
Sacred Hunger
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $23.36
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
David Rintoul
-
By:
-
Barry Unsworth
About this listen
Man Booker Prize Winner, 1992
Sacred Hunger is a stunning and engrossing exploration of power, domination, and greed. Filled with the "sacred hunger" to expand its empire and its profits, England entered fully into the slave trade and spread the trade throughout its colonies.
In this Booker Prize-winning work, Barry Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son, who needs a fortune because he is in love with an upper-class woman; and his nephew, who sails on the ship as its doctor because he has lost all he has loved. The voyage meets its demise when disease spreads among the slaves and the captain's drastic response provokes a mutiny. Joining together, the sailors and the slaves set up a secret, utopian society in the wilderness of Florida, only to await the vengeance of the single-minded young Kemp.
©1992 Barry Unsworth (P)2012 AudioGO Ltd.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Promise
- By: Damon Galgut
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Haunted by an unmet promise, the Swart family loses touch after the death of their matriarch. Adrift, the lives of the three siblings move separately through the uncharted waters of South Africa; Anton, the golden boy who bitterly resents his life’s unfulfilled potential; Astrid, whose beauty is her power; and the youngest, Amor, whose life is shaped by a nebulous feeling of guilt.
-
-
Excellent novel
- By ALG on 11-09-21
By: Damon Galgut
-
The Quality of Mercy
- A Novel
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Barry Unsworth returns to the terrain of his Booker Prize-winning novel Sacred Hunger, this time following Sullivan, the Irish fiddler, and Erasmus Kemp, son of a Liverpool slave ship owner who hanged himself. It is the spring of 1767, and to avenge his father's death, Erasmus Kemp has had the rebellious sailors of his father's ship, including Sullivan, brought back to London to stand trial on charges of mutiny and piracy.
-
-
Great follow up to Sacred Hunger
- By Angela on 04-29-12
By: Barry Unsworth
-
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
- By: Shehan Karunatilaka
- Narrated by: Shivantha Wijesinha
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida—war photographer, gambler, and closet queen—has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira Lake and he has no idea who killed him. In a country where scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers, and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts with grudges who cluster round can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali.
-
-
Absolutely Splendid...
- By Paul Frandano on 02-07-23
-
The Ruby in Her Navel
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: Andrew Sachs
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thurstan, a young Norman and would-be Knight at the Court of King Roger in Palermo, has been in love since boyhood with Lady Alicia, now returned a widow from the Holy Land. Thurstan soon finds himself caught in a tangle of plots.
-
-
A Well-Earned Five Stars for this Gem
- By Ilana on 12-11-14
By: Barry Unsworth
-
Morality Play
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the late 14th century, a dangerous time beset by war and plague. Nicholas Barber, a young and wayward cleric, stumbles across a group of travelling players and compounds his sins by joining them. Yet the town where they perform reveals another drama: a young woman is to be hanged for the murder of a 12-year-old boy. What better way to increase their takings than to make a new play, to enact the murder of Thomas Wells?
But as the actors rehearse, they discover that the truth about the boy's death has yet to be revealed.
-
-
Outstanding writing, outstanding narration
- By Gail N. on 11-03-19
By: Barry Unsworth
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
-
The Promise
- By: Damon Galgut
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Haunted by an unmet promise, the Swart family loses touch after the death of their matriarch. Adrift, the lives of the three siblings move separately through the uncharted waters of South Africa; Anton, the golden boy who bitterly resents his life’s unfulfilled potential; Astrid, whose beauty is her power; and the youngest, Amor, whose life is shaped by a nebulous feeling of guilt.
-
-
Excellent novel
- By ALG on 11-09-21
By: Damon Galgut
-
The Quality of Mercy
- A Novel
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Barry Unsworth returns to the terrain of his Booker Prize-winning novel Sacred Hunger, this time following Sullivan, the Irish fiddler, and Erasmus Kemp, son of a Liverpool slave ship owner who hanged himself. It is the spring of 1767, and to avenge his father's death, Erasmus Kemp has had the rebellious sailors of his father's ship, including Sullivan, brought back to London to stand trial on charges of mutiny and piracy.
-
-
Great follow up to Sacred Hunger
- By Angela on 04-29-12
By: Barry Unsworth
-
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
- By: Shehan Karunatilaka
- Narrated by: Shivantha Wijesinha
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida—war photographer, gambler, and closet queen—has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira Lake and he has no idea who killed him. In a country where scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers, and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts with grudges who cluster round can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali.
-
-
Absolutely Splendid...
- By Paul Frandano on 02-07-23
-
The Ruby in Her Navel
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: Andrew Sachs
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thurstan, a young Norman and would-be Knight at the Court of King Roger in Palermo, has been in love since boyhood with Lady Alicia, now returned a widow from the Holy Land. Thurstan soon finds himself caught in a tangle of plots.
-
-
A Well-Earned Five Stars for this Gem
- By Ilana on 12-11-14
By: Barry Unsworth
-
Morality Play
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the late 14th century, a dangerous time beset by war and plague. Nicholas Barber, a young and wayward cleric, stumbles across a group of travelling players and compounds his sins by joining them. Yet the town where they perform reveals another drama: a young woman is to be hanged for the murder of a 12-year-old boy. What better way to increase their takings than to make a new play, to enact the murder of Thomas Wells?
But as the actors rehearse, they discover that the truth about the boy's death has yet to be revealed.
-
-
Outstanding writing, outstanding narration
- By Gail N. on 11-03-19
By: Barry Unsworth
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
-
A Brief History of Seven Killings
- By: Marlon James
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean, Cherise Boothe, Dwight Bacquie, and others
- Length: 26 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner, The Man Booker Prize, 2015 Deftly spanning decades and continents and peopled with a wide range of characters - assassins, journalists, drug dealers, and even ghosts - A Brief History of Seven Killings is the fictional exploration of that dangerous and unstable time and its bloody aftermath, from the streets and slums of Kingston in the 1970s, to the crack wars in 1980s New York, to a radically altered Jamaica in the 1990s.
-
-
A Tough Read
- By KP on 05-07-16
By: Marlon James
-
The Famished Road
- By: Ben Okri
- Narrated by: Hugh Quarshie
- Length: 19 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So long as we are alive, so long as we feel, so long as we love, everything in us is an energy we can use. He is born into a world of poverty, ignorance and injustice, but Azaro awakens with a smile on his face. Despite belonging to a spirit world made of enchantment, where there is no suffering, Azaro chooses to stay in the land of the Living: to feel it, endure it, know it and love it. This is his story.
-
-
Too many supernatural elements for my taste
- By Merlin on 10-08-22
By: Ben Okri
-
The House of Doors
- By: Tan Twan Eng
- Narrated by: David Oakes, Louise-Mai Newberry
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 1921. Lesley Hamlyn and her husband, Robert, a lawyer and war veteran, are living at Cassowary House on the Straits Settlement of Penang. When “Willie” Somerset Maugham, a famed writer and old friend of Robert’s, arrives for an extended visit with his secretary Gerald, the pair threatens a rift that could alter more lives than one. Maugham, one of the great novelists of his day, is beleaguered: Having long hidden his homosexuality, his unhappy and expensive marriage of convenience becomes unbearable after he loses his savings—and the freedom to travel with Gerald.
-
-
Great, but no “Garden”
- By Susan on 10-30-23
By: Tan Twan Eng
-
Speak Memory
- An Autobiography Revisited
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Speak, Memory, first published in 1951 as Conclusive Evidence and then assiduously revised in 1966, is an elegant and rich evocation of Nabokov’s life and times, even as it offers incisive insights into his major works, including Lolita, Pnin, Despair, The Gift, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, and The Luhzin Defense.
-
-
Speak, Mnemosyne!
- By Darwin8u on 08-09-12
By: Vladimir Nabokov
-
The Moor's Account
- By: Laila Lalami
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this stunning work of historical fiction, Laila Lalami brings us the imagined memoirs of the first black explorer of America--a Moroccan slave whose testimony was left out of the official record. In 1527 the conquistador Pnfilo de Narvez sailed from the port of Sanlcar de Barrameda with a crew of 600 men and nearly a hundred horses. His goal was to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States for the Spanish crown and, in the process, become as wealthy and famous as Hernn Corts.
-
-
Terrific read evoking 16th century New World life
- By William on 11-04-15
By: Laila Lalami
-
Shuggie Bain
- By: Douglas Stuart
- Narrated by: Angus King
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shuggie’s mother Agnes walks a wayward path: She is Shuggie’s guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good - her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamourous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor.
-
-
There’s far too much real pain and sadness in the world to spend any time listening to this tale of woe
- By SuperShopper on 02-18-21
By: Douglas Stuart
-
Washington
- A Life
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 41 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Washington: A Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. This crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian War, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president.
-
-
A sad day when my book was done!
- By ButterLegume on 12-13-10
By: Ron Chernow
-
The Secret Chord
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With more than two million copies of her novels sold, New York Times best-selling author Geraldine Brooks has achieved both popular and critical acclaim. Now, Brooks takes on one of literature's richest and most enigmatic figures: a man who shimmers between history and legend. Peeling away the myth to bring David to life in Second Iron Age Israel, Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage.
-
-
Fictional Narrative of a great biblical character
- By Mildred Enriquez on 12-28-16
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
In Memoriam
- A Novel
- By: Alice Winn
- Narrated by: Christian Coulson
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1914, and World War I is ceaselessly churning through thousands of young men on both sides of the fight. The violence of the front feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. News of the heroic deaths of their friends only makes the war more exciting. Gaunt, half German, is busy fighting his own private battle—an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the glamorous, charming Ellwood—without a clue that Ellwood is pining for him in return
-
-
Amazing
- By Henry on 03-21-23
By: Alice Winn
-
Master and Commander
- Aubrey/Maturin Series, Book 1
- By: Patrick O'Brian
- Narrated by: Patrick Tull
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey, Royal Navy, and Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and intelligence agent, against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of life aboard a man-of-war in Nelson's navy are faultlessly rendered: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the road of broadsides as the great ships close in battle.
-
-
Choice of Narrators
- By Frank R. Adams on 04-23-10
By: Patrick O'Brian
-
Kindred
- By: Octavia E. Butler
- Narrated by: Kim Staunton
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning White boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes she's been given a challenge.
-
-
The Past of Slavery Still Moves and Wounds Us
- By Jefferson on 12-05-10
-
Sea of Poppies
- Ibis Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 18 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the heart of this vibrant saga is an immense ship, the Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean, its purpose to fight China's vicious 19th-century Opium Wars. As for the crew, they are a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts.
-
-
ignorance may be bliss
- By Evelyn M Kloepper on 07-27-09
By: Amitav Ghosh
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Songs of the Kings
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: Andrew Sachs
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A thoroughly modern tale of politics, spin-doctoring, and media manipulation. As the harsh wind holds the Greek fleet trapped in the straits at Aulis, frustration and political impotence turn into a desire for the blood of a young and innocent woman - blood that will appease the gods and allow the troops to set sail. And when Iphigeneia, Agamemnon's beloved daughter, is brought to the coast under false pretences, it looks as if the ships will soon be on their way.
-
-
The politics of power haven't changed.
- By susan on 12-06-12
By: Barry Unsworth
-
Morality Play
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the late 14th century, a dangerous time beset by war and plague. Nicholas Barber, a young and wayward cleric, stumbles across a group of travelling players and compounds his sins by joining them. Yet the town where they perform reveals another drama: a young woman is to be hanged for the murder of a 12-year-old boy. What better way to increase their takings than to make a new play, to enact the murder of Thomas Wells?
But as the actors rehearse, they discover that the truth about the boy's death has yet to be revealed.
-
-
Outstanding writing, outstanding narration
- By Gail N. on 11-03-19
By: Barry Unsworth
-
The Quality of Mercy
- A Novel
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Barry Unsworth returns to the terrain of his Booker Prize-winning novel Sacred Hunger, this time following Sullivan, the Irish fiddler, and Erasmus Kemp, son of a Liverpool slave ship owner who hanged himself. It is the spring of 1767, and to avenge his father's death, Erasmus Kemp has had the rebellious sailors of his father's ship, including Sullivan, brought back to London to stand trial on charges of mutiny and piracy.
-
-
Great follow up to Sacred Hunger
- By Angela on 04-29-12
By: Barry Unsworth
-
Last Orders
- By: Graham Swift
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble, Gigi Marceau Clarke, Jenny Sterlin, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a London Pub called The Coach and Horses, four men gather. Three of them have been friends for half a lifetime, having fought in the same war, drunk in the same pubs, and bet on the same horses. Now they have come together to deliver the ashes of a fifth man, Jack Dodds, to the sea. Their journey, which will take them deep into their collective and individual pasts, lies at the center of an astonishingly moving novel of friendship, memory, and fate.
-
-
Don't hesitate
- By Robert on 03-23-06
By: Graham Swift
-
Milkman
- By: Anna Burns
- Narrated by: Bríd Brennan
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes "interesting" - the last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed, and to be noticed is dangerous. Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is a story of inaction with enormous consequences.
-
-
Like the writing, not the audio issues
- By Criticalthinker on 12-31-18
By: Anna Burns
-
The Famished Road
- By: Ben Okri
- Narrated by: Hugh Quarshie
- Length: 19 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So long as we are alive, so long as we feel, so long as we love, everything in us is an energy we can use. He is born into a world of poverty, ignorance and injustice, but Azaro awakens with a smile on his face. Despite belonging to a spirit world made of enchantment, where there is no suffering, Azaro chooses to stay in the land of the Living: to feel it, endure it, know it and love it. This is his story.
-
-
Too many supernatural elements for my taste
- By Merlin on 10-08-22
By: Ben Okri
-
The Songs of the Kings
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: Andrew Sachs
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A thoroughly modern tale of politics, spin-doctoring, and media manipulation. As the harsh wind holds the Greek fleet trapped in the straits at Aulis, frustration and political impotence turn into a desire for the blood of a young and innocent woman - blood that will appease the gods and allow the troops to set sail. And when Iphigeneia, Agamemnon's beloved daughter, is brought to the coast under false pretences, it looks as if the ships will soon be on their way.
-
-
The politics of power haven't changed.
- By susan on 12-06-12
By: Barry Unsworth
-
Morality Play
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the late 14th century, a dangerous time beset by war and plague. Nicholas Barber, a young and wayward cleric, stumbles across a group of travelling players and compounds his sins by joining them. Yet the town where they perform reveals another drama: a young woman is to be hanged for the murder of a 12-year-old boy. What better way to increase their takings than to make a new play, to enact the murder of Thomas Wells?
But as the actors rehearse, they discover that the truth about the boy's death has yet to be revealed.
-
-
Outstanding writing, outstanding narration
- By Gail N. on 11-03-19
By: Barry Unsworth
-
The Quality of Mercy
- A Novel
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Barry Unsworth returns to the terrain of his Booker Prize-winning novel Sacred Hunger, this time following Sullivan, the Irish fiddler, and Erasmus Kemp, son of a Liverpool slave ship owner who hanged himself. It is the spring of 1767, and to avenge his father's death, Erasmus Kemp has had the rebellious sailors of his father's ship, including Sullivan, brought back to London to stand trial on charges of mutiny and piracy.
-
-
Great follow up to Sacred Hunger
- By Angela on 04-29-12
By: Barry Unsworth
-
Last Orders
- By: Graham Swift
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble, Gigi Marceau Clarke, Jenny Sterlin, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a London Pub called The Coach and Horses, four men gather. Three of them have been friends for half a lifetime, having fought in the same war, drunk in the same pubs, and bet on the same horses. Now they have come together to deliver the ashes of a fifth man, Jack Dodds, to the sea. Their journey, which will take them deep into their collective and individual pasts, lies at the center of an astonishingly moving novel of friendship, memory, and fate.
-
-
Don't hesitate
- By Robert on 03-23-06
By: Graham Swift
-
Milkman
- By: Anna Burns
- Narrated by: Bríd Brennan
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes "interesting" - the last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed, and to be noticed is dangerous. Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is a story of inaction with enormous consequences.
-
-
Like the writing, not the audio issues
- By Criticalthinker on 12-31-18
By: Anna Burns
-
The Famished Road
- By: Ben Okri
- Narrated by: Hugh Quarshie
- Length: 19 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So long as we are alive, so long as we feel, so long as we love, everything in us is an energy we can use. He is born into a world of poverty, ignorance and injustice, but Azaro awakens with a smile on his face. Despite belonging to a spirit world made of enchantment, where there is no suffering, Azaro chooses to stay in the land of the Living: to feel it, endure it, know it and love it. This is his story.
-
-
Too many supernatural elements for my taste
- By Merlin on 10-08-22
By: Ben Okri
What listeners say about Sacred Hunger
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. Winokur
- 08-03-19
Magnificent, lyrical and profound!
This magnificent novel seems initially about the arrogance in which the slave trade was built. It is that, and much more. Each of many characters is deeply developed, though the slaves remain nameless abstractions. Each scene finely wrought. Descriptions are exquisite. The story of preparing the slave ship, buying slaves and sailing the Middle Passage to America becomes — through brilliant plot construction — scaffolding for a more complex and profound meditation on human nature and motivation, in contexts of captivity, class-bound capitalism and free community. Philosophical and psychological perspectives are threaded throughout, propelled forward by the characters and twists of plot. Among the finest books I’ve ever read. The narrator is superb. I listened at 75% speed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nancy
- 03-21-25
Stunning portrayal of British imperialism, its protagonists and victims
Very compelling narration. The reader moves between voices and accents and characters with ease. The story moves gracefully between the perspectives of very strong characters, some of them despicable and nonetheless riveting. Closely observed historical detail throughout. For me, it fell apart toward the end when the focus turned to the settlement in Florida. Where did the “pidgin” language spoken there originate? Why are the Africans there still objectified? The conclusion brought some satisfaction.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- S. Coldsmith
- 04-16-16
Wise, Perceptive, Heart-breaking
What made the experience of listening to Sacred Hunger the most enjoyable?
I can't remember the last time a novel impressed me so much. Any modern individual looking at the history of the Atlantic slave trade has to marvel that such a horror took place. What, we ask ourselves today, possessed European slavers to abduct, torment, and then finally sell perfect strangers who had done them no wrong? You can read the histories, some dry and some vivid. But if you want to hear how the slavers justified themselves in their own voices, this is the book for you. Thru fiction, Unsworth relates what the impoverished UK underclass saw in slavery, what the profiteers saw, what a man of the Enlightenment might have seen. In telling this tale of the Atlantic slave trade, Unsworth ignores all temptations to cheap and empty moralizing. Humans aren't born with much of a moral sense, Unsworth seems to be saying, but change does happen and in that we can take some comfort.
What about David Rintoul’s performance did you like?
Fortunately, the author's powers of prose and story-telling are matched by the talents of the narrator, David Rintoul. Not only does he nail the many regional accents of Britain (and Ireland), he nails them even when he has those characters speaking pidgin! And Rintoul is an utter master of tone and inflection to distinguish characters who would otherwise sound too much alike.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
16 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jeff Lacy
- 12-15-18
A great adventure of hope and moral
This is a well written, compelling, and entertaining historic novel. It has some memorable characters and an important underlying moral. The Audible performance is excellent by David Rintuol. I have heard him narrate other books and he has performed them in the same professional and dramatic way that makes the work come to life, contributing to an enhanced appreciation of the work. Nothing about this novel or this performance disappointed me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nidia Cullen
- 05-10-18
floundering a bit
The two characters that kept me going was Billy Blair and Michael Sullivan. the story would peak my interest then flounder. the ending was unsatisfactory.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Christopher
- 09-25-18
Beautifully written and Masterfully narrated.
This is, quite simply,a modern masterpiece. It is everything that great literature should be - eloquent, profound, entertaining, and accessible. The topic of slavery is terribly difficult to read about, but so important to acknowledge and be well informed upon. Unsworth's amazing novel approaches the subject from a unique perspective that is both emotionally affecting and intellectually stimulating without sacrificing good old story telling.
David Rintoul's performance is nothing short of brilliant. His many accents, his understanding of the text, and his perfect pacing all added greatly to the overall experience. This one is definitely worth a credit.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- L. Miller
- 05-21-16
the ending was a bit abrupt but a good story
I wigh the end hadn't been so rushed. other parts of the book dragged. why not draw the kast hour or two out a bit more?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Isaak
- 01-22-20
Takes so long to get to the point
I may not be the best person to give a review for this book, but since it took me over six months to finish I wanted to prove to the book that I retained something from the six hundred pages it took to get there. The historical fiction part is great: a few hundred slaves on a ship gets "lost" and the slave traders are on the hunt to get their property back. There's even a quest for vengeance, family honor, and a love lost along the way but the endless descriptions of the waves, the ship itself, and the accents (specifically the Asian and Island accents) were just too much. Great narrator when his voice was normal, but I was also reading the book at the same time I was listening to the audible and let's just say that reading it was only slightly less offensive. I'm glad I finished the book after such a long, arduous six months but I doubt I'll ever pick it up again. Just my two cents...and my six months.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- An artist
- 07-13-22
Great story and wonderfully narrated
This story is written like a classic from Dicken’s or other great writers. The narration is excellent and creates the atmosphere of listening to a play on stage. My reservation in my overall rating is because of the ending which I think is stereotyping black culture in a manner that is demeaning, while it would’ve been much better had Paris’s son been elevated through his intelligence inherited both from his mother and father.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Saman
- 10-14-19
Super listen - great Booker winner!
This was a gem of a book. In it lies incredible historical writing that illustrates a darker period of British commerce. The story captures your heart with a collection of incredible characters spread over a decade with intrigue, sadness, and humor. The triangular trade of the 18th century is amplified by the author to reflect the greed of many on the backs of West African slaves, and the incessant hunger for profit deemed the “Sacred Hunger”.
The story revolves on the voyage of the “Liverpool Merchant”, its crew and the disease ridden onboard slaves. The main characters include the ship doctor Matthew Paris, a likable polymath of sorts, and the profit driven Captain Thurso, an evil opposite of Paris. Into this mire the author introduces the cousin Erasmus Kemp, a forlorn and vengeful character driven to undo a wrong. The description of the sufferings of the slaves are harrowing as is their murders. Yet the creation of the utopian community in Florida’s backwaters, all but brief, hints at a glimpse of humanity in an otherwise very dark age.
The narration of this book is simply fantastic. A very worthy Booker winner in 1992, sharing the price with the “The English Patient”.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful