Deepa Samuel has narrated 5 audiobooks on Listento.it by 7 authors, with an average listener rating of 4★ across 2 ratings. The most-rated is A House for Happy Mothers.
A House for Happy Mothers
Summary
A stunning new novel - full of wit and warmth - from the bestselling author of The Mango Season. In trendy Silicon Valley, Priya has everything she needs - a loving husband, a career, and a home - but the one thing she wants most is the child she's unable to have. In a Southern Indian village, Asha doesn't have much - raising two children in a tiny hut, she and her husband can barely keep a tin roof over their heads - but she wants a better education for her gifted son. Pressured by her family, Asha reluctantly checks into the Happy Mothers House: a baby farm where she can rent her only asset - her womb - to a childless couple overseas. To the dismay of friends and family, Priya places her faith in a woman she's never met to make her dreams of motherhood come true. Together, the two women discover the best and the worst that India's rising surrogacy industry has to offer, bridging continents and cultures to bring a new life into the world - and renewed hope to each other.
©2016 Amulya Malladi (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
One Part Woman
Summary
Longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award for Translated Literature
Selling over 100,000 copies in India, where it was published first in the original Tamil and then in a celebrated translation by Penguin India, Perumal Murugan’s One Part Woman has become a cult phenomenon in the subcontinent, captivating Indian readers and jump-starting conversations about caste and female empowerment. Set in South India during the British colonial period but with powerful resonance to the present day, One Part Woman tells the story of a couple, Kali and Ponna, who are unable to conceive, much to the concern of their families—and the crowing amusement of Kali’s male friends. Kali and Ponna try anything to have a child, including making offerings at different temples, atoning for past misdeeds of dead family members, and even circumambulating a mountain supposed to cure barren women, but all to no avail.
A more radical plan is required, and the annual chariot festival, a celebration of the god Maadhorubaagan, who is one part woman, one part man, may provide the answer. On the eighteenth night of the festival, the festivities culminate in a carnival, and on that night the rules of marriage are suspended, and consensual sex between any man and woman is permitted. The festival may be the solution to Kali and Ponna’s problem, but it soon threatens to drive the couple apart as much as to bring them together. Wryly amusing, fable-like, and deeply poignant, One Part Woman is a powerful exploration of a loving marriage strained by the expectations of others, and an attack on the rigid rules of caste and tradition that continue to constrict opportunity and happiness today.
©2010 Perumal Murugan (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Translation © 2013 by Aniruddhan Vasudevan.
Love at the Center of Grief
Summary
Love at the Center of Grief is a contemporary The Notebook for grieving teens who want to believe in the power of love even when faced with grief, like in The Fault in Our Stars. If only they knew how. For Gretchen Gardener and Hayden Tucker, Summerfort Grief Center, nestled near Branson, Missouri, offers a place to hope. At the tender age of six, they both endured the losses of their mothers. As children, they bonded as friends, but when puberty hits, romantic crushes develop. Shyness has them doubting every emotion. Who will break the silence - build courage - admit they care? Summerfort High School awaits this year. Hayden wears Summerfort Eagles’ jerseys, but not everyone on the team accepts this robust loner due to his sensitive nature. Gretchen’s a blend of childish maturity, spouting off unique words and Constitutional factoids. Neither of those talents solves her obsessive behavior at hoarding odd memories. Love at the Center of Grief overflows with equal parts heartache and laughter. Gretchen and Hayden navigate adolescence with hefty layers of grief and widowed dads in tow. Raw, honest emotions pour into grief diaries to their mothers, which explain, through detailed stories, how grief factors into everything.
©2020 Cindy McIntyre (P)2021 Cindy McIntyre
The Elephant Keeper's Daughter
Summary
From the bestselling author of The Lioness of Morocco comes the beguiling novel of a young woman trapped between the expectations of her family and the desire to live free. Ceylon, 1803. In the royal city of Kandy, a daughter is born to the king’s elephant keeper - an esteemed position in the court reserved only for males. To ensure the line of succession, Phera’s parents raise her as a boy. As she bonds with her elephant companion, Siddhi, Phera grows into a confident, fiercely independent woman torn between the expectations of her family and her desire to live life on her own terms. Only when British colonists invade is she allowed to live her true identity, but when the conquerors commit unspeakable violence against her people, Phera must add survival to the list of freedoms for which she’s willing to fight. Possessed by thoughts of revenge yet drawn into an unexpected romance with a kindly British physician, the elephant keeper’s daughter faces a choice: Love or hatred? Forgiveness or retribution?
©2018 Julia Peczynsky and Horst Drosten (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Translation © 2018 by Deborah Langton
The Secret Keeper of Jaipur
Summary
A new novel by the author of The Henna Artist, a Reese's Book Club Pick "Captivated me from the first chapter to the last page." (Reese Witherspoon on The Henna Artist) In New York Times best-selling author Alka Joshi’s intriguing new novel, henna artist Lakshmi arranges for her protégé, Malik, to intern at the Jaipur Palace in this tale rich in character, atmosphere, and lavish storytelling. It’s the spring of 1969, and Lakshmi, now married to Dr. Jay Kumar, directs the Healing Garden in Shimla. Malik has finished his private school education. At 20, he has just met a young woman named Nimmi when he leaves to apprentice at the Facilities Office of the Jaipur Royal Palace. Their latest project: a state-of-the-art cinema. Malik soon finds that not much has changed as he navigates the Pink City of his childhood. Power and money still move seamlessly among the wealthy class, and favors flow from Jaipur’s Royal Palace, but only if certain secrets remain buried. When the cinema’s balcony tragically collapses on opening night, blame is placed where it is convenient. But Malik suspects something far darker and sets out to uncover the truth. As a former street child, he always knew to keep his own counsel; it’s a lesson that will serve him as he untangles a web of lies. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
©2021 Alka Joshi (P)2021 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited