Try free for 30 days
-
The Wedding Party
- Narrated by: Caroline McLaughlin
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $35.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
Late Bloomers
- A Novel
- By: Deepa Varadarajan
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam, Deepa Samuel, Shahjehan Khan, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After thirty-six years of a dutiful but unhappy arranged marriage, recently divorced Suresh and Lata Raman find themselves starting new paths in life. Suresh is trying to navigate the world of online dating on a website that caters to Indians and is striking out at every turn—until he meets a mysterious, devastatingly attractive younger woman who seems to be smitten with him. Lata is enjoying her newfound independence, but she's caught off guard when a professor in his early sixties starts to flirt with her.
-
The Shaanxi Opera
- A Novel
- By: Jia Pingwa, Nicky Harman - translator, Dylan Levi King - translator
- Narrated by: James Sie
- Length: 34 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In post-Cultural Revolution China, in the fading village of Freshwind, the fates of two households are shifting. The Bais, once the most powerful family in the region, have fallen from status. Their beautiful daughter, Snow Bai, an embodiment of tradition, pursues a career in a vanishing art form. The Xias, enthusiastic members of the Party, are on the rise. Their favorite son, Wind Xia, is a citified politician whose marriage to Snow Bai could unite the two families. But in a village casting about for a new road to prosperity, fortunes can change.
-
Red Sorghum
- A Novel of China
- By: Mo Yan, Howard Goldblatt - translator
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning three generations, this novel of family and myth is told through a series of flashbacks that depict events of staggering horror set against a landscape of gemlike beauty, as the Chinese battle both Japanese invaders and each other in the turbulent 1930s. A legend in China, where it won major literary awards and inspired an Oscar-nominated film directed by Zhang Yimou, Red Sorghum is a book in which fable and history collide to produce fiction that is entirely new—and unforgettable.
-
-
So long but not much happens
- By CQ on 14-12-2023
-
The Subplot
- What China Is Reading and Why It Matters
- By: Megan Walsh
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Subplot takes us on a lively journey through a literary landscape like you’ve never seen before: a vast migrant-worker poetry movement, homoerotic romances by “rotten girls”, swaggering literary popstars, millionaire e-writers churning out the longest-ever novels, underground comics, the surreal works of Yu Hua, Yan Lianke, and Nobel laureate Mo Yan, and what is widely hailed as a golden age of Chinese science fiction. Chinese online fiction is now the largest publishing platform in the world.
-
The Easy Life in Kamusari
- Forest, Book 1
- By: Shion Miura, Juliet Winters Carpenter - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yuki Hirano is just out of high school when his parents enroll him, against his will, in a forestry training program in the remote mountain village of Kamusari. No phone, no internet, no shopping. Just a small, inviting community where the most common expression is “take it easy.” At first, Yuki is exhausted, fumbles with the tools, asks silly questions, and feels like an outcast. Kamusari is the last place a city boy from Yokohama wants to spend a year of his life. But as resistant as he might be, the scent of the cedars and the staggering beauty of the region have a pull.
-
The Ardent Swarm
- A Novel
- By: Yamen Manai, Lara Vergnaud - translator
- Narrated by: Youssif Kamal
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sidi lives a hermetic life as a bee whisperer, tending to his beloved “girls” on the outskirts of the desolate North African village of Nawa. He wakes one morning to find that something has attacked one of his beehives, brutally killing every inhabitant. Heartbroken, he soon learns that a mysterious swarm of vicious hornets committed the mass murder - but where did they come from, and how can he stop them? If he is going to unravel this mystery and save his bees from annihilation, Sidi must venture out into the village and then brave the big city and beyond in search of answers.
-
-
amazing book
- By BeachSamurai on 14-10-2021
-
Late Bloomers
- A Novel
- By: Deepa Varadarajan
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam, Deepa Samuel, Shahjehan Khan, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After thirty-six years of a dutiful but unhappy arranged marriage, recently divorced Suresh and Lata Raman find themselves starting new paths in life. Suresh is trying to navigate the world of online dating on a website that caters to Indians and is striking out at every turn—until he meets a mysterious, devastatingly attractive younger woman who seems to be smitten with him. Lata is enjoying her newfound independence, but she's caught off guard when a professor in his early sixties starts to flirt with her.
-
The Shaanxi Opera
- A Novel
- By: Jia Pingwa, Nicky Harman - translator, Dylan Levi King - translator
- Narrated by: James Sie
- Length: 34 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In post-Cultural Revolution China, in the fading village of Freshwind, the fates of two households are shifting. The Bais, once the most powerful family in the region, have fallen from status. Their beautiful daughter, Snow Bai, an embodiment of tradition, pursues a career in a vanishing art form. The Xias, enthusiastic members of the Party, are on the rise. Their favorite son, Wind Xia, is a citified politician whose marriage to Snow Bai could unite the two families. But in a village casting about for a new road to prosperity, fortunes can change.
-
Red Sorghum
- A Novel of China
- By: Mo Yan, Howard Goldblatt - translator
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning three generations, this novel of family and myth is told through a series of flashbacks that depict events of staggering horror set against a landscape of gemlike beauty, as the Chinese battle both Japanese invaders and each other in the turbulent 1930s. A legend in China, where it won major literary awards and inspired an Oscar-nominated film directed by Zhang Yimou, Red Sorghum is a book in which fable and history collide to produce fiction that is entirely new—and unforgettable.
-
-
So long but not much happens
- By CQ on 14-12-2023
-
The Subplot
- What China Is Reading and Why It Matters
- By: Megan Walsh
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Subplot takes us on a lively journey through a literary landscape like you’ve never seen before: a vast migrant-worker poetry movement, homoerotic romances by “rotten girls”, swaggering literary popstars, millionaire e-writers churning out the longest-ever novels, underground comics, the surreal works of Yu Hua, Yan Lianke, and Nobel laureate Mo Yan, and what is widely hailed as a golden age of Chinese science fiction. Chinese online fiction is now the largest publishing platform in the world.
-
The Easy Life in Kamusari
- Forest, Book 1
- By: Shion Miura, Juliet Winters Carpenter - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yuki Hirano is just out of high school when his parents enroll him, against his will, in a forestry training program in the remote mountain village of Kamusari. No phone, no internet, no shopping. Just a small, inviting community where the most common expression is “take it easy.” At first, Yuki is exhausted, fumbles with the tools, asks silly questions, and feels like an outcast. Kamusari is the last place a city boy from Yokohama wants to spend a year of his life. But as resistant as he might be, the scent of the cedars and the staggering beauty of the region have a pull.
-
The Ardent Swarm
- A Novel
- By: Yamen Manai, Lara Vergnaud - translator
- Narrated by: Youssif Kamal
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sidi lives a hermetic life as a bee whisperer, tending to his beloved “girls” on the outskirts of the desolate North African village of Nawa. He wakes one morning to find that something has attacked one of his beehives, brutally killing every inhabitant. Heartbroken, he soon learns that a mysterious swarm of vicious hornets committed the mass murder - but where did they come from, and how can he stop them? If he is going to unravel this mystery and save his bees from annihilation, Sidi must venture out into the village and then brave the big city and beyond in search of answers.
-
-
amazing book
- By BeachSamurai on 14-10-2021
Publisher's Summary
In this sprawling, award-winning novel, celebrated Chinese writer Liu Xinwu cordially invites you to an epic, riotous, and moving neighborhood feast.
On a December morning in 1982, the courtyard of a Beijing siheyuan - a lively quadrangle of homes - begins to stir. Auntie Xue’s son Jiyue is getting married today, and she is determined to make the day a triumph. Despite Jiyue’s woeful ignorance in matters of the heart - and the body. Despite a chef in training tasked with the onerous responsibility of preparing the banquet. With a cross-generational multitude of guests, from anxious family members to a fretful bridal party - not to mention exasperating friends, interfering neighbors, and wedding crashers - what will the day ahead bring?
Set at a pivotal point after the turmoil of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Liu Xinwu’s tale weaves together a rich tapestry of characters, intertwined lives, and stories within stories. The Wedding Party is a touching, hilarious portrait of life in this singular city, all packed into a Beijing courtyard on a single day that manages to be both perfectly normal and utterly extraordinary at the same time.
Critic Reviews
“Caroline McLaughlin makes the most of this romp through a wedding day, told through the eyes of Auntie Xue, an ambitious, exasperated mother who is also the matriarch of her neighborhood. Fans of Chinese fiction will find much to admire as McLaughlin sets an energetic pace for a story filled with colorful characters and their slightly manic antics. She moves us from Auntie Xue to her clueless son—the reluctant bridegroom—and a slew of guests who span a wide age range.… Told with gusto, this is a fun listening experience.”—AudioFile Magazine
“This novel introduces readers to the boisterous milieu of a siheyuan, one of Beijing’s traditional multifamily courtyard residences, via the story of the Xue family’s wedding banquet…A lovingly rendered portrait of a city and its inhabitants, the novel is also an act of preservation.”—The New Yorker
“The novel’s heart lies with quiet, passionately competent chef Xichun, whose cooking never falters and who never loses sight of his and others’ humanity. A deep immersion in everyday life in Beijing after the Cultural Revolution.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)