-
The Island of Sea Women
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Jennifer Lim
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 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 $16.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Ruthie Ann Miles, Kimiko Glenn, Alex Allwine, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The thrilling new novel from number-one New York Times best-selling author Lisa See explores the lives of a Chinese mother and her daughter who has been abandoned and adopted by an American couple.
-
-
***EXCELLENT*** Six stars if I could !!
- By ROBIN on 04-10-17
By: Lisa See
-
Peony in Love
- A Novel
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For young Peony, betrothed to a suitor she has never met, lyrics from The Peony Pavilion mirror her own longings. In the garden of the Chen Family Villa, amid the scent of ginger, green tea, and jasmine, a small theatrical troupe is performing scenes from this epic opera, a live spectacle few females have ever seen. Like the heroine in the drama, Peony is the cloistered daughter of a wealthy family, trapped like a good-luck cricket in a bamboo-and-lacquer cage.
-
-
Eloquently written and read
- By D on 07-21-07
By: Lisa See
-
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
-
The Personal Librarian
- By: Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A remarkable novel about J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as White in order to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation, from New York Times best-selling author Marie Benedict, and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.
-
-
A Treat For This Academic Librarian!
- By AlTonya on 07-14-21
By: Marie Benedict, and others
-
The Diamond Eye
- A Novel
- By: Kate Quinn
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the snowbound city of Kiev, wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son - but Hitler’s invasion of Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper - a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the Eastern Front and sent to America on a goodwill tour.
-
-
awesome
- By Bird Miller on 04-01-22
By: Kate Quinn
-
Shanghai Girls
- A Novel
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw business, 21-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn’t be more different, but both are beautiful, modern, and carefree...until the day their father tells them he has gambled away their wealth and that in order to repay his debts, he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find Chinese brides.
-
-
Touching, sad, and enjoyable
- By Beach Biker on 07-15-09
By: Lisa See
-
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Ruthie Ann Miles, Kimiko Glenn, Alex Allwine, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The thrilling new novel from number-one New York Times best-selling author Lisa See explores the lives of a Chinese mother and her daughter who has been abandoned and adopted by an American couple.
-
-
***EXCELLENT*** Six stars if I could !!
- By ROBIN on 04-10-17
By: Lisa See
-
Peony in Love
- A Novel
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For young Peony, betrothed to a suitor she has never met, lyrics from The Peony Pavilion mirror her own longings. In the garden of the Chen Family Villa, amid the scent of ginger, green tea, and jasmine, a small theatrical troupe is performing scenes from this epic opera, a live spectacle few females have ever seen. Like the heroine in the drama, Peony is the cloistered daughter of a wealthy family, trapped like a good-luck cricket in a bamboo-and-lacquer cage.
-
-
Eloquently written and read
- By D on 07-21-07
By: Lisa See
-
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
-
The Personal Librarian
- By: Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A remarkable novel about J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as White in order to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation, from New York Times best-selling author Marie Benedict, and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.
-
-
A Treat For This Academic Librarian!
- By AlTonya on 07-14-21
By: Marie Benedict, and others
-
The Diamond Eye
- A Novel
- By: Kate Quinn
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the snowbound city of Kiev, wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son - but Hitler’s invasion of Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper - a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the Eastern Front and sent to America on a goodwill tour.
-
-
awesome
- By Bird Miller on 04-01-22
By: Kate Quinn
-
Shanghai Girls
- A Novel
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw business, 21-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn’t be more different, but both are beautiful, modern, and carefree...until the day their father tells them he has gambled away their wealth and that in order to repay his debts, he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find Chinese brides.
-
-
Touching, sad, and enjoyable
- By Beach Biker on 07-15-09
By: Lisa See
-
The Four Winds
- A Novel
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman’s only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. With her reputation in ruin, there is only one respectable choice: marriage to a man she barely knows.
-
-
✫✫ 4.75 Stars ✫✫
- By ❤️Cyndi Marie❤️🎧Audiobook Addicts🎧 on 02-03-21
By: Kristin Hannah
-
A Good Neighborhood
- A Novel
- By: Therese Anne Fowler
- Narrated by: Ella Turenne
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All is well until the Whitmans - an apparently traditional family with new money and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter - raze the house and trees next door to build themselves a showplace. With little in common except a property line, these two very different families quickly find themselves at odds: First, over an historic oak tree in Valerie's yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers.
-
-
Boring with leftist agenda
- By Ryan Hogan on 04-14-20
-
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
- A Novel
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lily is haunted by memories of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower and asks the gods for forgiveness.
-
-
A fascinating glimpse into a special relationship
- By Sandra on 01-11-09
By: Lisa See
-
On Gold Mountain
- The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Out of the stories heard in her childhood in Los Angeles's Chinatown and years of research, See has constructed this sweeping chronicle of her Chinese-American family, a work that takes in stories of racism and romance, entrepreneurial genius and domestic heartache, secret marriages and sibling rivalries, in a powerful history of two cultures meeting in a new world.
-
-
Great story...awful narration
- By Solbakken on 06-02-17
By: Lisa See
-
The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell
- A Novel
- By: Robert Dugoni
- Narrated by: Robert Dugoni
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sam Hill always saw the world through different eyes. Born with red pupils, he was called “Devil Boy” or Sam “Hell” by his classmates; “God’s will” is what his mother called his ocular albinism. Her words were of little comfort, but Sam persevered. Sam believed it was God who sent Ernie Cantwell, the only African American kid in his class, to be the friend he so desperately needed. And that it was God’s idea for Mickie Kennedy to storm into Our Lady of Mercy like a tornado, uprooting every rule Sam had been taught about boys and girls. Forty years later, Sam, a small-town eye doctor, is no longer certain anything was by design.
-
-
4.22 stars
- By james on 03-04-19
By: Robert Dugoni
-
West with Giraffes
- A Novel
- By: Lynda Rutledge
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave. It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to become Southern California’s first giraffes. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow.
-
-
Gritty, sweet, amazing, sad, uplifting
- By FL Bird Woman on 02-19-21
By: Lynda Rutledge
-
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 Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
- A Novel
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo, Julia Whelan, Robin Miles
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one in the journalism community is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband, David, has left her, and her career has stagnated.
-
-
I’m not crying, you’re crying
- By bridget on 07-16-18
-
The Henna Artist
- By: Alka Joshi
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist - and confidante - to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own....
-
-
Lyrical and inspiring
- By Anonymous User on 04-23-20
By: Alka Joshi
-
The Book of Lost Friends
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Wingate
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss, Sullivan Jones, Robin Miles, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the best-selling author of Before We Were Yours comes a dramatic historical novel of three young women searching for family amid the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who learns of their story and its vital connection to her students’ lives.
-
-
I want more!!!
- By Mrstlg on 04-11-20
By: Lisa Wingate
-
The Night Watchman
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Louise Erdrich
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, DC, this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.
-
-
Beautiful
- By Melanie on 03-09-20
By: Louise Erdrich
-
The Joy Luck Club
- By: Amy Tan
- Narrated by: Gwendoline Yeo
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four Chinese women, drawn together by the shadow of their past, meet in San Francisco to play mah jong, invest in stocks, eat dim sum, and to "say" stories to each other. Nearly 40 years later, one of the women has died, and her daughter arrives to take her place. However, the daughter never expected to learn of her mother's secret lifelong wish - and the tragic way in which it has come true. The revelation creates among the women an urgent need to remember the past.
-
-
nice read
- By Amazon Customer on 08-12-16
By: Amy Tan
Publisher's Summary
A new novel from Lisa See, the New York Times best-selling author of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, about female friendship and family secrets on a small Korean island.
Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends who come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook’s mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life of excitement and responsibility but also danger.
Despite their love for each other, Mi-ja and Young-sook’s differences are impossible to ignore. The Island of Sea Women is an epoch set over many decades, beginning during a period of Japanese colonialism in the 1930s and 1940s, followed by World War II, the Korean War, and its aftermath, through the era of cell phones and wet suits for the women divers. Throughout this time, the residents of Jeju find themselves caught between warring empires. Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, and she will forever be marked by this association. Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother’s position leading the divers in their village. Little do the two friends know that after surviving hundreds of dives and developing the closest of bonds, forces outside their control will push their friendship to the breaking point.
This beautiful, thoughtful novel illuminates a world turned upside down, one where the women are in charge, engaging in dangerous, physical work, and the men take care of the children. A classic Lisa See story - one of women’s friendships and the larger forces that shape them - The Island of Sea Women introduces listeners to the fierce and unforgettable female divers of Jeju Island and the dramatic history that shaped their lives.
Critic Reviews
"Narrator Jennifer Lim underscores the multiple layers of this audiobook about two friends who grew up in Jeju Island, Korea... Lim's expressive delivery highlights protagonist Young-sook's personality and complex feelings... Lim's clear and sensitive portrayals, complete with believable accents, make it easy for listeners to keep track of the characters." (AudioFile)
More from the same
What listeners say about The Island of Sea Women
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bernard
- 05-18-19
1st Review in 15 years!
I've been a member of Audible for more than 15 years and I have not been touched so deeply by a book.
30 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- John
- 04-12-19
I have been to Jejue
This book had a lot of meaning for me. First and foremost I visited the island of Jejue in August of 2018. I went to the museum which honors the Sea Women. I recognized many of the places mentioned in the story, even to the small island of Udo. Because of this familiarity the story held a lot of rich meanings. The narration of the female diver/gir/wife/grandmother hit several fine points which enhanced the story. The specifics of living under the rule of Japan, and then the rule of post war American Occupation, helped place many things into perspective. This was a way of life which is going, or is already, extinct. I thank the author for a wonderful book and the narrator for the heartfelt meanings of the spoken word.
19 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- James
- 03-23-19
a breath, a breath, a breath
another wonderful insightful book by lisa see. her books enable you to make new best friends, understand other cultures, realize that everyone that walks the face of this earth has a backstory. if only we could understand more of those backstories: would we be a more compassionate society? when i read a lisa see book i again recognize what a privileged life i live- no i am not rich, no i am not without problems, but my issues are insignificant compared to the cold water divers who still manage to laugh and support each other, their families, and their communities. it inspires me to do no less.
18 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- syddie
- 08-10-19
The Narrator Ruins This Book.
The narrator reads this book like she’s dying for her last breath. She reads it so quickly, rushed, straight through, high-toned and without need for a breath. She has the mind to add dramatics to the characters, adding enough shake to the voice to denote an older person, sounding snarly for an obvious “bad” character, but it all just sounds like a straight script read-through, all rushed and careless. It had none of the presence and calm I expected for a book about the sea and the women who’ve lived in it. Listening to the narrator you feel yourself also holding your breath, rushed, almost panicked, and not at all at ease of listening to an otherwise good book. This book is not a great audible choice, not with this narrator. It’s better to just buy the book and read it.
35 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Louise Ritchie
- 03-25-19
Wonderful historical fiction
Reading this is a captivating way to learn about a matriarchal society that most westerners are not familiar with. I will remember and ponder this story for a long time.
23 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- mary krause
- 03-28-19
Overly dramatic read
I love Lisa See\s stories and this one is no exception. However the read on this is too dramatic. It takes away from the story. The readers diction is great and she pronounces the Korean well but I really would like to hear this read with a softer style.
54 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Erika Retana
- 04-19-19
"To understand is to forgive"
Absolutely loved this book from beginning to end. Lisa See's stories always so refreshing. Friendship, hardship, love, suffering, disappointed and more in one book.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- RueRue
- 01-11-20
Korean history lesson
This was a disappointment. The other books I've read by Lisa See have focused on the bonds of female friendship, and while this story does have that as its central theme, the characters get lost in all the other information about Korea, sea divers, and matriarchal society. The culture of the female sea divers was really interesting, and I wish the story had focused on them. As for the narration, it was much too dramatic at times.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- H. GY
- 05-13-19
Narration was so bad I didn’t finish
This seems like a good book to read. The narrator was a terrible choice for this book. Somehow a New Jersey(ish) twang doesn’t fly with this novel. The story was interesting though.
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Regina
- 06-16-19
Just missed being great.
I have read a number of books by Lisa See and have always enjoyed them greatly, while learning a lot. This one didn't hit the same note. At times it felt like a history text book, not a novel. Yes, horrible things occurred at the hands of foreign governments, and we all need to know that and remember it. But I often felt like I was listing to a mandatory lecture for a school credit. And it is difficult in an audio book to just skim sections, although I did hit the 30 second forward on my Apple app a few times. Also, the narration wasn't pleasing. Finally, reading the book in print might improve the experience. I found it difficult to keep characters names straight.
However, I loved the introduction to a female centered society.
11 people found this helpful