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China Room
- Narrated by: Indira Varma, Antonio Aakeel
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
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Publisher's Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2021.
A multigenerational novel of love, oppression, trauma and the pursuit of freedom, inspired in part by the author's own family history, China Room twines together the stories of a woman and a man separated by more than half a century but united by blood.
Mehar, a young bride in rural 1929 Punjab, is trying to discover the identity of her new husband. She and her sisters-in-law, married to three brothers in a single ceremony, spend their days hard at work in the family's 'china room', sequestered from contact with the men. When Mehar develops a theory as to which of them is hers, a passion is ignited that will put more than one life at risk.
Spiralling around Mehar's story is that of a young man who in 1999 travels from England to the now-deserted farm, its 'china room' locked and barred. In enforced flight from the traumas of his adolescence—his experiences of addiction, racism and estrangement from the culture of his birth—he spends a summer in painful contemplation and recovery, before finally finding the strength to return 'home'.
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What listeners say about China Room
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- LouFish
- 03-10-2023
Amazing story beautifully written
I really liked Indira Varma’s narration but wasn’t impressed by Antonio Aakeel. He was very wooden and inexpressive. It was hard at time to distinguish between the characters.
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- Anonymous User
- 11-05-2022
India at heart
This story telling is up to that of the great V S Naipaul. Engaging and educational.
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