-
The Gift of Rain
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin, Luke Thompson
- Length: 16 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $29.65
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Cloud Cuckoo Land
- A Novel
- By: Anthony Doerr
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland, Simon Jones
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Among the most celebrated and beloved novels of 2021, Anthony Doerr’s gorgeous third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope—and a book. In Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has created a magnificent tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those who will be here after we’re gone.
-
-
Academic Snobbery
- By TVR on 10-03-21
By: Anthony Doerr
-
The Garden of Evening Mists
- By: Tan Twan Eng
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malaya, 1951. Yun Ling Teoh, the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle-fringed tea plantations of Cameron Highlands. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former gardener of the emperor of Japan. Despite her hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling seeks to engage Aritomo to create a garden in memory of her sister, who died in the camp.
-
-
The best
- By Susan Gardner Bowers on 03-11-13
By: Tan Twan Eng
-
The Lincoln Highway
- A Novel
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Marin Ireland, Dion Graham
- Length: 16 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car.
-
-
I'm totally opposite
- By Meaghan Bynum on 10-10-21
By: Amor Towles
-
Whiskey When We're Dry
- By: John Larison
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 1885, 17-year-old Jessilyn Harney finds herself orphaned and alone on her family's homestead. Desperate to fend off starvation and predatory neighbors, she cuts off her hair, binds her chest, saddles her beloved mare, and sets off across the mountains to find her outlaw brother Noah and bring him home. A talented sharpshooter herself, Jess' quest lands her in the employ of the territory's violent, capricious governor, whose militia is also hunting Noah - dead or alive.
-
-
Surprisingly fantastic
- By stuartjash on 08-14-19
By: John Larison
-
Three Daughters
- A Novel
- By: Consuelo Saah Baehr
- Narrated by: Karen Peakes
- Length: 23 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in rural Palestine, just before the dawn of the 20th century, Miriam adores her father and is certain his love will protect her, but she soon finds that tradition overrides love. Uprooted by war, Miriam enters a world where the old constraints slip away with thrilling and disastrous results. Miriam's rebellious daughter, Nadia, is thrilled with the opportunity for a modern life that her elite education provides. But when she falls in love with an outsider, the clan reins her back with a shocking finality.
-
-
3 Generation Saga of three women - so captivating
- By Marie on 11-05-15
-
Hamnet
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Ell Potter
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.
-
-
A masterpiece
- By Molly-o on 08-03-20
By: Maggie O'Farrell
-
Cloud Cuckoo Land
- A Novel
- By: Anthony Doerr
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland, Simon Jones
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Among the most celebrated and beloved novels of 2021, Anthony Doerr’s gorgeous third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope—and a book. In Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has created a magnificent tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those who will be here after we’re gone.
-
-
Academic Snobbery
- By TVR on 10-03-21
By: Anthony Doerr
-
The Garden of Evening Mists
- By: Tan Twan Eng
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malaya, 1951. Yun Ling Teoh, the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle-fringed tea plantations of Cameron Highlands. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former gardener of the emperor of Japan. Despite her hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling seeks to engage Aritomo to create a garden in memory of her sister, who died in the camp.
-
-
The best
- By Susan Gardner Bowers on 03-11-13
By: Tan Twan Eng
-
The Lincoln Highway
- A Novel
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Marin Ireland, Dion Graham
- Length: 16 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car.
-
-
I'm totally opposite
- By Meaghan Bynum on 10-10-21
By: Amor Towles
-
Whiskey When We're Dry
- By: John Larison
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 1885, 17-year-old Jessilyn Harney finds herself orphaned and alone on her family's homestead. Desperate to fend off starvation and predatory neighbors, she cuts off her hair, binds her chest, saddles her beloved mare, and sets off across the mountains to find her outlaw brother Noah and bring him home. A talented sharpshooter herself, Jess' quest lands her in the employ of the territory's violent, capricious governor, whose militia is also hunting Noah - dead or alive.
-
-
Surprisingly fantastic
- By stuartjash on 08-14-19
By: John Larison
-
Three Daughters
- A Novel
- By: Consuelo Saah Baehr
- Narrated by: Karen Peakes
- Length: 23 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in rural Palestine, just before the dawn of the 20th century, Miriam adores her father and is certain his love will protect her, but she soon finds that tradition overrides love. Uprooted by war, Miriam enters a world where the old constraints slip away with thrilling and disastrous results. Miriam's rebellious daughter, Nadia, is thrilled with the opportunity for a modern life that her elite education provides. But when she falls in love with an outsider, the clan reins her back with a shocking finality.
-
-
3 Generation Saga of three women - so captivating
- By Marie on 11-05-15
-
Hamnet
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Ell Potter
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.
-
-
A masterpiece
- By Molly-o on 08-03-20
By: Maggie O'Farrell
-
A Single Swallow
- By: Zhang Ling, Shelly Bryant - translator
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey, Adam Verner, Tanya Eby, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the day of the historic 1945 Jewel Voice Broadcast - in which Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender to the Allied forces, bringing an end to World War II - three men, flush with jubilation, made a pact. After their deaths, each year on the anniversary of the broadcast, their souls would return to the Chinese village of their younger days. Now, seventy years later, the pledge is being fulfilled by American missionary Pastor Billy, brash gunner’s mate Ian Ferguson, and local soldier Liu Zhaohu. All that’s missing is Ah Yan - also known as Swallow.
-
-
A Must-Read
- By 20eagle16 on 05-13-21
By: Zhang Ling, and others
-
Every Man Dies Alone
- By: Hans Fallada, Michael Hofman - translator
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hans Fallada wrote this stunning novel in only 24 days - just after being released from a Nazi insane asylum. Based on a true story, Every Man Dies Alone tells of a German couple who try to start an uprising by distributing anti-fascist postcards during World War II. But their dream ultimately proves perilous under the tyranny that dominates every corner of Hitler’s Germany.
-
-
a difficult masterpiece
- By h and l on 04-06-10
By: Hans Fallada, and others
-
The Samurai's Garden
- A Novel
- By: Gail Tsukiyama
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The daughter of a Chinese mother and a Japanese father, Gail Tsukiyama uses the Japanese invasion of China during the late 1930s as a somber backdrop for her unusual story about a 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen who is sent to his family's summer home in a Japanese coastal village to recover from a bout with tuberculosis. Here he is cared for by Matsu, a reticent housekeeper and a master gardener. Over the course of a remarkable year, Stephen learns Matsu's secret and gains not only physical strength, but also profound spiritual insight.
-
-
A Novel Painted with a Master's Brush
- By Bay Area Califa on 06-25-18
By: Gail Tsukiyama
-
The House at the Edge of Night
- A Novel
- By: Catherine Banner
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Castellamare is an island far enough away from the mainland to be forgotten but not far enough to escape from the world's troubles. At the center of the island's life is a café draped with bougainvillea called the House at the Edge of Night, where the community gathers to gossip and talk. Amedeo Esposito, a foundling from Florence, finds his destiny on the island with his beautiful wife, Pina, whose fierce intelligence, grace, and unwavering love guide her every move.
-
-
A moving hideaway
- By Daryl on 08-18-16
By: Catherine Banner
-
When We Were Young & Brave
- A Novel
- By: Hazel Gaynor
- Narrated by: Rosie Jones, Imogen Church
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
China, December 1941. Having left an unhappy life in England for a teaching post at a missionary school in northern China, Elspeth Kent is now anxious to return home to help the war effort. But as she prepares to leave China, a terrible twist of fate determines a different path for Elspeth, and those in her charge. Ten-year-old Nancy Plummer has always felt safe at Chefoo School, protected by her British status.
-
-
heart wrenching And inspiring!!
- By Justin Drogoszewski on 11-22-20
By: Hazel Gaynor
-
The Persimmon Tree
- By: Bryce Courtenay
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 27 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Persimmon Tree opens in Indonesia in 1942 on the cusp of Japanese invasion and the evacuation of Batavia (Jakarta) by the Dutch. Seventeen-year-old Nicholas Duncan is on holiday there, in pursuit of an exotic butterfly known as the Magpie Crow. It's an uncertain, dangerous time to be in Indonesia, and Nick's options of getting out are fast dwindling. Amidst the fear and chaos he falls in love with Anna, the beautiful daughter of a Dutch acquaintance, and she nicknames him 'Mr Butterfly'.
-
-
An excellent sequel
- By CBDC on 02-13-11
By: Bryce Courtenay
-
The Glass Palace
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose love will shape his life. He cannot forget her, and years later, as a rich man, he goes in search of her.
-
-
Wonderful Family Saga Set in Burma and Malaysia
- By Janis on 11-01-11
By: Amitav Ghosh
-
The Exiles
- A Novel
- By: Christina Baker Kline
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seduced by her employer’s son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early 19th-century London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered and sent to the notorious Newgate Prison. After months in the fetid, overcrowded jail, she learns she is sentenced to "the land beyond the seas", Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony in Australia. Though uncertain of what awaits, Evangeline knows one thing: The child she carries will be born on the months-long voyage to this distant land.
-
-
Tragic
- By karis on 11-10-20
-
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven
- By: Chris Cleave
- Narrated by: Luke Thompson
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1939, and Mary, a young socialite, is determined to shock her blueblood political family by volunteering for the war effort. She is assigned as a teacher to children who were evacuated from London and have been rejected by the countryside because they are infirm, are mentally disabled, or - like Mary's favorite student, Zachary - have colored skin.
-
-
Weak
- By ACV03 on 12-03-16
By: Chris Cleave
-
All the Lonely People
- By: Mike Gayle
- Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In weekly phone calls to his daughter in Australia, widower Hubert Birdpaints a picture of the perfect retirement, packed with fun, friendship, and fulfillment. But it's a lie. In reality, Hubert's days are all the same, dragging on without him seeing a single soul. Until he receives some good news - good news that in one way turns out to be the worst news ever, news that will force him out again, into a world he has long since turned his back on.
-
-
For all the lonely and not-so-lonely people
- By R. Sharma on 08-22-21
By: Mike Gayle
-
The Things We Cannot Say
- By: Kelly Rimmer
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon, Nancy Peterson
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. Now 15 and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina’s tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate. Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappears.
-
-
Formulaic and Romanticized
- By Michael & Cora on 11-04-19
By: Kelly Rimmer
-
The Long Flight Home
- By: Alan Hlad
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is September 1940 - a year into the war - and as German bombs fall on Britain, fears grow of an impending invasion. Enemy fighter planes blacken the sky around the Epping Forest home of Susan Shepherd and her grandfather, Bertie. After losing her parents to influenza as a child, Susan found comfort in raising homing pigeons with Bertie. All her birds are extraordinary to Susan - loyal, intelligent, beautiful - but none more so than Duchess, who shares a special bond with Susan and an unusual curiosity about the human world.
-
-
Double surprise ending
- By Carol R. Taylor on 07-21-19
By: Alan Hlad
Publisher's Summary
In the tradition of celebrated wartime storytellers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene, Tan Twan Eng's debut novel casts a powerful spell.
For the first time, available as an audiobook.
The recipient of extraordinary acclaim from critics and the book-selling community, Tan Twan Eng's debut novel casts a powerful spell and has garnered comparisons to celebrated wartime storytellers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene. Set during the tumult of World War II, on the lush Malayan island of Penang, The Gift of Rain tells a riveting and poignant tale about a young man caught in the tangle of wartime loyalties and deceits.
In 1939, 16-year-old Philip Hutton - the half-Chinese, half-English youngest child of the head of one of Penang's great trading families - feels alienated from both the Chinese and British communities. He at last discovers a sense of belonging in his unexpected friendship with Hayato Endo, a Japanese diplomat. Philip proudly shows his new friend around his adored island, and in return Endo teaches him about Japanese language and culture and trains him in the art and discipline of aikido. But such knowledge comes at a terrible price. When the Japanese savagely invade Malaya, Philip realizes that his mentor and sensei - to whom he owes absolute loyalty - is a Japanese spy. Young Philip has been an unwitting traitor, and must now work in secret to save as many lives as possible, even as his own family is brought to its knees.
Critic Reviews
"This remarkable debut saga of intrigue and akido flashes back to a darkly opulent WWII-era Malaya. Phillip Hutton, 72, lives in serene Penang comfort, occasionally training students as an akido master teacher of teachers. A visit from Michiko Murakami sends him spiraling back into his past, where he grows up the alienated half-British, half-Chinese son of a wealthy Penang trader in the years before WWII. When Hutton's father and three siblings leave him to run the family company one summer, he befriends a mysterious Japanese neighbor named Mr. Endo. Japan is on the opposing side of the coming war, but Endo paradoxically opts to train Hutton in the ways of aikido, in what both men come to see as the fulfillment of a prophecy that has haunted them for several lifetimes. When the Japanese army invades Malaya, chaos reigns, and Phillip makes a secret, very profitable deal. He cannot, however, offset the costs of his friendship with Endo. Eng's characters are as deep and troubled as the time in which the story takes place, and he draws on a rich palette to create a sprawling portrait of a lesser explored corner of the war. Hutton's first-person narration is measured, believable and enthralling." (Publishers Weekly)
More from the same
What listeners say about The Gift of Rain
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jeff Lacy
- 11-21-18
Emotive and complex.
Gorgeous and engrossing story. The audible performances are the best I have heard. Gordon Griffin and Luke Thompson are stunningly sensitive to accents, diction, and tone. The degree of difficulty of the performance is a 9 out of 10.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- AXIOM MONSTER
- 01-26-19
Could not stop listening
Wonderful reading and lyrical beautiful worfs. Many life lessons within. I learned a lot about WWII in Malaysia and the demographics of that part of the world :very diverse yet torn apart by the war.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Linda
- 06-22-20
Beautiful writing
This book is beautifully written, but the subject matter is often hard to listen to. I feel like I have elevated myself by listening.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Klarita
- 01-16-20
Breathtaking
Easily one of the most beautiful, fascinating and touching books I've ever heard. The narration is superb, and the story... over years and lives, through meandering side stories, but all coming together... I don't really have words to describe it. I will treasure this one for years to come.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Laura G. Marcantoni
- 12-18-19
A good story, a great page turner.
I really enjoyed listening to this book. The reason I gave only four stars to it is that I found the flash backs, the connections to past lives unconvincing. The other relationships, between friends, with the teacher and with others I found interesting and real.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nancy E
- 09-16-18
Great to listen to this wonderful story
Two narrators--one for the young protagonist, and the other when he gets older--add a dimension to this fascinating story that takes place during the Japanese occupation of Malaya during WWII. I have read so much about Europe during WWII, but not about Asia, so this novel started rounding that out.
What I most liked about this book was its half-Chinese and half-English protagonist, faced with difficult choices, sometimes chose the worse path. So he was human. Made me want visit Penang and made me even more curious about Japanese culture.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Karen Skadsheim
- 07-25-20
The best book I’ve listened to this year
I was completely engrossed in this book. I wept and I laughed together with the characters. The story is heartbreaking, warm and historically interesting. It is very well written, and the narrator also did a fantastic job; the different voices worked perfectly. I was deeply moved and I miss the characters. I just want to read more! I highly recommend the book, just buy it! You will not regret it.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sherry C
- 07-20-20
Wonderful
This is one of the best books I have listened to. The descriptions are so full that I felt like I could see, hear, feel, smell and taste what was being written about. I highly recommend.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mr Dangerous
- 07-14-20
Quite enjoyed this one...
This had hints of Bryce Courtenay in it. I enjoyed this WW2 story of friendship and betrayal.
Good readings by the narrators.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- S Brown
- 01-17-20
A beautiful story of love, life and honor
A great book and the readers' performances were excellent. A beautiful story of love and deep connection between men unlike any I have ever heard. As an American, I also appreciated the perspective of WWII from they eyes of the Chinese. So much to say about how this book was written and the depths of beauty within it.
1 person found this helpful