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When We Were Orphans

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When We Were Orphans

By: Kazuo Ishiguro
Narrated by: Michael Maloney
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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
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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

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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.

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

Beautifully told!

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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

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

idiotic narration

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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

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