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An Untamed State

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An Untamed State

By: Roxane Gay
Narrated by: Robin Miles
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About this listen

Mireille Duval Jameson is living a fairy tale. The strong-willed youngest daughter of one of Haiti’s richest sons, she has an adoring husband, a precocious infant son, by all appearances a perfect life. The fairy tale ends one day when Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men, in front of her father’s Port au Prince estate. Held captive by a man who calls himself The Commander, Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom. As it becomes clear her father intends to resist the kidnappers, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who resents everything she represents.

An Untamed State is a novel of privilege in the face of crushing poverty, and of the lawless anger that corrupt governments produce. It is the story of a wilful woman attempting to find her way back to the person she once was, and of how redemption is found in the most unexpected of places. An Untamed State establishes Roxane Gay as a writer of prodigious, arresting talent.

©2015 Roxane Gay (P)2024 Hachette Audio UK Crime Fiction Disappearance Scary
All stars
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Struggled doesn't cover it. I could not even finish it. Don't bother. Way too twee. Author is a narcisist and how her captors put up with her is a mystery to me. Grossly inflated opinion of herself and her role in dealing with the kidnappers. Way over the top and narration was poor. Do yourself a favour and give it a miss. There are lots of great books about Haiti out there, most far more worthy than this drivel.

Not my scene

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A very harrowing account that made difficult listening at times. But it kept drawing you in. 1 Womans quest to survive such a harrowing ordeal.

Excellent

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This is a story of poverty, wealth, brutality, misogyny, patriarchy, survival and hope.

The Untamed State, a country and a person, particularly women have an unbreakable soul. Their bodies might be broken and hurt sometimes their mind and morality is bent but beneath all that tangle of human detritus is hope. Broken humans survive because they hope. The writer compares the vulnerability of women in a patriarchal world to the lives of people living in poverty and destitution. It tells us what happens to women in such worlds. In truth any world.

A powerful terrifying story

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dramatic story but annoying narration.
I have never heard someone's tone go up for no reason at the end of every sentence.
story was powerful although some descriptive scenes felt a bit gratuitous

good story, irritation narration

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have to say struggled with this one. very hard going and intense. certainly would not describe is as crime although hard pushed to say what genre it is!

not my usual genre

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