Try free for 2 months
-
No Friend but the Mountains
- Writing from Manus Prison
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Robertson, Isobelle Carmody, Mathilda Imlah, Omid Tofighian, Richard Flanagan, Sarah Dale, Thomas Keneally, Yumi Stynes, Janet Galbraith, Benjamin Law
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
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 $26.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Buy it with
-
The Lebs
- By: Michael Mohammed Ahmad
- Narrated by: Hazem Shammas
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As far as Bani Adam is concerned Punchbowl Boys is the arse end of the earth. Though he's a Leb and they control the school, Bani feels at odds with the other students, who just don't seem to care. He is a romantic in a sea of hypermasculinity. Bani must come to terms with his place in this hostile, hopeless world, while dreaming of so much more.
-
-
raw and real
- By Mark Hampstead on 01-01-2020
-
My Mother's Eyes
- By: Shanelle Dawson
- Narrated by: Shanelle Dawson, Alley Pascoe
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When she was four years old, Shanelle Dawson's mother, Lynette, disappeared. On 8 January 1982, the woman who had been a loving, constant presence vanished without a trace. Four year old's might not be able to articulate questions or understand a lot, but the ache of absence is very real. Year after year that ache persisted. Shanelle's father, Chris Dawson, claimed that his wife just needed to get away. This is what he told Lyn's parents and siblings. This is what he told his daughters. But Lyn never returned home.
-
-
Very well written
- By Anonymous User on 13-10-2023
-
Tell Me Why
- The Story of My Life and My Music
- By: Archie Roach
- Narrated by: Archie Roach
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Not many have lived as many lives as Archie Roach - stolen child, seeker, teenage alcoholic, lover, father, musical and lyrical genius, and leader - but it took him almost a lifetime to find out who he really was. Roach was only two years old when he was forcibly removed from his family. Brought up by a series of foster parents until his early teens, his world imploded when he received a letter that spoke of a life he had no memory of.
-
-
Must read
- By Anonymous User on 07-04-2020
-
Crossing the Line
- By: Nick McKenzie
- Narrated by: Stephen Phillips
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In mid-2017, whispers from Australia's most secretive and elite military unit reached Walkley Award-winning journalist Nick McKenzie. McKenzie and veteran reporter Chris Masters began an investigation that would not only reveal shocking information about Australia's most famous and revered SAS soldier but plunge the two reporters into the defamation trial of the century.
-
-
Biased journalism gets a goal in quickly
- By MCG on 06-08-2023
-
Carpentaria
- By: Alexis Wright
- Narrated by: Isaac Drandich
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carpentaria is Alexis Wright's second novel, an epic set in the Gulf country of north-western Queensland, Australia. The novel's portrait of life in the precariously settled coastal town of Desperance centres on the powerful Phantom family, leader of the Westend Pricklebush people, and its battles with old Joseph Midnight's renegade Eastend mob on the one hand, and the white officials of Uptown and the neighbouring Gurfurrit mine on the other.
-
-
Great Story!
- By Judith Will on 15-07-2020
-
Quarterly Essay 1: In Denial
- The Stolen Generations and the Right
- By: Robert Manne
- Narrated by: Robert Manne
- Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this national best seller, Robert Mane attacks the right-wing campaign against the "Bringing Them Home" report that revealed how thousands of Aborigines had been taken from their parents. What was the role of Paddy McGuinness as editor of Quadrant? How reliable was the evidence that led newspaper columnists from Piers Akerman in the Sydney Daily Telegraph to Andrew Bolt in the Melbourne Herald Sun to deny the gravity of the injustice done?
-
-
Absolutely brilliant
- By Melissa on 14-11-2016
-
The Lebs
- By: Michael Mohammed Ahmad
- Narrated by: Hazem Shammas
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As far as Bani Adam is concerned Punchbowl Boys is the arse end of the earth. Though he's a Leb and they control the school, Bani feels at odds with the other students, who just don't seem to care. He is a romantic in a sea of hypermasculinity. Bani must come to terms with his place in this hostile, hopeless world, while dreaming of so much more.
-
-
raw and real
- By Mark Hampstead on 01-01-2020
-
My Mother's Eyes
- By: Shanelle Dawson
- Narrated by: Shanelle Dawson, Alley Pascoe
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When she was four years old, Shanelle Dawson's mother, Lynette, disappeared. On 8 January 1982, the woman who had been a loving, constant presence vanished without a trace. Four year old's might not be able to articulate questions or understand a lot, but the ache of absence is very real. Year after year that ache persisted. Shanelle's father, Chris Dawson, claimed that his wife just needed to get away. This is what he told Lyn's parents and siblings. This is what he told his daughters. But Lyn never returned home.
-
-
Very well written
- By Anonymous User on 13-10-2023
-
Tell Me Why
- The Story of My Life and My Music
- By: Archie Roach
- Narrated by: Archie Roach
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Not many have lived as many lives as Archie Roach - stolen child, seeker, teenage alcoholic, lover, father, musical and lyrical genius, and leader - but it took him almost a lifetime to find out who he really was. Roach was only two years old when he was forcibly removed from his family. Brought up by a series of foster parents until his early teens, his world imploded when he received a letter that spoke of a life he had no memory of.
-
-
Must read
- By Anonymous User on 07-04-2020
-
Crossing the Line
- By: Nick McKenzie
- Narrated by: Stephen Phillips
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In mid-2017, whispers from Australia's most secretive and elite military unit reached Walkley Award-winning journalist Nick McKenzie. McKenzie and veteran reporter Chris Masters began an investigation that would not only reveal shocking information about Australia's most famous and revered SAS soldier but plunge the two reporters into the defamation trial of the century.
-
-
Biased journalism gets a goal in quickly
- By MCG on 06-08-2023
-
Carpentaria
- By: Alexis Wright
- Narrated by: Isaac Drandich
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carpentaria is Alexis Wright's second novel, an epic set in the Gulf country of north-western Queensland, Australia. The novel's portrait of life in the precariously settled coastal town of Desperance centres on the powerful Phantom family, leader of the Westend Pricklebush people, and its battles with old Joseph Midnight's renegade Eastend mob on the one hand, and the white officials of Uptown and the neighbouring Gurfurrit mine on the other.
-
-
Great Story!
- By Judith Will on 15-07-2020
-
Quarterly Essay 1: In Denial
- The Stolen Generations and the Right
- By: Robert Manne
- Narrated by: Robert Manne
- Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this national best seller, Robert Mane attacks the right-wing campaign against the "Bringing Them Home" report that revealed how thousands of Aborigines had been taken from their parents. What was the role of Paddy McGuinness as editor of Quadrant? How reliable was the evidence that led newspaper columnists from Piers Akerman in the Sydney Daily Telegraph to Andrew Bolt in the Melbourne Herald Sun to deny the gravity of the injustice done?
-
-
Absolutely brilliant
- By Melissa on 14-11-2016
Publisher's Summary
Winner of the ABIA audiobook of the year 2020
In 2013, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani was illegally detained on Manus Island. This book is the result. Laboriously tapped out on a mobile phone and translated from the Farsi. It is a voice of witness, an act of survival. A lyric firsthand account. A cry of resistance. A vivid portrait through five years of incarceration and exile.
At the time of recording, Behrouz was still being held on Manus Island. Normally the author is given the opportunity to read his own words but because he was not able to participate, a chorus of advocates have come together to speak not so much for Behrouz but with him.
Narrated by Richard Flanagan, Mathilda Imlah, Geoffrey Robertson, Janet Galbraith, Thomas Keneally, Sarah Dale, Yumi Stynes, Isobelle Carmody, Benjamin Law and Omid Tofighian.
Where have I come from? From the land of rivers, the land of waterfalls, the land of ancient chants, the land of mountains....
People would run to the mountains to escape the warplanes and found asylum within their chestnut forests....
Do Kurds have any friends other than the mountains?
Winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Prize for Literature and the Prize for Non-Fiction 2019.
Winner of the NSW Premier's Award 2019.
Winner of the Abia General Fiction Book of the Year 2019.
Winner of the National Biography Award 2019.
Inaugural Winner of the Behrouz Boochani Award for Services to Anthropology.
Finalist for the Terzani Prize 2020.
Longlisted for the Colin Roderick Literary Award 2019.
Critic Reviews
"Our government jailed his body, but his soul remained that of a free man." (Richard Flanagan)
"The most important Australian book published in 2018." (Robert Manne)
"A powerful account...made me feel ashamed and outraged. Behrouz's writing is lyrical and poetic, though the horrors he describes are unspeakable." (Sofie Laguna)
More from the same
Author
Narrator
What listeners say about No Friend but the Mountains
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Eloise
- 26-08-2019
First-rate story, third-rate narration
I wanted to love this book. The story is timely and urgent, and ought to be on high school English curriculums and bestseller lists. Unfortunately, the audiobook narration was shared by several different people, who are mostly writers rather than gifted actors or narrators. It was difficult to fully immerse myself in the author's intimate story as every chapter was told by someone else, in wildly unpredictable styles that ranged from amused theatrics to monotone speedreading. This was frustrating, disappointing, and destroyed the story-telling magic for me. I wish the publisher would re-release this audiobook with only one narrator - preferably someone who makes a living from performing, rather than writing, words - so that this moving, unique and hopefully soon-to-be classic, memoir can have the treatment it deserves.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
23 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rodney Wetherell
- 16-10-2019
Too many cooks
This is a well-known book in Australia, and the winner of some major awards, even though its author remains trapped on Manus Island, or Manus Prison as he calls it. I was most impressed by the book, though wondered how much I missed or misunderstood, from my total ignorance of Kurdish or Farsi literary traditions. However, I did not appreciate the many readers enlisted to read it. This is very much an autobiographical work, and therefore best heard by a reader doing a good acting job, ie 'becoming' Behrouz Boochani for the listener. To have several readers, as this audio book does, takes away from that possibility. Inevitably some readers are better than others - indeed I found a couple of them quite poor, with voices best kept well away from a microphone. With the 'celebrity' readers, Richard Flanagan, Geoffrey Robertson, Tom Keneally and Ben Law, it was hard to think beyond these well-known voices and personalities.
I could not stand the very frequent use of the invented word 'kyrarchial' - not invented by Boochani, I realize, but used by him often. I thought it was 'hierachical' mispronounced, at first, and indeed that word might have been used most of the time. It is not easy to adjust to such a specialist term like 'kyrarchial', and introduces the impression that this is an academic work. That impression is heightened by the long introduction and afterword by the (no doubt excellent) translator. Both of these seemed to me to urge us to read the book in certain ways, not to form our own impressions of the book unaided.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Hamed Shahnam
- 13-06-2020
Incredible, confronting, introspective, provocativ
The writing of this book is a monumental achievement and I’m glad to say the content of the book surpasses expectations. It is a philosophical and introspective book. One that reflects deeply on the experience and treatment of asylum seekers. It provides a perspective rarely provided by mainstream media.
It is a challenging and thought provoking listen. One that conjures an internal conflict between protecting Australian borders and preventing loss of life at sea vs our obligation and duty to look after those who seek refuge in our bountiful country.
At times I felt ashamed and horrified of our governments treatment of asylum seekers in offshore processing And terrible condition these individuals had to endure.
I am grateful to all those including the courage of this author to bring this book into reality.
Whether you are right, centre or left of politics it is worth broadening your horizon by listening to this book.
My only problem with this book is not the content but the production value. I wish as others have highlighted a single professional narrator was used. Don’t let this hold you back it is worth the listen. Just fast forward the first chapter.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Colette Burnell
- 23-07-2019
Powerful
Everyone Australian should read this to know just what we are capable of. Our collective shame is on display for the world in this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 23-07-2019
Fascinating story.
I just can say WOW. Amazing work and real life story. I was trying to imagine myself in characters described in the book and yet its tough life. We are all behind you guys. One more step to freedom. Keep up the good work.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 10-07-2019
Brilliant & powerful, a must-read
A masterpiece, maybe the most important book I’ve read. Every Australian should read this book and discover the truth about our Government. The narrators were fantastic, they made the story come alive.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Christian
- 26-02-2021
Average
Some parts of the book were very poetic and beautiful.
There were a lot of unanswered questions— like the refugees line up to use the phone but then this book was written on a mobile phone and sent via WhatsApp messages. Doesn’t go into a lot of detail about his life before he sought refugee status. A bit of slog. Some of the performances were average while others were good.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- Mary
- 26-12-2020
Over-hyped whining
I wanted to empathise & be moved by this account, but instead found myself inclined the other way. It is relentless anger at being denied what was taken for granted; being welcomed with open arms by Australia as an illegal immigrant. Yes, Manus was run with a terrible lack of recreational materials & facilities. A lack of access to the outside world. But how could it be expected that the continuing numbers of illegal immigrants could all be welcomed straight in to Australia? A small acknowledgement of his rescue from drowning by the navy, and of his being fed & sheltered at Manus, would have helped me swallow the rest of his anger. Instead I'm abandoning it mid-way.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- LESLEY BROOKMAN
- 10-11-2020
Good book but needs one single narrator.
I wish I hard read the hard copy of this book, the multiple narrators really ruined it for me to be honest.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Maia Davidson
- 02-07-2020
Beautifully written, tragic story of survival.
I have never been so moved by the way a book is written. The subject matter is heartbreaking & will remain one of Australians most disgraceful and shameful acts. The poetic narrative is overwhelming and inspiring at the same time.
The audiobook version is exceptionally read & expressed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful