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A Constellation of Vital Phenomena: A Novel Audiobook, by Anthony Marra Play Audiobook Sample

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena: A Novel Audiobook

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena: A Novel Audiobook, by Anthony Marra Play Audiobook Sample
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Read By: Colette Whitaker Publisher: Random House Audio Listen Time: at 1.0x Speed 8.17 hours at 1.5x Speed 6.13 hours at 2.0x Speed Release Date: May 2013 Format: Unabridged Audiobook ISBN: 9780385363563

Quick Stats About this Audiobook

Total Audiobook Chapters:

115

Longest Chapter Length:

08:49 minutes

Shortest Chapter Length:

12 seconds

Average Chapter Length:

06:20 minutes

Audiobooks by this Author:

3

Other Audiobooks Written by Anthony Marra: > View All...

Publisher Description

A National Book Awards Longlist Selection A New York Times and Washington Post bestseller A story of the transcendent power of love in wartime, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is a work of sweeping breadth, profound compassion, and lasting significance.   Two doctors risk everything to save the life of a hunted child in this majestic debut about love, loss, and the unexpected ties that bind us together. “On the morning after the Feds burned down her house and took her father, Havaa woke from dreams of sea anemones.” Havaa, eight years old, hides in the woods and watches the blaze until her neighbor, Akhmed, discovers her sitting in the snow. Akhmed knows getting involved means risking his life, and there is no safe place to hide a child in a village where informers will do anything for a loaf of bread, but for reasons of his own, he sneaks her through the forest to the one place he thinks she might be safe: an abandoned hospital where the sole remaining doctor, Sonja Rabina, treats the wounded. Though Sonja protests that her hospital is not an orphanage, Akhmed convinces her to keep Havaa for a trial, and over the course of five extraordinary days, Sonja’s world will shift on its axis and reveal the intricate pattern of connections that weaves together the pasts of these three unlikely companions and unexpectedly decides their fate.

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“NarratorColette Whitaker does a beautiful job with this stunningly accomplished firstnovel. Set in a tiny Chechen village during the wars, the story deals withhuman beings under the worst kinds of pressure life or art can devise and looksat them straight on, with sympathy and depth and mercy. Whitaker must deal withRussian and Chechen accents; voices of men, women, and children; and charactersthat seem at first to be irredeemable but whose humanity is never in doubt.Again and again in this remarkable work you think you know what has happenedand what it means, only to have it go wider and deeper. Whitaker's voice islovely, and her command of her craft is deft and sure. You won’t soon forgetit. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award.”

— AudioFile

Quotes

  • “Powerful, convincing, beautifully realized--it's hard to believe that A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is a first novel. Anthony Marra is a writer to watch and savor.”

    — T. C. Boyle, New York Times bestselling author
  • “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is simply spectacular. Not since Everything is Illuminated have I read a first novel so ambitious and fully realized. If this is where Anthony Marra begins his career, I can't imagine how far he will go.”

    — Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author
  • “With remarkable pathos and a surprising amount of humor, Marra keeps the focus on the relationships, struggles, and tiny triumphs of an unforgettable group of characters...Marra creates a specific and riveting world around his characters, expertly revealing the unexpected connections among them…This novel, full of humanity and hope, ultimately leaves you uplifted. Constellation deserves to be on the short list for every major award. It’s an absolute masterpiece.”

    — Entertainment Weekly
  • “Extraordinary....a twenty-first-century War and Peace…Marra seems to derive his astral calm in the face of catastrophe directly from Tolstoy.”

    — New York Times Book Review
  • “A flash in the heavens that makes you look up and believe in miracles....Here, in fresh, graceful prose, is a profound story that dares to be as tender as it is ghastly, a story about desperate lives in a remote land that will quickly seem impossibly close and important...I haven’t been so overwhelmed by a novel in years. At the risk of raising your expectations too high, I have to say you simply must read this book.”

    — Washington Post
  • “[A Constellation of Vital Phenomena] pulls together blown-out bits of a world turned inside-out to create a brutal form of beauty from chaos…Its prose is also ruefully funny in places and littered throughout with dazzling poetry.”

    — Chicago Tribune
  • “A powerful tale....The moment Akhmed walks into the hospital with Havaa…rivals anything Michael Ondaatje has written in its emotional force....There are many reasons to read A Constellation of Vital Phenomena....to marvel at the lack of fear in a writer so young. To read a book that can bring tears to your eyes and force laughter from your lungs....But the one I kept returning to, the best reason to read this novel, is that this story reminds us how senseless killing often wrenches kindness through extreme circumstances.”

    — Boston Globe
  • “Over and over again, this is an examination of the ways in which many broken pieces come together to make a new whole. In exquisite imagery, Marra tends carefully to the twisted strands of grace and tragedy....Everything in A Constellation of Vital Phenomena...is dignified with a hoping, aching heartbeat.”

    — San Francisco Chronicle
  • “Excellent.”

    — New York magazine
  • “Marra…writes dense prose full of elegant detail about the physical and emotional destruction of occupation and war.”

    — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
  • “An extraordinary first novel.”

    — Booklist (starred review)
  • “Affecting and harrowing…A decade of war in Chechnya informs this multivalent, heartfelt debut, filled with broken families, lost limbs, and valiant efforts to find scraps of hope and dignity.”

    — Kirkus Reviews
  • “A novel of loyalty and sacrifice and enduring love. You’ll finish it transformed.”

    — Maile Meloy, author of Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It

Awards

  • Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award
  • Selected for the May 2013 Indie Next List
  • Winner of the 2013 Barnes & Noble Discover Award for Fiction
  • A 2013 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize Finalist
  • A 2013 National Book Award Nominee for Fiction
  • A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2013
  • New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books, 2013
  • A 2013 New York Times Editor’s Choice
  • Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books, 2013
  • A 2013 Washington Post Top 10 Book for Fiction
  • A 2013 Booklist Editors’ Choice for Adult Books
  • An Amazon Top 100 Book of 2013
  • A New York Times bestseller
  • A Washington Post bestseller
  • A 2014 ALA Notable Book for Adult Fiction
  • A Kansas City Star Top 100 Book of 2013
  • A 2013 Chicago Tribune Book of the Year
  • A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2013
  • A Christian Science Monitor Book of the Year for 2013
  • A 2013 BookPage Best Book
  • An NPR bestseller
  • Winner of the 2014 Indies Choice Book Award for Book of the Year: Adult Debut
  • Winner of the 2014 California Gold Medal for Literature

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About Anthony Marra

Anthony Marra is the New York Times bestselling author of The Tsar of Love and Techno and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and longlisted for the National Book Award.

About Colette Whitaker

Colette Whitaker is a voice actor for national television and radio campaigns, as well as for video games and movies. Her film credits include WALL-E, Toy Story 3, and Monsters University.