Wonderful read
Where does The Madonnas of Leningrad rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
One of the best ones
What did you like best about this story?
I loved the historical information about the Hermitage.
What does Yelena Shmulenson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
She was the characters.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Kathwin
- 02-21-20
Deeply sad
A deeply sad novel about the horrors of Leningrad during its WWII siege. I would recommend first listening to “Symphony for the City of the Dead” to have a more full understanding of the siege and the timeline. This book fits beautifully into its historic context. An enjoyable, but sad story.
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- Мэри Bolinger
- 11-11-16
Poorly written
What disappointed you about The Madonnas of Leningrad?
Written like pulp fiction. Very disappointing.
Has The Madonnas of Leningrad turned you off from other books in this genre?
I probably would not listen to this author again. Too amateur.
How did the narrator detract from the book?
Hard to bad material work.
What character would you cut from The Madonnas of Leningrad?
The Author.
Any additional comments?
i want the 4 hours of my life back that I wasted on this mess.
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3 people found this helpful