
Vita Nostra
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Jessica Ball
About this listen
The definitive English-language translation of the internationally best-selling Russian novel - a brilliant dark fantasy with "the potential to be a modern classic" (Lev Grossman), combining psychological suspense, enchantment, and terror that makes us consider human existence in a fresh and provocative way.
Our life is brief....
While vacationing at the beach with her mother, Sasha Samokhina meets the mysterious Farit Kozhennikov under the most peculiar circumstances. The teenage girl is powerless to refuse when this strange and unusual man with an air of the sinister directs her to perform a task with potentially scandalous consequences. He rewards her effort with a strange golden coin.
As the days progress, Sasha carries out other acts for which she receives more coins from Kozhennikov. As summer ends, her domineering mentor directs her to move to a remote village and use her gold to enter the Institute of Special Technologies. Though she does not want to go to this unknown town or school, she also feels it’s the only place she should be. Against her mother’s wishes, Sasha leaves behind all that is familiar and begins her education.
As she quickly discovers, the institute’s "special technologies" are unlike anything she has ever encountered. The books are impossible to read, the lessons obscure to the point of maddening, and the work refuses memorization. Using terror and coercion to keep the students in line, the school does not punish them for their transgressions and failures; instead, their families pay a terrible price. Yet despite her fear, Sasha undergoes changes that defy the dictates of matter and time; experiences that are nothing she has ever dreamed of...and suddenly all she could ever want.
A complex blend of adventure, magic, science, and philosophy that probes the mysteries of existence, filtered through a distinct Russian sensibility, this astonishing work of speculative fiction - brilliantly translated by Julia Meitov Hersey - is reminiscent of modern classics such as Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, Max Barry’s Lexicon, and Katherine Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale, but will transport them to a place far beyond those fantastical worlds.
©2013 Sergey Dyachenko and Marina Shyrshova-Dyachenko; translation © 2013 Julia Meitov Hersey (P)2018 HarperAudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Jen Williams, acclaimed author of The Copper Cat trilogy, featuring The Copper Promise, The Iron Ghost and The Silver Tide, returns with the first in a blistering new trilogy. The great city of Ebora once glittered with gold. Now its streets are stalked by wolves. Tormalin the Oathless has no taste for sitting around waiting to die while the realm of his storied ancestors falls to pieces - talk about a guilt trip. Better to be amongst the living, where there are taverns full of women and wine.
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Couldn’t put it down!
- By Renae on 09-09-22
By: Jen Williams
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The Cipher
- By: Kathe Koja
- Narrated by: Joshua Saxon
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Nicholas, a would-be poet, and Nakota, his feral lover, discover a strange hole in the storage room floor down the hall - "Black. Pure black and the sense of pulsation, especially when you look at it too closely, the sense of something not living but alive." It begins with curiosity, a joke - the Funhole down the hall. But then the experiments begin. "Wouldn't it be wild to go down there?" says Nakota. Nicholas says "We're not." But they're not in control, not from the first moment, as those experiments lead to obsession, violence, and a very final transformation.
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An Interesting Book of Weird...
- By Rachael on 04-21-20
By: Kathe Koja
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Night Film
- A Novel
- By: Marisha Pessl
- Narrated by: Jake Weber
- Length: 23 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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On a damp October night, beautiful young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley’s life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive, cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova - a man who hasn’t been seen in public for more than 30 years.
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What's Real?
- By Amanda on 01-12-14
By: Marisha Pessl
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The Spirit Bares Its Teeth
- By: Andrew Joseph White
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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London, 1883. The Veil between the living and dead has thinned. Violet-eyed mediums commune with spirits under the watchful eye of the Royal Speaker Society, and sixteen-year-old trans, autistic Silas Bell would rather rip out his violet eyes than become an obedient Speaker wife. After a failed attempt to escape an arranged marriage, Silas is diagnosed with Veil sickness—a mysterious disease sending violet-eyed women into madness—and shipped away to Braxton’s Finishing School and Sanitorium.
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an excellent body horror experience
- By Jamie W. on 04-03-24
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Rouge
- A Novel
- By: Mona Awad
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience.
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What a fun romp!
- By Barbara S on 10-10-23
By: Mona Awad
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The Salt Grows Heavy
- By: Cassandra Khaw
- Narrated by: Susan Dalian
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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You may think you know how the fairytale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three “saints” who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.
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Words, Words, Words
- By Tracy on 06-18-25
By: Cassandra Khaw
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The Last Sun
- By: K. D. Edwards
- Narrated by: Josh Hurley
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Rune Saint John, the last child of the fallen Sun Court, is hired to search for Lady Judgment's missing son, Addam, on New Atlantis, the island city where the Atlanteans moved after ordinary humans destroyed their original home. With his companion and bodyguard, Brand, he questions Addam's relatives and business contacts through the highest ranks of the nobles of New Atlantis. But as they investigate, they uncover more than a missing man: a legendary creature connected to the secret of the massacre of Rune's Court.
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Holy shit that was so good!!!
- By SMC on 10-12-18
By: K. D. Edwards
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The Traitor Baru Cormorant
- By: Seth Dickinson
- Narrated by: Christine Marshall
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
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In Seth Dickinson's highly anticipated debut The Traitor Baru Cormorant, a young woman from a conquered people tries to transform an empire in this richly imagined geopolitical fantasy. Baru Cormorant believes any price is worth paying to liberate her people - even her soul.
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Read for detail explainations, skip otherwise
- By Nathan on 10-19-15
By: Seth Dickinson
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The Justice of Kings
- By: Richard Swan
- Narrated by: Lucy Paterson
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The Empire of the Wolf simmers with unrest. Rebels, heretics, and powerful patricians all challenge the power of the Imperial throne. Only the Order of Justices stands in the way of chaos. Sir Konrad Vonvalt is the most feared Justice of all, upholding the law by way of his sharp mind, arcane powers, and skill as a swordsman. At his side stands Helena Sedanka, his talented protégé, orphaned by the wars that forged the Empire.
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Give it a try. Doubtful you'll regret it.
- By Taylor Ascher on 03-13-22
By: Richard Swan
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Little, Big
- or, The Fairies' Parliament
- By: John Crowley
- Narrated by: John Crowley
- Length: 24 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Edgewood - which is not found on any map - is many houses, all put inside each other or across each other. It’s filled with and surrounded by mystery and enchantment; the further in you go, the bigger it gets. Smoky Barnable, who has fallen in love with Daily Alice Drinkwater, travels from the City on foot to Edgewood, her family home. There he finds himself on the magical border of an otherworld.
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The Farther in You Go, the Bigger it Gets
- By Jefferson on 04-19-12
By: John Crowley
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Katabasis
- A Novel
- By: R. F. Kuang
- Narrated by: Morag Sims, Will Watt
- Length: 18 hrs
- Unabridged
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Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world. That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault. Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams….
By: R. F. Kuang
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The Spear Cuts Through Water
- A Novel
- By: Simon Jimenez
- Narrated by: Joel de la Fuente
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.
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Unlistenable
- By Justin West on 08-01-24
By: Simon Jimenez
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Earthlings
- A Novel
- By: Sayaka Murata
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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As a child, Natsuki doesn’t fit into her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut who has explained to her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth.
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Intriguing but disturbing
- By C. Parham on 01-01-21
By: Sayaka Murata
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The Historian
- By: Elizabeth Kostova
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre, Paul Michael
- Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor", and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of - a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.
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Great buildup to nowhere
- By Nifty Hokie15 on 04-03-18
A great book.
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Enjoy the ride
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This intricate mind bending book is very well written and well read. Fair warning. There is a magical school, but it’s not Hogwarts by a long shot and a “grown up Harry Potter” this is not.
In the begining was the word
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Somewhat enchanting, tedious at times
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This book is astonishing!
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Translation was very smooth and gorgeously written, and did not feel like a translation at all. Narration was great too, though it was a bit odd that the narrator had a British accent when the book has been translated into US English.
(Side note: One of the reviews claims that the philosophy of this book is based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. I have to say that I disagree with that reviewer: I don't see that this book has anything at all to do with this [outdated] linguistics theory. While language does play a big part in the book, it's not any kind of human language.)
Non-human intelligence
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Fascinating Science Fiction
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Refreshingly Mysterious
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What in the world did I just read?
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The presence of neo platonic structures in the magic system was an unexpected and welcome surprise. I've not before seen a magic system grounded in real world philosophy so well handled.
Low stakes, slice of life, neo-Platonist fantasy
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