When We Were Orphans cover art

When We Were Orphans

Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

When We Were Orphans

By: Kazuo Ishiguro
Narrated by: Michael Maloney
Try Premium Plus free

Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $27.99

Buy Now for $27.99

About this listen

England, 1930s: Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime has always haunted him: the mysterious disappearance of his parents, in old Shanghai, when he was a small boy.

Moving between London and Shanghai of the interwar years, When We Were Orphans is a remarkable story of memory, intrigue and the need to return.

©2014 Kazuo Ishiguro (P)2014 Faber & Faber
Coming of Age Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery Thriller & Suspense Fiction England Suspense
All stars
Most relevant  
The pace of the reader made Ishiguro's novel a delight to listen to. For those who like a measured pace and a slow unfolding narrative.

Slow unfolding narrative

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

not as great as NeverLetMeGo but still i engrossing. Really captured childhood naivety
Why doesn't NLMG available on audible? I had to sign up for another service to listen to it.

worth a listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Fantastic! The narrator did a wonderful job in bringing to life another fabulous Ishiguro story.

Beautifully told!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

An unusual book, you were never quite sure where it was taking you, at times frenetic (like the narrrator) at times almost whimsical.
I suppose it is reflective of the time and place of its setting of which I had known nothing. Confusion seemed to reign.

Set between England and Shanghai during the opium years

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

the narrator speaks so ridiculously fast nobody could follow the story.
complete waste of money

idiotic narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Beautiful literary style, but story is bewildering with no meaningful resolution questions left unanswered, so frustrating! Also audiobook is consistently interupted by old fashioned "end side one" notes that must be leftovers from the CD release??

Well written but story that goes nowhere

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.