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Title details for The Morningside by Téa Obreht - Available

The Morningside

A Novel

by Téa Obreht
Carlotta Brentan
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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“A touching, inventive novel about belonging and loss” (People) from the critically beloved, New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger’s Wife and Inland

“I marveled at the subtle beauty and precision of Obreht’s prose. . . Read in the context of today’s conflicts and injustices, climate emergencies, and political and racial divisions—together more dystopian than any dystopian novel—the book surprised me most with its undercurrent of hope.”—Jessamine Chan, author of The School for Good Mothers, in The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)

A LIT HUB AND CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • SHORTLISTED FOR THE CLIMATE FICTION PRIZE
There’s the world you can see. And then there’s the one you can’t. Welcome to the Morningside.
After being expelled from their ancestral home in a not-so-distant future, Silvia and her mother finally settle at the Morningside, a crumbling luxury tower in a place called Island City where Silvia’s aunt Ena serves as the superintendent. Silvia feels unmoored in her new life because her mother has been so diligently secretive about their family’s past, and because the once-vibrant city where she lives is now half-underwater. Silvia knows almost nothing about the place where she was born and spent her early years, nor does she fully understand why she and her mother had to leave. But in Ena there is an opening: a person willing to give the young girl glimpses into the folktales of her demolished homeland, a place of natural beauty and communal spirit that is lacking in Silvia’s lonely and impoverished reality.
Enchanted by Ena’s stories, Silvia begins seeing the world with magical possibilities and becomes obsessed with the mysterious older woman who lives in the penthouse of the Morningside. Bezi Duras is an enigma to everyone in the building: She has her own elevator entrance and leaves only to go out at night and walk her three massive hounds, often not returning until the early morning. Silvia’s mission to unravel the truth about this woman’s life, and her own haunted past, may end up costing her everything.
Startling, inventive, and profoundly moving, The Morningside is a novel about the stories we tell—and the stories we refuse to tell—to make sense of where we came from and who we hope we might become.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 19, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593823989
      • File size: 247774 KB
      • Duration: 08:36:11

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 8, 2024
      The striking if scattered latest from Obreht (The Tiger’s Wife) expands on a short story included in the New York Times Magazine’s Decameron Project, a 2020 anthology of Covid-19-related writing. The narrative is set in a near future where flooding has reshaped the coastal regions of the United States. In Island City, which bears a strong resemblance to New York, 11-year-old Silvia and her mother arrive from abroad to live with Silvia’s aunt Ena in the Morningside, a once-luxurious apartment building that Ena now manages. Silvia and her mother, who fled their war-torn homeland (referred to only as “Back Home”) years ago, have been brought over as part of a “repopulation” program to ensure people continue to inhabit Island City. At the Morningside, Silvia becomes obsessed with the mysterious Bezi Duras, an artist from Back Home who lives in the penthouse apartment with her three huge hounds, and is drawn by a young neighbor named Mila into dangerous nighttime excursions across the city. The plot arcs somewhat haphazardly between myth and reality, and the tone is a slippery mix of YA and literary fiction. Still, Obreht skillfully crafts this alternate world through Silvia’s determined efforts to make sense of both her present and her past, and adds deft touches of horror and magic along the way. Readers will once again be beguiled by Obreht’s lyrical imagination. Agent: Seth Fishman, Gernert Co.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This near-future dystopian novel is set in a time of ecological disaster in the mostly underwater community of Island City. Carlotta Brentan portrays the cast of characters smartly by subtly shifting tone, cadence, and timbre. She smoothly portrays the protagonist, who begins as a gangly 11-year-old named Sylvia. Brentan contrasts Sylvia's size and temperament with those of her secretive and diminutive Eastern European-sounding mother. The voices are nicely differentiated for the other female characters and for the single man in the story, who is both the voice of a pirate radio station and a friend to the mother and daughter. The once stately Morningside building is now home to "repopulated" folks who are part of a government program. Mysteries shroud this imaginative work. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      Starred review from September 1, 2024

      Obreht (Inland) transports listeners to the near future and to the Morningside, an apartment tower in Island City where 11-year-old Silvia and her mother have settled as participants in the repopulation program. Silvia's aunt Ena, the building superintendent, immerses her in old-world fantasies and fables, regaling her with family history, while her mother, a pragmatic survivor, sees no value in dwelling on the past. Silvia is terminally lonely until Mila arrives and becomes her companion. Meanwhile, the enigmatic artist Bezi Duras captures Silvia's imagination, leading her to suspect that Bezi has supernatural powers as a Vila, a "spirit of the mountain" from the Old Country, accompanied by a trio of shapeshifting dogs. Carlotta Brentan's narration is glorious, with accents and pacing that differentiate the range of characters while maintaining the dreamlike quality presented through the text's beautiful imagery. VERDICT This apocalyptic near-future parable subtly alludes to the consequences of climate change, yet at its core lies the poignant relationship between mother and daughter, expertly captured by Brentan's pitch-perfect narration. A unique and captivating blend of fantasy, adventure, and human connection, highly recommended for all collections.--Christa Van Herreweghe

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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