Audiobooks narrated by Meera Simhan

In this stunning sequel to The Breadwinner Trilogy, Parvana, now 15-years-old, is found in a bombed-out school and held as a suspected terrorist by American troops in Afghanistan. The girl does not respond to questions in any language and remains silent, even when she is threatened, harassed, and mistreated over several days. The only clue to her identity is a tattered shoulder bag containing papers that refer to people named Shauzia, Nooria, Leila, Asif, Hassan -- and Parvana. As she waits for foreign military forces to determine her fate, she remembers the past four years of her life. Reunited with her mother and sisters, she has been living in a village where her mother managed to open a school for girls. But when local men threaten the school, she must draw on every ounce of bravery she possesses to survive the disaster that kills her mother and destroys the school. Ellis' final novel in the series is harrowing, inspiring, and thought-provoking.

Deborah Ellis (Author), Meera Simhan (Narrator)

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The Devourers

For readers of Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, China Miéville, and David Mitchell comes a striking debut novel by a storyteller of keen insight and captivating imagination. On a cool evening in Kolkata, India, beneath a full moon, as the whirling rhythms of traveling musicians fill the night, college professor Alok encounters a mysterious stranger with a bizarre confession and an extraordinary story. Tantalized by the man's unfinished tale, Alok will do anything to hear its completion. So Alok agrees, at the stranger's behest, to transcribe a collection of battered notebooks, weathered parchments, and once-living skins. From these documents spills the chronicle of a race of people at once more than human yet kin to beasts, ruled by instincts and desires blood-deep and ages-old. The tale features a rough wanderer in seventeenth-century Mughal India who finds himself irrevocably drawn to a defiant woman-and destined to be torn asunder by two clashing worlds. With every passing chapter of beauty and brutality, Alok's interest in the stranger grows and evolves into something darker and more urgent. Shifting dreamlike between present and past with intoxicating language, visceral action, compelling characters, and stark emotion, The Devourers offers a reading experience quite unlike any other novel. Advance praise for The Devourers "A wholly original, primal tale of love, violence, and transformation . . . I've never read anything quite like it."-Pierce Brown, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Red Rising Trilogy "Astonishing . . . a narrative that takes possession of you and pulls you along in its wake."-M. R. Carey, author of The Girl with All the Gifts "Every sentence of this ferocious and extraordinary book pulses with life. An absolute masterpiece."-Daniel José Older, author of Half-Resurrection Blues "Profoundly moving and endlessly inventive."-Ken Liu, World Fantasy Award-winning author of The Grace of Kings "This book will leave you breathless. You've never read anything like it, and you won't forget it anytime soon."-Mallory O'Meara, filmmaker "Das's brutal, intoxicating, and gorgeously visceral debut merges an often mythic sensibility with an appreciation for the coarse beauty of the everyday."-Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Intense and thrilling . . . Indra Das's writing is powerful and precise."-Kim Stanley Robinson, author of Red Mars "Lush, dark, deep, and truly extraordinary, The Devourers is a transformative and spellbinding story like no other."-Lila Bowen, author of Wake of Vultures (RT Book Reviews Fantasy Novel of the Year) "The Devourers is a hallucination disguised as a novel. One moment its vision spans centuries and a thousand lives; the next you're transfixed by the sound of an insect in flight, or a jewel of blood dripping from an open wound."-Peter Watts, author of Blindsight "Like no other imaginary realm I've visited, the land of The Devourers shimmers with rapturously visceral details."-Nisi Shawl, James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award-winning author "Postmodern and historical, massive in scale and heartbreakingly intimate, fragmented and a powerful whole, it's so many marvelous things, all at once."-Carmen Maria Machado, Nebula and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author

Indra Das (Author), Meena Simhan, Meera Simhan, Shishir Kurup (Narrator)

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Goodbye Stranger

Masterly. . . . Sensitively explores togetherness, aloneness, betrayal and love. The New York Times Book Review2016 Honor Book in Fiction, Boston Globe Horn Book AwardA NYT Editors' Choice and NYT Notable Children's Books of 2015This brilliant novel by Newbery Medal winner Rebecca Stead explores multiple perspectives on the bonds and limits of friendship.Bridge is an accident survivor who's wondering why she's still alive. Emily has new curves and an almost-boyfriend who wants a certain kind of picture. Tabitha sees through everybody's games or so she tells the world. The three girls are best friends with one rule: No fighting.Can it get them through seventh grade?This year everything is different for Sherm Russo as he gets to know Bridge Barsamian. What does it mean to fall for a girl as a friend?On Valentine's Day, an unnamed high school girl struggles with a betrayal. How long can she hide in plain sight?Each memorable character navigates the challenges of love and change in this captivating novel. Praise for Goodbye StrangerSix Starred ReviewsPublishers Weekly Best Books of 2015School Library Journal Best Books of 2015Booklist Editor's Choice 2015The Horn Book's Fanfare: Best Books of 2015The Washington Post Best Books of 2015The New York Times Notable Children's Books of 2015This astonishingly profound novel is not your average middle-school friendship tale. The Horn Book, StarredStead shows how strongly love of all kinds can smooth the juddering path toward adulthood. Winsome, bighearted, and altogether rewarding. Booklist, Starred[Stead] captures the stomach-churning moments of a misstep or an unplanned betrayal and reworks these events with grace, humor, and polish into possibilities for kindness and redemption. Superb. Kirkus Reviews, StarredThis memorable story about female friendships, silly bets, different kinds of love, and bad decisions is authentic in detail and emotion. Publishers Weekly, StarredFilled with humor [and] delightful coincidences. . . . An immensely satisfying addition for Stead's many fans. School Library Journal, Starred'The author as usual deftly interweaves her plot strands into an organic whole, and between the multifocal plot and the exploration on growth and self-recognition. . .deeply explores mistakes, and forgiveness, and growing away from people as well as toward them.' The Bulletin, StarredThis eloquent story of friendship, first love, and identity will resonate powerfully with readers. VOYA, Perfect Ten'Stead raises questions about whether a relationship can survive change. If someone makes a mistake, can you forgive the person, if not the act? Can two people reconcile, if they are both willing to process what happened? Or is the change more systemic--has one of you become a stranger? . . . It's a question all of the characters ask themselves at some point in Stead's perfectly synchronized novel.' Shelf AwarenessFrom the Hardcover edition.

Rebecca Stead (Author), Kimberly Farr, Kirby Heyborne, Meera Simhan (Narrator)

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The Tyrant's Daughter

From a former CIA officer comes the riveting account of a royal Middle Eastern family exiled to the American suburbs. When her father is killed in a coup, 15-year-old Laila flees from the war-torn middle east to a life of exile and anonymity in the U.S. Gradually she adjusts to a new school, new friends, and a new culture, but while Laila sees opportunity in her new life, her mother is focused on the past. She’s conspiring with CIA operatives and rebel factions to regain the throne their family lost. Laila can’t bear to stand still as an international crisis takes shape around her, but how can one girl stop a conflict that spans generations? J.C. Carleson delivers a fascinating account of a girl—and a country—on the brink, and a rare glimpse at the personal side of international politics. "Every American should read this book. It's an eye-opener." —Suzanne Fisher Staples, Newbery Honor-winning author of Shabanu *Bonus Backmatter includes a note about the author's CIA past, and a commentary by RAND researcher and president of ARCH International, Dr. Cheryl Benard. Recommendations for further reading are also included.

J. C. Carleson, J.C. Carleson (Author), Cheryl Benard, J. C. Carleson, J.C. Carleson, Meera Simhan (Narrator)

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Close Your Eyes

In Close Your Eyes, the author of the bestselling How to Be Lost spins another mesmerizing tale of buried family secrets. For most of her life, Lauren Mahdian has been certain of two things: that her mother is dead, and that her father is a murderer. Before the horrific tragedy, Lauren led a sheltered life in a wealthy corner of America, in a town outside Manhattan on the banks of Long Island Sound, a haven of luxurious homes, manicured lawns, and seemingly perfect families. Here Lauren and her older brother, Alex, thought they were safe. But one morning, six-year-old Lauren and eight-year-old Alex awoke after a night spent in their tree house to discover their mother's body and their beloved father arrested for the murder. Years later, Lauren is surrounded by uncertainty. Her one constant is Alex, always her protector, still trying to understand the unraveling of his idyllic childhood. But Lauren feels even more alone when Alex reveals that he's been in contact over the years with their imprisoned father—and that he believes he and his sister have yet to learn the full story of their mother's death. Then Alex disappears. As Lauren is forced to peek under the floorboards of her carefully constructed memories, she comes to question the version of her history that she has clung to so fiercely. Lauren's search for the truth about what happened on that fateful night so many years ago is a riveting tale that will keep readers feverishly turning pages.

Amanda Eyre Ward (Author), Meera Simhan, Phoebe Zimmermann (Narrator)

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I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced

I'm a simple village girl who has always obeyed the orders of my father and brothers. Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today I have decided to say no. Nujood Ali's childhood came to an abrupt end in 2008 when her father arranged for her to be married to a man three times her age. With harrowing directness, Nujood tells of abuse at her husband's hands and of her daring escape. With the help of local advocates and the press, Nujood obtained her freedom an extraordinary achievement in Yemen, where almost half of all girls are married under the legal age. Nujood's courageous defiance of both Yemeni customs and her own family has inspired other young girls in the Middle East to challenge their marriages. Hers is an unforgettable story of tragedy, triumph, and courage. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Nujood Ali (Author), Meera Simhan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Mud City

That was where she needed to be, in a field of purple flowers, where no one could bother her. She would sit there until the confusion left her head and the stink of the camp left her nostrils. Shauzia has a dream. She dreams of getting away from the refugee camp in Pakistan and travelling to France. There she knows she would find a better life, away from the war in her home country of Afghanistan... But escape is not so easy. Once she leaves the camp, she has no money, no food–and only her dog Jasper for company. But Shauzia is determined to find a new future for herself... From the Compact Disc edition.

Deborah Ellis (Author), Meera Simhan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Parvana's Journey

My life is dust and rocks and rude boys and skinny babies, and long days of searching for my mother when I don't have the faintest idea where she might be.' Parvana is alone. Her father is dead. A refugee in a land full of dangers, she must travel across Afghanistan to find her mother and sisters. As she travels, Parvana finds friends - a starving, orphaned baby; a strange, hostile boy; a solitary girl who darts in and out of the minefields to find food. Perhaps, with their help, she may one day be reunited with her family...

Deborah Ellis (Author), Meera Simhan (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Blue Notebook

Dear Reader: Every now and then, we come across a novel that moves us like no other, that seems like a miracle of the imagination, and that haunts us long after the book is closed. James Levine’s The Blue Notebook is that kind of book. It is the story of Batuk, an Indian girl who is taken to Mumbai from the countryside and sold into prostitution by her father; the blue notebook is her diary, in which she recalls her early childhood, records her life on the Common Street, and makes up beautiful and fantastic tales about a silver-eyed leopard and a poor boy who fells a giant with a single gold coin. How did Levine, a British-born doctor at the Mayo Clinic, manage to conjure the voice of a fifteen-year-old female Indian prostitute? It all began, he told me, when, as part of his medical research, he was interviewing homeless children on a street in Mumbai known as the Street of Cages, where child prostitutes work. A young woman writing in a notebook outside her cage caught Levine’s attention. The powerful image of a young prostitute engaged in the act of writing haunted him, and he himself began to write. The Blue Notebook brings us into the life of a young woman for whom stories are not just entertainment but a means of survival. Even as the novel humanizes and addresses the devastating global issue of child prostitution, it also delivers an inspiring message about the uplifting power of words and reading–a message that is so important to hold on to, especially in difficult times. Dr. Levine is donating all his U.S. proceeds from this book to help exploited children. Batuk’s story can make a difference. Sincerely, Celina Spiegel Publisher

James A. Levine (Author), Meera Simhan (Narrator)

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The Inheritance of Loss

In a crumbling, isolated house at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas lives an embittered judge who wants only to retire in peace, when his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, arrives on his doorstep. The judge's cook watches over her distractedly, for his thoughts are often on his son, Biju, who is hopscotching from one gritty New York restaurant to another. Kiran Desai's brilliant novel, published to huge acclaim, is a story of joy and despair. Her characters face numerous choices that majestically illuminate the consequences of colonialism as it collides with the modern world.

Kiran Desai (Author), Meera Simhan (Narrator)

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Alphabet of Dreams

Mitra and her little brother, Babak, are beggars in the city of Rhagae, scratching out a living as best as they can with what they can beg for–or steal. But Mitra burns with hope and ambition, for she and Babak are not what they seem. They are of royal blood, but their father’s ill-fated plot against the evil tyrant, King Phraates, has resulted in their father’s death and their exile. Now disguised as a boy, Mitra has never given up believing they can rejoin what is left of their family and regain their rightful standing in the world. Then they discover that Babak has a strange gift: If he sleeps with an item belonging to someone, he can know that person’s dreams. Soon Babak and his abilities come to the attention of a powerful Magus–one who has read portents in the stars of the coming of a new king and the dawn of a new age. Soon Mitra and Babak find themselves on the road to Bethlehem . . . The acclaimed author of Shadow Spinner returns to ancient Persia in this spellbinding saga–a tale filled with the color of the caravansaries and the heat of the desert, a tale that reimagines the wonder and spirit of a lost age.

Susan Fletcher (Author), Meera Simhan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Meera Simhan