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The Eighth Life
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 40 hrs and 56 mins
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The Eighth Life
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Publisher's Summary
At the start of the 20th century, on the edge of the Russian empire, a family prospers. It owes its success to a delicious chocolate recipe, passed down the generations with great solemnity and caution. A caution which is justified: this is a recipe for ecstasy that carries a very bitter aftertaste....
Stasia learns it from her Georgian father and takes it north, following her new husband, Simon, to his posting at the center of the Russian Revolution in St. Petersburg. Stasia’s is only the first in a symphony of grand but all too often doomed romances that swirl from sweet to sour in this epic tale of the red century.
Tumbling down the years, and across vast expanses of longing and loss, generation after generation of this compelling family hears echoes and sees reflections. A ballet dancer never makes it to Paris and a singer pines for Vienna. Great characters and greater relationships come and go and come again; the world shakes, and shakes some more, and the listener rejoices to have found at last one of those glorious old books in which you can live and learn, be lost and found, and make indelible new friends.
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What listeners say about The Eighth Life
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anastasia Beaverhausen
- 2022-08-01
Irksome
Overall it’s a compelling story of a family throughout a century. Overall I enjoyed it. But the things I didn’t enjoy about it are enough the taint my overall opinion as well. First, the narrator: from beginning to end age sounds like she about to cry. Her pronunciation of Stalingrad as Schtalingrad drove me crazy. She didn’t call him Schtalin, so why would you say Schtalingrad???
Second, Kostya: a character without any redeeming qualities, blind to everyone so that even the one thing you’re supposed to feel empathetic towards him for makes you feel the schadenfreude the author speaks of.
Finally the character Niza: she definitely takes after Kostya because the last quarter of the book is nothing but her whining about her life and ignoring all those around her.
I would have liked a little bit more self awareness from some of the characters.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- TC
- 2023-01-25
Really difficult subject matter
I read this because someone I trust said it’s a family saga about a family cursed by their chocolate recipe. And sure, kind of. But it is a dark story in which every generation is beset by war and severe abuse and rape. Every generation. I finished it but it was a tough read and I may not have picked it up knowing what I know now.
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1 person found this helpful