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Death by a Thousand Cuts

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Death by a Thousand Cuts

Written by: Shashi Bhat
Narrated by: Ellora Patnaik
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Buy Now for $23.84

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About this listen

 Winner of the 2025 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize • Finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award • Longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize • A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year • An Apple Canada Best Ebooks of 2024 • A CBC Books' Best Canadian Fiction of 2024

A breathtaking and sharply funny collection about the everyday trials and impossible expectations that come with being a woman, from the Governor General’s Literary Award-shortlisted author of The Most Precious Substance on Earth.

What would have happened if she’d met him at a different time in her life, when she was older, more confident, less lonely, and less afraid? She wonders not whether they would have stayed together, but whether she would have known to stay away.


A writer discovers that her ex has published a novel about their breakup. An immunocompromised woman falls in love, only to have her body betray her. After her boyfriend makes an insensitive comment, a college student finds an experimental procedure that promises to turn her brown eyes blue. A Reddit post about a man’s habit of grabbing his girlfriend’s breasts prompts a shocking confession. An unsettling second date leads to the testing of boundaries. And when a woman begins to lose her hair, she embarks on an increasingly nightmarish search for answers. 

With honesty, tenderness, and a skewering wit, these stories boldly wrestle with rage, longing, illness, and bodily autonomy, and their inescapable impacts on a woman’s relationships with others and with herself. Anthologies & Short Stories Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction Funny
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While I enjoyed this book, the audio recording often plays two different tracks at once, especially at the start of a chapter. This means you miss a solid portion of some chapters. Please fix the audio!

Audio issues

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This is a review of the audio book. at many points, two stories play at once. disgusting...at this price to have this issue. it feels hard to give it a low rating as I enjoy the stories and like the writing.

the audio is terrible, two stories play at once

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I very much enjoyed this book. Well written short stories about women, mostly south Asian, but very relatable to all women. Sadly, at least three stories have a garbled start with two narrations happening at the same time. Still worth listening to. I will look for other books by this author

Really good short stories about women

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Narrator straight up overlaps the audio for a good portion of the recording…. Disappointing that there was no mention of this when it was being purchased

Not sure how this made it on to the app…

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