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Beloved
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
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Summary
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A spellbinding novel that transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. With a new afterword by the author.
This "brutally powerful, mesmerizing story” (People) is an unflinchingly look into the abyss of slavery, from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner.
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.
“A masterwork.... Wonderful.... I can’t imagine American literature without it.” —John Leonard, Los Angeles Times
Critic reviews
"A masterwork....Wonderful....I can't imagine American literature without it." ( Los Angeles Times)
What listeners say about Beloved
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- Ross Bennett
- 06-01-16
Brilliant
An amazing book. Can't recommend it more. A must have for any library. Honest and moving.
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1 person found this helpful
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- J. A. Gagliano
- 02-01-21
Gritty story about effect of slavery on one woman
I’m glad it was read by the author, and she did a great job, she has a soothing voice. The story is quite traumatic but then slavery was traumatic. The language was very poetic and sometimes I found it hard to work out what was actually happening, and had to listen again. But overall a great book
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- Deborah Richards
- 16-07-06
Astounding
The style, subject matter and structure of this book demanded a re-read; listening to it, after 3 attempts has transformed my understanding and appreciation of it. The author has an important 'voice' and hearing her read her own work is a potent experience in itself.
This book records slavery from the slave perspective. At times harrowing and frightening it is illuminating of the slave world and humanity in general. The characterisation is strong and meaningful and Morrison's use of included and deliberately excluded elements brings the reader to the heart of the tale and lives of the characters. The style and use of language is powerful, both difficult and confusing at times but the Audible edition almost eliminates these difficulties. Having 'read' this novel before I matched what I was hearing to the text and a real sense of dawning understanding overtook me.
Not a light listen but an incredibly important one, moving and life enhancing, it demands time and concentration; you might feel as though you'd like to give up: but perseverance and acceptance of the challenge will reward you. A truly truly a great book, made greater in this format.
Toni Morrison is a complex and contraversial writer and this her most gritty book would be a good starting choice; introducing all the themes of her writing. As long as the plight of the dispossessed and down trodden remain at the heart of our world Morrison enables the reader to understand what it is to have nothing to fall back on except raw human nature, good or evil - somewhere in this tale is a lesson for each of us, but Morrison leaves us to work out what.
Give this a go - it will not disappoint or fail to move you.
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29 people found this helpful
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- Book Lover
- 06-09-19
Brilliant
Loved it as expected. Didn't want it to finish. At first struggled with the book but after listening to a couple hours was compelled to use both versions, book and audio. Toni Morrison reading it was a bonus.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Dima_sky7
- 29-07-20
Masterpiece
What a beautiful piece of literature. Amazing work, beautiful narration, elegantly woven storyline. Thoroughly enjoyed it with all the pain it carries within it. It makes one pauses to think, question and reflect.
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- Mr. N. A. Burton
- 12-06-14
Unbearably moving
Sometimes fiction can be the best way of treating reality, and this groundbreaking novel is surely a prime example of that. It explains the reality of slavery in a way which none of the first hand accounts such as Douglass, Jacobs, Equiano, Prince can do. It speaks of the depths of the human experience of those directly affected and the scars that are left both on the outside and the inside. The narrative voice is unfamiliar and takes some getting used to. Toni Morrison's expressive but understated delivery is perfect for her novel of characters who "remember as little as they dare" but gradually let their stories out despite themselves.
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2 people found this helpful
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- MRS
- 16-09-19
Mesmerising
Beautifully read and a poignant story that captivates you from the start. Thoroughly recommend this book.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-10-19
I've read this and now I've heard it.
wonderful, awful, confusing, revealing. terrifying and subtle, angry and healing. Shaming and redemptive. It is simply a story carved from some magical substance.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mrs Angela Sutherland
- 29-05-21
Ghost Story
great psychological ghost story, highlighting the trauma that slave women went through when their children (often begotten by rape) were sold or mistreated. Not a light read. Beautifully narrated by the author.
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- did
- 28-06-20
you live in this book at times catching your beath
this book has imploded inside me, worth every second of my time, Toni is magnificent
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