Play Audiobook Sample
The Shawl Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(3.02) - 1,225 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
Two award-winning works of fiction by one of America's finest writers, together in one collection.
In "The Shawl," a woman named Rosa Lublin watches a concentration camp guard murder her daughter. In "Rosa," that same woman appears thirty years later, "a mad woman and a scavenger" in a Miami hotel. She has no life in the present because her past will never end. In both stories, there is a shawl—a shawl that can sustain a starving child, inadvertently destroy her, or magically conjure her back to life.
Both stories were originally published in the New Yorker in the 1980s; each was included in the annual Best American Short Stories and awarded First Prize in the annual O. Henry Prize Stories collection. Each succeeds in imagining the unimaginable: the horror of the Holocaust and the unfillable emptiness of its aftermath. Fiercely immediate, complex, and unforgettable, each is a masterwork by a writer the New York Times hailed as "the most accomplished and graceful literary stylist of our time."
Download and start listening now!
"This book, within the first ten pages, manages to accomplish what other authors often fail to achieve in three to four hundred. Cynthia Ozick captures the reader immediately with her intimate tone as she lovingly speaks of the infant -- swaddled in a shawl -- that she carries while walking with a companion down a seemingly endless road. A road leading to a concentration camp. The book refrains from going into detail of the Holocaust, its Soldiers and descriptions of horrid treatment endured by millions and instead, focuses on this small band of three as they make their way. It is a story of a mother's love and decisions made. It is a haunting story which will remain with you long after you've closed its pages."
— Mikki (4 out of 5 stars)
The Shawl Listener Reviews
-
—
Jonathan, 1/23/2022
-
" Cynthia Ozick’s, The Shawl, is a work in the short story genre. I personally did not connect with the story, even though I understand its power. The author’s language is vivid, colorful, sharp, and emotive. I actually once heard the author speak and read some of her work – She was really remarkable. The present audio-reader has some kind of accent which I did not find appealing. "
— Jonathan, 7/26/2017 -
" this is the first work of ozick's that i've read and i was impressed with her knack for character. i wish it wouldn't have ended so soon. "
— Brett, 2/19/2014 -
" An extraordinary little book about the power of love in the face of unimaginable evil. Writing like this is the reason that I read. "
— Paul, 2/13/2014 -
" The two short stories in this book complement each other nicely and, told in prose filled to the brim with emotion, are a moving testament to the destructive power of the Holocaust. "
— Meg, 2/11/2014 -
" One of the most ethically complex, psychologically accurate, and beautifully written books about the Holocaust and its lasting effects on a survivor ever written. I can't recommend this one highly enough. "
— Okla, 2/3/2014 -
" This book includes The Shawl (a short story) and Rosa (a novella). The Shawl was a wrenching story, and as such I had a hard time listening to it. Rosa was much more interesting, but it had a fairly abrupt ending that seemed to leave the reader hanging, although it is perfectly set up for a continuation of the story at some point. "
— Laura, 2/2/2014 -
" Powerful and painful. "
— Julian, 1/26/2014 -
" i know there's a big scandal around writing Holocaust fiction, but this book, while a quick read, still maintained integrety while painting a real enough picture to make you forget this wasn't, in fact, reality. it's also not written to shock and awe... just to tell a story. "
— Jaime, 1/18/2014 -
" I get too caught up in the poetry of Ozick and I lose the story. She reads more like a poetry, which is probably why I liked the short story a lot more than the novella. I had to struggle to stay in it. "
— Ris, 1/12/2014 -
" I had never read the second part of this story. It's haunting, uncomfortable, an imagined document of hell and its aftermath. "
— Joanna, 12/15/2013 -
" Oh good lord, fabulous. Perfect. Wonderful. "
— Aby, 12/8/2013 -
" Shocking. "
— Renee, 10/16/2013 -
" Haunting and beautiful holocaust short story "
— Miranda, 9/19/2013 -
" Another book about a difficult subject but very well written, not a wonderful book but worth reading. "
— Gloria, 7/21/2013 -
" This was actually two short stories. The Shawl was brutally short. Rosa was a bit longer and I admit to wanting a less ambiguous ending. But overall, I highly recommend both. "
— Ladykaren, 3/26/2013 -
" Very well-written, but tough due to the subject matter. "
— Seraphic, 3/25/2013 -
" I read this in my Literature of the Holocaust class, so be warned. It is short - barely more than 100 pages - but gripping and full of raw (and badly healing) emotion. A story of mother love in the worst of times. "
— Dana, 1/27/2013 -
" It was a difficult book to read. The first story was so sad. In the second story the main character, Rosa, was in such a troubled mental state it was hard to understand her and some of her actions. I do enjoy reading WWII based books and am glad I read it. "
— Ginna, 1/1/2013 -
" A short story about the Holocaust and a novella about the aftermath. I'm wondering how this got on my TBR list because it is amazing in its pain and beauty. "
— Kristen, 10/4/2012 -
" Powerful short story. "
— Rachel, 8/23/2012 -
" Excellent writing, but I'm sorry, I don't like books like this. I want to see how the character has acted nobly, or grown, etc... "
— Jerianna, 4/3/2012
About Cynthia Ozick
Cynthia Ozick is the author of several books and a recipient of the PEN/Nabokov Award, the PEN/Malamud Award for fiction, and a National Book Critics Circle winner for criticism.
About Yelena Shmulenson
Yelena Shmulenson is an actress and Earphones Award–winning audiobook narrator. She emigrated to the United States with her family in 1993 from Ukraine. Her theater credits include five seasons with the Folksbiene, two seasons at the Ellis Island Theatre, Enemies: A Love Story in Russian, and The Essence: A Yiddish Theater Dim Sum. On film, she can be seen in The Good Shepherd, Romeo & Juliet in Yiddish, Fire at the Triangle, and A Serious Man.