Audiobooks by Monica Ali

[Romanian] - Căsătorie din dragoste Audiobook

"NOMINALIZATĂ LA BOOKER PRIZE DOUĂ CULTURI. DOUĂ FAMILII. DOI OAMENI. Yasmin Ghorami are pentru ce să fie recunoscătoare: o familie iubitoare, o carieră promițătoare în domeniul medicinei și un logodnic fermecător și arătos în persoana colegului ei, doctorul Joe Sangster. Însă, pe măsură ce ziua nunții se apropie, iar părinții lui Yasmin ajung să o cunoască pe mama feministă și pasională a lui Joe, cele două familii vor trebui să se confrunte cu dezvăluirea unor secrete de mult uitate, cu minciuni și trădări. Renunțând la propriile convingeri legate de persoanele la care ține cel mai mult, Yasmin este, în același timp, obligată să se întrebe ce își dorește cu adevărat de la o relație și ce înseamnă, de fapt, o „căsătorie din dragoste”. Căsătorie din dragoste este o poveste despre cine suntem noi și cum iubim – cu toate complicațiile și contradicțiile legate de viață, dorință, căsătorie și familie. Ceea ce pare a fi, la prima vedere, o comedie socială captivantă devine o poveste sfâșietoare și emoționantă despre două culturi, două familii și doi oameni care încearcă să se înțeleagă unul pe celălalt."

Monica Ali (Author), Laura Nureldin (Narrator)

Audiobook

Brick Lane: A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation

"A stunning BBC radio adaptation of Monica Ali's bestselling, Booker-shortlisted novel 1985. Uprooted from her home in Bangladesh, 18-year-old Nazneen is sent to London for an arranged marriage with a much older man. Her new life is strange and bewildering - the busy streets and crowded tower blocks of the East End are a world away from the rural village she grew up in, and she struggles to adapt to living with her self-important husband, Chanu. Back in Bangladesh, Nazneen's sister Hasina has eloped with the man she loves, and been disowned by her family. Homesick and isolated, Nazneen reads her letters with envy, longing to have such independence and romance for herself. As the years pass, she devotes herself to becoming a dutiful wife and mother - and then she meets a passionate young radical, Karim, and finds herself drawn to him. Can she finally decide to take charge of her destiny? Monica Ali's stunning debut has become a modern classic. Published in 2003, its themes of immigrant identity and integration, racism and nationalism, free will and fate still resonate with us today. Dramatised by leading playwright Tanika Gupta, this enthralling adaptation was shortlisted for a BBC Audio Drama Award, and stars Anneika Rose, Zubin Varla, Chetna Pandya, Hiftu Quasem, Nina Wadia and Nikesh Patel. Written by Monica Ali Dramatised by Tanika Gupta Directed by Anne Isger Sound by Caleb Knightley, Ali Craig and Pete Ringrose Production Co-ordination by Luke MacGregor Production Assistance by Hannah O'Reilly A BBC Audio Production Cast Nazneen - Anneika Rose Chanu - Zubin Varla Razia - Chetna Pandya Hasina - Hiftu Quasem Mrs Islam - Nina Wadia Dr Azad - Neil D'Souza Karim - Nikesh Patel Tariq - Ragevan Vasan Shahana - Rameet Rauli Bibi - Riti Suthar Secretary - Gavi Singh Chera First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 7-14 August 2022 © 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd"

Monica Ali (Author), Anneika Rose, Full Cast, Hiftu Quasem, Nikesh Patel, Zubin Varla (Narrator)

Audiobook

Alentejo Blue

"Alentejo Blue is the story of the Portuguese village of Mamarrosa told through the lives of those who live there and those who are passing through - men and women, children and old people, locals, tourists and expatriates. An old man reflects on his long and troubled life in this beautiful and seemingly tranquil setting, and anticipates the return of Marco Afonso Rodrigues, the prodigal son of the village and a symbol of this now fast-changing world. The homecoming is the subject of much speculation, and when Marco does finally appear, villagers, tourists and expatriates are brought together and jealousies, passions and disappointments must inevitably collide..."

Monica Ali (Author), Clare Wille (Narrator)

Audiobook

Brick Lane

"Nazneen is a teenager forced into an arranged marriage with an older man and misery seems to stretch ahead for her. Fearfully leaving the sultry oppression of her Bangladeshi village, Nazneen finds herself cloistered in a small flat in a high-rise block in the East End of London. Because she speaks no English, she is obliged to depend totally on her husband. But it becomes apparent that, of the two, she is the real survivor..."

Monica Ali (Author), Meera Syal (Narrator)

Audiobook

Untold Story

"What if Princess Diana hadn't died? Diana's life and marriage were fairy tale and nightmare. Adored by millions, in her personal life she suffered heartbreak and betrayal. Within a life of privilege, she frequently felt trapped and alone. Constrained by protocol and precedent, she refused to follow the rules. Untold Story takes the life of the world's most famous woman as a point of departure, examining the past and imagining a future. The fictional princess who is the novel's heroine is at breaking point and, believing that the Establishment is plotting her assassination, she makes an irrevocable decision: to stage her own death and begin a new life under an assumed identity. After a period of intense upheaval, Lydia (as she is known) settles in small town America and establishes a fragile peace. It is threatened by thoughts of what she has lost: not the glamour and glitz of royalty but that which is most precious - her children. She is, at least, safe in the knowledge - having altered her appearance and ten years after her 'death' - that her secret will never be uncovered. But then a chance encounter with a member of the paparazzi robs her of that certainty. Will he recognize her? Should she flee or remain calm? Is there anyone she can trust and turn to, or will she inevitably be betrayed? Untold Story is a novel about family and friendship, intrigue and obsession, the meaning of identity, and the peculiar calamity of fame."

Monica Ali (Author), Emma Fielding, Nicholas Farrell (Narrator)

Audiobook

Brick Lane

"This exciting and deeply moving debut novel follows the tumultuous life of Nazneen from her birth in a Bangladeshi village hut, to her arranged marriage to Chanu and the subsequent move to London’s Tower Hamlets Nazneen’s inauspicious entry to the world, an apparent stillbirth on the hard mud floor of a Bangladeshi village hut, imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents when she is married off to Chanu. Her life in London’s Tower Hamlets is, on the surface, calm. For years, keeping house and rearing children, she does what is expected of her. Yet Nazneen walks a tightrope stretched between her daughters’ embarrassment and her husband’s resentments. Chanu calls his elder daughter the little memsahib. ‘I didn’t ask to be born here,’ say Shahana, with regular finality. Into that fragile peace walks Karim. He sets questions before her, of longing and belonging; he sparks in her a turmoil that reflects the community’s own; he opens her eyes and directs her gaze – but what she sees, in the end, comes as a suprise to them both. While Nazneen journeys along her path of self-realization, a way haunted by her mother’s ghost, her sister Hasina, back in Bangladesh, rushes headlong at her life, first making a ‘love marriage’, then fleeing her violent husband. Woven through the novel, Hasina’s letters from Dhaka recount a world of overwhelming adversity. Shaped – yet ultimately not bound – by their landscapes and memories, both sisters struggle to dream themselves out of the rules prescribed for them. Beautifully rendered and, by turns, both comic and deeply moving, Brick Lane establishes Monica Ali as one of the most exciting new voices in fiction."

Monica Ali (Author), Ayesha Dharker (Narrator)

Audiobook

Brick Lane

"Set in the gritty Tower Hamlets area of East London, Brick Laneis the story of Nazneen, an Asian immigrant girl and how she deals with issues of love, cultural differences and the human spirit. Nazneen is forced into an arranged marriage with a much older man whose expectations of life are miserably low. When they flee the oppression of their Bangladeshi village for a high-rise block in the East End, she finds herself cloistered and dependent on her husband. It soon becomes apparent that of the two, she is the real survivor and more able to deal with the ways of the world and the vagaries of human behavior. Through her friendship with another Asian girl, she begins to understand the unsettling ways of her new homeland."

Monica Ali (Author), Elizabeth Sastre (Narrator)

Audiobook