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  • Nine Lives

  • In Search of the Sacred in Modern India
  • By: William Dalrymple
  • Narrated by: Daniel Philpott
  • Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (87 ratings)
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Nine Lives cover art

Nine Lives

By: William Dalrymple
Narrated by: Daniel Philpott
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Summary

Shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize 2010. Winner of the 2010 Asia House Award for Asian Literature.

A Buddhist monk takes up arms to resist the Chinese invasion of Tibet - then spends the rest of his life trying to atone for the violence by hand printing the best prayer flags in India. A Jain nun tests her powers of detachment as she watches her best friend ritually starve herself to death. Nine people, nine lives; each one taking a different religious path, each one an unforgettable story. William Dalrymple delves deep into the heart of a nation torn between the relentless onslaught of modernity and the ancient traditions that endure to this day.

©2009 William Dalrymple (P)2011 Audible Ltd

Critic reviews

"An absolutely beautiful book, clean and honest and edifying and moving. I love so much about it: a delight." (Elizabeth Gilbert)
"Dalrymple's study of people and beliefs in India ranks with the very finest travel writing.... A series of biographies which unpick the rich religious heritage of the subcontinent, it makes its political points more powerfully than any newspaper article and displays deep knowledge of the culture." ( Observer)

What listeners say about Nine Lives

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Pathetic

Dalrymple's book is perfectly decent – sympathetic and informative, though he does rather make all his nine characters sound very like each other. Comes of having to work through interpreters, I suppose, but a good enough job, attentive and respectful. The audio performance, however, is *unforgivably* bad. The generic 'Indian' accents, owing more to Peter Sellers than to any kind of speech actually to be heard in India, were embarrassing enough. But that was a relatively mild problem. Almost no research seemed to have gone into getting the pronunciations of Indian words and place names right: after the first couple of hours, it became almost comic anticipating the next mangling of an Indian name. Rather it would have been comic if weren't so offensive. I don't mean that there were a few mispronunciations here and there – virtually *every* Indian word is mispronounced, the stress inexplicably put on the final syllable (something which almost never happens in Indian languages). Sometimes the reader couldn't even get the consonants in the right order (Ramayana? Ramanaya?) Sometimes he mangled even *English* words (toddy, jaggery) with Indian etymologies. And in the final story, the producers seem to have gone to sleep – failing to cut out his false starts and stammering. A pathetic excuse for an audiobook. Listeners, and the book, deserve better. I'd ask for my money back if I could.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing India!

I loved listening to this book, full of amazing detail and educational in so many ways.
Depicts many things that need to change and also which need to be preserved.
I would recommend this to anyone passionate about India!

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Dalrymple is a gateway to India

Nine lives was excellent. I've read many books by Dalrymple before and really appreciate his writing.
The narrator tries to imitate accents while reading. since this book is so heavy on quotes, the greatest part of the book is read by what is a fakeish Indian accent. I must admit I found that quite distracting.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Giving up. Interesting tale, dreadfully read.

I'm considering buying the paper book. I would really like to hear the story, which is fascinating, but the narrator's really peculiar and profoundly irritating "accent" is destroying my ability to concentrate.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating book, terrible production.

The book itself is fascinating, gripping and compelling.

it has to be, because the quality of the production itself is really bad. The extended use of terrible 'accents' is atrocious. Lots of word, either very basic ones, are mangled in pronunciation to the point on unintelligiblity. And, especially in the later chapters, there are fluffed lines and repeats just left in rathe than edited.

I'd definitely recommend the book itself, but the audiobook performance leaves a lot to be desired.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Stories of wonder & truth

Amazing rendition of well written tales from a world almost lost; must read/ listen. Dalrymple is truly at his best here.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good stories & Analogy, accent used is gloomy.

Good stories, which are true, very few may actually understand the way they are.
The accent used was bad, there was over exaggeration of accent, which was sometimes offensive.
There was some errors during the read which were kept, please rectify it before publishing.
Overall good read, takes you through the journey how different life can present.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic story but very poor narration

The author has done a great deal of research and presented the book in a brilliant way. He is very sympathetic to the characters. He also comments how the Indian society is changing and how will it impacts the lives of rural Indians.

However, sadly, the narrator seems to have done very little research on the pronouncing the Indian names. Also he fails to mimics a fake Indian accent.

My advice - if possible read the real book.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good Read

Varied stories. Varied lives. Definitely a cultural induction for an Indian looking at exploring this wonderful land of diversities.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting perspective on Indian religious people

This book is rather long to keep listening to. But the people's life stories and beliefs are fascinating. Modern India seems a long way away - these people remind me of religious orders from Medieval times in Europe.

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