Sarah Agha has narrated 3 audiobooks on Listento.it by 4 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.2★ across 3 ratings. The most-rated is Guest House for Young Widows.
Guest House for Young Widows
Summary
A gripping account of 13 women who joined, endured, and, in some cases, escaped life in the Islamic State - based on years of immersive reporting by a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Finalist for the Baillie Gifford Prize • Named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by Publishers Weekly and one of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review • NPR • Toronto Star • The Guardian Among the many books trying to understand the terrifying rise of ISIS, none has given voice to the women in the organization; but women were essential to the establishment of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s caliphate. Responding to promises of female empowerment and social justice, and calls to aid the plight of fellow Muslims in Syria, thousands of women emigrated from the United States and Europe, Russia and Central Asia, from across North Africa and the rest of the Middle East to join the Islamic State. These were the educated daughters of diplomats, trainee doctors, teenagers with straight-A averages, as well as working-class drifters and desolate housewives, and they joined forces to set up makeshift clinics and schools for the Islamic homeland they’d envisioned. Guest House for Young Widows charts the different ways women were recruited, inspired, or compelled to join the militants. Emma from Hamburg, Sharmeena and three high school friends from London, and Nour, a religious dropout from Tunis: All found rebellion or community in political Islam and fell prey to sophisticated propaganda that promised them a cosmopolitan adventure and a chance to forge an ideal Islamic community in which they could live devoutly without fear of stigma or repression. It wasn’t long before the militants exposed themselves as little more than violent criminals, more obsessed with power than the tenets of Islam, and the women of ISIS were stripped of any agency, perpetually widowed and remarried, and ultimately trapped in a brutal, lawless society. The fall of the caliphate only brought new challenges to women no state wanted to reclaim. Azadeh Moaveni’s exquisite sensitivity and rigorous reporting make these forgotten women indelible and illuminate the turbulent politics that set them on their paths.
©2019 Azadeh Moaveni (P)2019 Random House Audio
The Missing Twin
Summary
A unique, exciting psychological thriller that will tug at your heartstrings and keep you guessing until the very end! Can she find her sister before it's too late? A missing girl...a secret to be uncovered. Edie and her identical twin, Laura, have always been best friends. So when Laura surprises Edie at the Mediterranean holiday resort where she's working, Edie can't wait for the partying to start! But then Laura vanishes without a trace.... At the same time, in a country on the other side of the sea, Fatima and her twin daughters set out on a harrowing journey that only the strongest – and luckiest – survive. Edie and Fatima's lives are worlds apart, but now their paths are set to collide, with devastating consequences. When Fatima hovers on the brink of survival, Edie must risk her own life to save her and finally discover the truth about her missing sister.
©2017 Alex Day (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
Sex and Lies
Summary
"Jaw-dropping... Inspiring... A haunting and beautifully composed book... It blew my mind." (Lisa Taddeo, number one New York Times best-selling author of Three Women) A fearless exposé of the secrets and lies of women's intimate lives, by the best-selling author of The Perfect Nanny and Adèle. "All those in positions of authority - politicians, parents, teachers - maintain the same line: 'Do what you like, but do it in private.'" Leila Slimani was in her native Morocco promoting her novel Adèle, about a woman addicted to sex, when she began meeting women who confided the dark secrets of their sexual lives. In Morocco, adultery, abortion, homosexuality, prostitution, and sex outside of marriage are all punishable by law, and women have only two choices: They can be wives or virgins. Sex and Lies combines vivid, often harrowing testimonies with Slimani's passionate and intelligent commentary to make a galvanizing case for a sexual revolution in the Arab world.
©2020 Leila Slimani (P)2020 Penguin Audio