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Two Lives

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Two Lives

By: Vikram Seth
Narrated by: Vikram Seth
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About this listen

 Two Lives tells the remarkable story of Vikram Seth's great uncle and aunt. His great uncle, Shanti, left India for medical school in Berlin in the 1930s and lodged with a German Jewish family. In the household was a daughter, Henny, who urged her mother "not to take the blackie". But a friendship developed and each managed to leave Germany and found their way to Britain as the Nazis rose to power. Shanti joined the army and lost his right arm at the battle of Monte Cassino, while Henny (whose family were to die in the camps) made a life for herself in her adopted country. After the war they married and lived a life in north London where Shanti, despite the loss of his arm, became a much-loved dentist.

During his own adolescence in England, Vikram Seth lived with Shanti and Henny and came to know and love them deeply. His is the third life in this story of Two Lives.

This is also a book about history, encompassing as it does many of the most significant themes and events in the 20th century, whose currents are reflected in the lives of Shanti, Henny, and their family: from the Raj and the Indian freedom movement to the Third Reich, the Holocaust, and British postwar society.

©2005 Vikram Seth (P)2005 Time Warner AudioBooks Art & Literature Authors

Critic reviews

"Truly unforgettable....Moving and illuminating." (The Times)
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This is a very good dramatisation by the author of his copious and impressive novel

A very good story

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Seth is a better story teller than researcher. i got muddled who was who or talking to who with all the German accents and letters. Interesting for his family but it didn't get me involved. Seth is still a wonderful writer and I love his works of imagination.

A bit disappointed

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A personal book for the author. He tackles very difficult subjects with dignity and intelligence. I will listen again as there is so much to absorb.

Thought provoking

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Incredible in its scope. It is not at all what I expected: There is very little of India here. Instead it's an ambitious and at times extremely moving tale of two lives, two cultures, two countries; an attempt to make peace with the past and to hope for a better future, though there are few signs of one yet.
Sad, interesting and beautiful, it makes me want to go out and buy all his books.

Incredible

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After A Suitable Boy, this is the only other book by Seth I read. Obviously it’s different, though it explains, in passing, that the plot of his most famous book was also centred on his family. Seth’s research into his uncle and aunt’s life is very thorough and it was particularly interesting when it dealt with his aunt’s post-war relationships in Germany. The author’s complete honesty about his feelings makes it a very moving portrait of family life.

A great double portrait

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Sensitive honest and interesting biography. It details an age as well as two lives. Philosophical, lyrical and elegiac in strain.

Two Lives

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I read this wonderful book many years ago and loved it. I loved it even more as an audiobook read by Vikram Seth. A wonderful tribute and account of two lives who saw so much, lost so much but continue to persevere and live life.

Those we remember never die

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I thought this would be similar to the novel a suitable boy, which also is slow to start, but is then a pleasant story that whiles away some time and gives an insight into another culture and the lives therein, this however, is slow to start and remains slow,it seems to be a cathartic book which just doesnt really engage.

not a suitable boy

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