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A Fine Balance
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 24 mins
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Publisher's summary
With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India.
The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers—a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village—will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.
As the characters move from distrust to friendship and from friendship to love, A Fine Balance creates an enduring panorama of the human spirit in an inhuman state.
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Critic reviews
1997, IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, Short-listed
2011, Neustadt International Prize for Literature, Winner
"Astonishing. . . . A rich and varied spectacle, full of wisdom and laughter and the touches of the unexpectedly familiar through which literature illuminates life." --Wall Street Journal
"Monumental. . . . Few have caught the real sorrow and inexplicable strength of India, the unaccountable crookedness and sweetness, as well as Mistry." --Pico Iyer, Time
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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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Before We Visit the Goddess
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan, Priya Ayyar, Vikas Adam
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The daughter of a poor baker in rural Bengal, India, Sabitri yearns to get an education, but her family's situation means college is an impossible dream. Then an influential woman from Kolkata takes Sabitri under her wing, but her generosity soon proves dangerous after the girl makes a single unforgivable misstep. Years later, Sabitri's own daughter, Bela, haunted by her mother's choices, flees abroad with her political refugee lover - but the America she finds is vastly different from the country she'd imagined.
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Absolutely Worth a Credit
- By Texastanya on 08-27-16
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The Orphan Keeper
- By: Camron Wright
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Seven-year-old Chellamuthu's life - and his destiny - is forever changed when he is kidnapped from his village in Southern India and sold to the Lincoln Home for Homeless Children. His family is desperate to find him, and Chellamuthu anxiously tells the Indian orphanage that he is not an orphan, he has a mother who loves him. But he is told not to worry, he will soon be adopted by a loving family in America.
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5 Star Worthy
- By Kari on 10-26-16
By: Camron Wright
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Wife of the Gods
- A Novel
- By: Kwei Quartey
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Detective Inspector Darko Dawson, a good family man and a remarkably intuitive sleuth, is sent to the village of Ketanu---the site of his mother's disappearance many years ago---to solve the murder of an accomplished young AIDS worker. While battling his own anger issues and concerns for his ailing son, Darko explores the motivations and secrets of the residents of Ketanu.
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Engrossing Mystery in a Fascinating Setting
- By Tracey Rains on 04-19-10
By: Kwei Quartey
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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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A Change of Climate
- A Novel
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Sandra Duncan
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
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Ralph and Anna Eldred are an exemplary couple, devoting themselves to doing good. 30 years ago as missionaries in Africa, the worst that could happen did. Shattered by their encounter with inexplicable evil, they returned to England, never to speak of it again. But when Ralph falls into an affair, Anna finds no forgiveness in her heart, and 30 years of repressed rage and grief explode, destroying not only a marriage but also their love, their faith, and everything they thought they were.
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Beautifully written
- By Patricia S. on 10-11-15
By: Hilary Mantel
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Beyond the Pale
- By: Elana Dykewomon
- Narrated by: Elana Dykewomon
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
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Story
Beyond the Pale - winner of the Lambda Literary Award - tells the stories of two Jewish women living through times of darkness and inhumanity in the early 20th century, capturing their undaunted love and courage in luminous and moving prose. The richly textured novel details Gutke Gurvich's odyssey from her apprenticeship as a midwife in a Russian shtetl to her work in the suffrage movement in New York.
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great historical fiction with a lesbian twist
- By Kelly on 11-25-13
By: Elana Dykewomon
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Flame Tree Road
- By: Shona Patel
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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India, 1870s. In a tiny village where society is ruled by a caste system and women are defined solely by marriage, young Biren Roy dreams of forging a new destiny. When his mother suffers the fate of widowhood - shunned by her loved ones and forced to live in solitary penance - Biren devotes his life to effecting change.
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Riveting Love Story
- By Granny on 01-15-20
By: Shona Patel
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The Year of the Runaways
- By: Sunjeev Sahota
- Narrated by: Sartaj Garewal
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Thirteen young men live in a house in Sheffield, each in flight from India and in desperate search of a new life. Tarlochan, a former rickshaw driver, will say nothing about his past in Bihar, and Avtar has a secret that binds him to protect the choatic Randeep. Randeep, in turn, has a visa wife in a flat on the other side of town: a clever, devout woman whose cupboards are full of her husband's clothes, in case the immigration men surprise her with a call.
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Maybe easier to read than to listen to.
- By Eric on 06-15-16
By: Sunjeev Sahota
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The Patriots
- A Novel
- By: Sana Krasikov
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, George Guidall
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Florence Fein grows up in Brooklyn in the 1930s, in a family that is gaining a foothold in the middle class. At City College she becomes engaged politically with the left-leaning student groups, and eventually, in the midst of the Depression, she takes a job with a trade organization that has a position for her in Moscow. There, she falls in love with another expatriate American and has a son. Soon after, Florence is sent to a work camp and her son to an orphanage.
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Point of View of characters, past and present collide
- By Angela Adams on 01-29-19
By: Sana Krasikov
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Hum If You Don't Know the Words
- By: Bianca Marais
- Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
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Overall
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Story
Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a 10-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred...until the Soweto Uprising.
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Completely wrong accents
- By Debbie on 02-12-22
By: Bianca Marais
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What listeners say about A Fine Balance
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andrei
- 01-08-20
Sound novel/John Lee
I am not a big fan of this kind of genre: socially conscious realism, I guess, that would the word that I am looking for a la Zola type (I actually like Zola when you place his in his own historical context). It is also too long. I waited patiently to finish it. I usually read/listen but this time I decided to listen. And I do not think that I am going to read it. I think that the novel might be outdated in the context of it as a novel. In other the current situation with literature points in the direction of some other existential disclosure the meaning of which no one understands. Socially conscious seems to be outdated. But, at the same time, the topic of friendship was very well developed (rarity in literature for some strange reasons). I have to confess that I might not have been to finish if it were not narrated by John Lee. What a giant of narration. Together with George Guidall these are the best. In that sense it was like a special treat. Just listen it for that single purpose. Bravo!!
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- Kindle Customer
- 07-29-21
Prepare to be made to feel anger and despair!
Excellently narrated. An authentic representation of Indian life and the Indian psych during the Post independance era. Funny, warm moments but an overwhelming air of despair, injustice and inevitability. A rather desperate ending too
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- monica wolfson
- 01-17-20
Totally stunning from start to end
I have done over 100 books on Audible and this is one of the best I have read. So moving and I loved all the characters, fantastic narration.
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- Rebecca M.
- 01-16-22
Insightful, heartbreaking, and wonderful
This book is wonderfully written and narrated. Yes, it is long, but it is long for a reason. It is an honest reflection of the lives of people during an intense and cruel time in history. You get to know the characters and to cherish the good moments they have as their lives are intertwined with one another. The author makes no attempt to candy coat reality and give everyone a perfect, fuzzy ending, and I'm glad for that. There are pieces of this book I will carry with me, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.
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- karin
- 09-20-15
Wonderful listen .
I listened to this book very quickly tge narrator was superb and the story about 4 people struggling in India was sad but fascinating the insight into human nature and the awful conditions in India yet it was a great story so glad I found it and highly recommend this book . It had the 3 things that I like , great story great narrator and it's a long book which I enjoy .
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-28-17
Read this book-then read it again!
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes
What did you like best about this story?
It had everything
What about John Lee’s performance did you like?
Great performance
Any additional comments?
Beautifully written, at turns comic, tragic, haunting, exuberant, redemptive above all else
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- Twonottwins
- 10-29-19
Incredible and incredibly painful
It took me over 20 years to finish this novel. I could only withstand reading a portion at a time before I would become overwhelmed by the descriptions of human misery. Then, after a couple of years, I would pick it back up and read the next portion. I am at a loss for words, having just completed the book and experiencing the carving out of a deep cave in my chest.
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- Booklover
- 12-14-11
Outstanding narration, nuanced story
Very well-written, nuanced story-telling. The author captures many levels of humanity and traverses the political landscape with wry satire. The dialogue is materful, lent additional authenticity by the outstanding narration (reason alone to buy this book)
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- Lee
- 04-03-10
You will never forget this one
This is a classic- I couldn't stop listening. It is an amazing book. I wish there were more stars.
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- carol
- 03-18-13
India's poor and the caste system
I found this book hard to put down. It is a dark story and seems like there is no happiness or very little in this book. It is raw and dangerous-not for everybody. Beggars, people who are dirt poor, and evil people in authority; that is who you will meet in this book. BUT there are people who try to rise above their circumstances and are beaten down. I liked reading it but it was disturbing.
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