The Black Isle Audiobook

Quotes

• “Destined to be among summer’s sleeper hits is filmmaker Sandi Tan’s gulpable first novel…A juicy psychosexual odyssey set against some of the more blood-curdling episodes of twentieth-century Asian history.”

  — Vogue

• “Sarah Zimmerman’s performance of Sandi Tan’s debut novel demands attention…Zimmerman recounts Ling’s paranormal, erotic, frequently grotesque observations with controlled understatement. Fascinating.”

  — AudioFile

• “Tan’s ambitious debut is a gripping historical novel set on an exotic island…Tan’s imagination seems boundless…Conveying an atmosphere of corruption, violence, and betrayal, Tan anchors the narrative with authoritative details of time and place, and social and ethnic rituals…Mesmerizing.”

  — Publishers Weekly

• “Tan constructs a debut novel that is beautifully written yet deeply disturbing. Gritty and intensely erotic, it grips readers with Cassandra’s visions while pushing them away with the brutality of her life. Not a story for the faint of heart, it will engage those looking for a gothic depiction of WWII in Asia and the ghosts that haunt us.”

  — Library Journal

• “Tan reveals a rich imagination and a lush style in this first novel…A frequently riveting if grisly story that will sweep readers into the action.”

  — Booklist

• “A cinematically epic ghost story…compelling…ambitious.”

  — Kirkus Reviews

• “On the Black Isle, a young woman grows old with the twentieth century, haunting her own life as history conspires to render her a secret. Sweeping in scope, impressively imagined, ruthlessly readable.”

  — Steve Erickson, author of These Dreams of You

• On The Black Isle, a young woman grows old with the Twentieth Century, haunting her own life as history conspires to render her a secret. Sweeping in scope, impressively imagined, ruthlessly readable.

  — Steve Erickson, author of These Dreams of You

• Rich in vivid characters, and written with great imagination and intelligence, The Black Isle is a remarkable novel. A haunting book, mesmerizing in its beauty, which stayed with me long after I finished the last page.

  — Judith Freeman, author of The Long Embrace and Red Water

• The narrator of The Black Isle recounts her tales of fantastic events -- erotic, supernatural, horrific -- so convincingly that Tarot cards might as well be baseball cards in her book. An irresistible feat of storytelling, The Black Isle blends what Midnight's Children did for the former Bombay with what Dorothy did for Oz.

  — Tom Carson, author of Gilligan's Wake and Daisy Buchanan's Daughter