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The Morningside: A Novel Audiobook
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From the critically beloved, New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger’s Wife and Inland, a sweeping novel of mothers and daughters, displacement and belonging, and wondrous tales of a world both fallen and new
“A multifaceted gift of a novel that only Téa Obreht could conjure onto paper.”—Karen Russell, author of Orange World and Other Stories
There’s the world you can see. And then there’s the one you can’t. Welcome to the Morningside.
After being expelled from their ancestral home in a not-so-distant future, Silvia and her mother finally settle at the Morningside, a crumbling luxury tower in a place called Island City where Silvia’s aunt Ena serves as the superintendent. Silvia feels unmoored in her new life because her mother has been so diligently secretive about their family’s past, and because the once-vibrant city where she lives is now half-underwater. Silvia knows almost nothing about the place where she was born and spent her early years, nor does she fully understand why she and her mother had to leave. But in Ena there is an opening: a person willing to give the young girl glimpses into the folktales of her demolished homeland, a place of natural beauty and communal spirit that is lacking in Silvia’s lonely and impoverished reality.
Enchanted by Ena’s stories, Silvia begins seeing the world with magical possibilities and becomes obsessed with the mysterious older woman who lives in the penthouse of the Morningside. Bezi Duras is an enigma to everyone in the building: She has her own elevator entrance and leaves only to go out at night and walk her three massive hounds, often not returning until the early morning. Silvia’s mission to unravel the truth about this woman’s life, and her own haunted past, may end up costing her everything.
Startling, inventive, and profoundly moving, The Morningside is a novel about the stories we tell—and the stories we refuse to tell—to make sense of where we came from and who we hope we might become.
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"The Morningside is a multifaceted gift of a novel that only Téa Obreht could conjure onto paper—a prismatic exploration of how we survive with ongoing loss, how we build and rebuild meaning together in the wake of disaster, and how tomorrow’s children might navigate a future world of profound uncertainty and precarity. Obreht is such an expert and generous storyteller, infusing The Morningside with the pleasures of folklore and fairy tale while simultaneously diving deep into the silences and irreconcilable contradictions in the stories we inherit about the past."
— Karen Russell, author of Orange World and Other Stories
Quotes
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The Morningside is like nothing I’ve read—at once playful and profound, harrowing and tender, a sparklingly original story of coming-of-age in a broken world.
— Karen Thompson Walker, author of The Dreamers and The Age of Miracles -
Imagine a Ballardian dystopia injected with a double dose of magic realism, so that the pages seem to glow. . . . An ideal novel in which all is invented and everything is true. I loved it.
— Ed Park, author of Same Bed Different Dreams -
Fresh and immensely gripping, The Morningside is a rich saga of migration and the search for belonging, bravely imagining our capacity for survival and love in an uncertain future. Obreht’s prose dazzles with precision and tremendous beauty, cementing her stature among the finest writers of her generation. . . . A stunning achievement.
— Claire Vaye Watkins, author of I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness -
The Morningside is a multi-faceted gift of a novel that only Tea Obreht could conjure onto paper—a prismatic exploration of how we survive with ongoing loss, how we build and rebuild meaning together in the wake of disaster, and how tomorrow's children might navigate a future world of profound uncertainty and precarity. Obreht is such an expert and generous storyteller, infusing The Morningside with the pleasures of folklore and fairytale while simultaneously diving into the deep silences and irreconcilable contradictions in adult stories about the past.
— Karen Russell, author of Orange World -
The dreamlike novel draws on elements of folklore and fairy tales for a narrative set eerily close to present day that explores environmental collapse and human resilience.
— TIME -
Imagine a Ballardian dystopia injected with a double dose of magic realism, so that the pages seem to glow. . . . An ideal novel in which all is invented and everything is true. I loved it.
— Ed Park, author of Same Bed Different Dreams -
Fresh and immensely gripping, The Morningside is a rich saga of migration and the search for belonging, bravely imagining our capacity for survival and love in an uncertain future. Obreht’s prose dazzles with precision and tremendous beauty, cementing her stature among the finest writers of her generation. . . . A stunning achievement.
— Claire Vaye Watkins, author of I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness -
The Morningside is like nothing I’ve read—at once playful and profound, harrowing and tender, a sparklingly original story of coming of age in a broken world.
— Karen Thompson Walker, author of The Dreamers -
Obreht imagines a near future reshaped by climate change, where a mother and daughter try to build a new life in a once-luxe high-rise.
— Publishers Weekly -
The dreamlike novel draws on elements of folklore and fairy tales for a narrative set eerily close to present day that explores environmental collapse and human resilience.
— Time -
After fleeing their home, Silvia and her mother have relocated to a crumbling luxury tower—the Morningside—in a not-so-distant future where their city is half underwater. This touching and inventive novel follows a young woman searching for meaning and belonging, both through her loving aunt’s stories and the enigmatic resident of the building’s penthouse suite.
— Oprah Daily -
Obreht is offering a cautionary vision of what our future might look like, but she’s also asking questions that are as old as storytelling. What do we want to tell ourselves about ourselves? What do we try to hide from ourselves? And what’s the cost of our lives?
— Kirkus Reviews, starred review -
Obreht is such an expert and generous storyteller, infusing The Morningside with the pleasures of folklore and fairy tale while simultaneously diving deep into the silences and irreconcilable contradictions in the stories we inherit about the past.
— Karen Russell, author of Orange World and Other Stories -
Fresh and immensely gripping, The Morningside is a rich saga of migration and the search for belonging, bravely imagining our capacity for survival and love in an uncertain future. . . . A stunning achievement.
— Claire Vaye Watkins, author of I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness -
As in her previous richly imagined and profoundly insightful novels . . . Obreht writes at the crossroads of myth and history, but here with a twist as she envisions a catastrophic tomorrow in which rampaging forces of nature and human atrocities intensify in impact and scope. . . . A bewitchingly atmospheric, psychologically lush, and deeply knowing tale of ancient sorrows and coalescing crises, courage and fortitude.
— Booklist (starred review) -
Obreht is offering a cautionary vision of what our future might look like, but she’s also asking questions that are as old as storytelling. What do we want to tell ourselves about ourselves? What do we try to hide from ourselves? And what’s the cost of our lives?
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) -
As in her previous richly imagined and profoundly insightful novels . . . Obreht writes at the crossroads of myth and history, but here with a twist as she envisions a catastrophic tomorrow in which rampaging forces of nature and human atrocities intensify in impact and scope. . . . A bewitchingly atmospheric, psychologically lush, and deeply knowing tale of ancient sorrows and coalescing crises, courage and fortitude.
— Booklist (starred review) -
As in her previous richly imagined and profoundly insightful novels . . . Obreht writes at the crossroads of myth and history, but here with a twist as she envisions a catastrophic tomorrow in which rampaging forces of nature and human atrocities intensify in impact and scope. . . . A bewitchingly atmospheric, psychologically lush, and deeply knowing tale of ancient sorrows and coalescing crises, courage and fortitude.
— Booklist (starred review) -
Obreht draws upon plausible dystopian and postapocalyptic futures and strong elements from Serbian folktales, as well as magical realism. The result is a strange, almost dreamlike novel, distinctive for its memorable characters and beautiful writing.
— Library Journal -
This touching and inventive novel follows a young woman searching for meaning and belonging, both through her loving aunt’s stories and the enigmatic resident of the building’s penthouse suite.
— Oprah Daily -
An astounding rethink of the mother-daughter narrative.
— Real Simple -
Try to read ten pages of this book and resist its fairy dust. . . . Obreht is a pure, natural storyteller with a direct hotline to the collective unconsciousness.
— Star Tribune -
A bewitchingly atmospheric, psychologically lush, and deeply knowing tale of ancient sorrows and coalescing crises, courage and fortitude.
— Booklist (starred review) -
Satisfyingly unsettling . . . Obreht addresses this truism with startling freshness in this entertaining work.
— BookPage
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About Téa Obreht
Téa Obreht was born in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia in 1985 and has lived in the United States since the age of twelve. Her writing has been published in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Harper’s, and the Guardian, and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. She has been named by the New Yorker as one of the twenty best American fiction writers under forty. She lives in New York.
About Carlotta Brentan
Carlotta Brentan is a voice talent and audiobook narrator.