Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Book of Night Women
    Unavailable
    The Book of Night Women
    Unavailable
    The Book of Night Women
    Audiobook15 hours

    The Book of Night Women

    Written by Marlon James

    Narrated by Robin Miles

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The Book of Night Women is a sweeping, startling novel, a true tour de force of both voice and storytelling. It is the story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the eighteenth century. Even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they-and she-will come to both revere and fear. The Night Women, as they call themselves, have long been plotting a slave revolt, and as Lilith comes of age and reveals the extent of her power, they see her as the key to their plans. But when she begins to understand her own feelings and desires and identity, Lilith starts to push at the edges of what is imaginable for the life of a slave woman in Jamaica, and risks becoming the conspiracy's weak link. Lilith's story overflows with high drama and heartbreak, and life on the plantation is rife with dangerous secrets, unspoken jealousies, inhuman violence, and very human emotion-between slave and master, between slave and overseer, and among the slaves themselves. Lilith finds herself at the heart of it all. And all of it told in one of the boldest literary voices to grace the page recently-and the secret of that voice is one of the book's most intriguing mysteries.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 19, 2009
    ISBN9781101029565
    Unavailable
    The Book of Night Women
    Author

    Marlon James

    Marlon James was born in Jamaica. He is the author of John Crow’s Devil (Oneworld, 2015), a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and The Book of Night Women (Oneworld, 2009), which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Minnesota Book Award and was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction. His third novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings (Oneworld 2014), won the Man Booker Prize in 2015, the American Book Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Fiction Prize, and was a finalist for the International Dublin Literary Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His short fiction and non-fiction has appeared in Esquire and Granta. He is currently the Writer-in-Residence and Associate Professor of English at Macalester College, Minnesota, USA.

    More audiobooks from Marlon James

    Related to The Book of Night Women

    Related audiobooks

    Historical African American Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Life In Wartime: Women Dominate A Quartet Of World War II Novels

      Aug 25, 2021

      The 4 best recent novels set during World War II show the ingenuity of women who put everything on the line to defeat the Nazis.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Hidden Histories

      Jun 10, 2021

      “No matter what the slave girl looks like, if she’s dark, if she’s light, if she’s medium, if she’s at all attractive, if she has beauty it is a curse, because the master will be after her... Even the little child will learn that if God has bestowed

      3 min read

    • Article

      THE Reading room

      Jul 21, 2019

      THE Reading room
      2 min read

    • Article

      Mother’s Day

      Apr 18, 2022

      Mother’s Day
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Prophet of Nothingness

      Sep 12, 2021

      The Prophet of Nothingness
      9 min read

    • Article

      Wild Seas And Alien Wonder: Get Carried Away With January’s Best Books

      Jan 22, 2024

      The Waters, by Bonnie Jo Campbell Bonnie Jo Campbell is one of the chief practitioners of Midwestern Gothic, and the National Book Award finalist’s first novel in a dozen years is reason to rejoice. “The Waters” is an indelible portrait of rural Mich

      2 min read

    • Article

      Great Reads

      Dec 22, 2023

      By Chloe Gong The Sunday Times bestselling author Chloe Gong's adult epic fantasy debut, inspired by Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, is a fiery collision of power plays, spilled blood, and romance amidst a set of deadly games. By Jennifer Chiave

      1 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reads

      Dec 29, 2021

      Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney In what is arguably the most anticipated novel of the year, Sally Rooney grapples with friendship, work, sex and the cost of being a famous writer through the lens of four flawed millennial characters.  

      2 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Coates, Jamison, Patchett, Krasznahorkai, Ware, Smith, and More

      Sep 24, 2019

      In case you've been living under a rock, Ta-Nehisi Coates has a new book out (and so do Patti Smith, Ann Patchett, Leslie Jamison, and Chris Ware. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Coates, Jamison, Patchett, Krasznahorkai, Ware, Smith, and M

      7 min read

    • Article

      Books Of The Month

      Apr 19, 2024

      By Oliver K Langmead Langmead made his debut in 2015 with Dark Star, a science fiction/noir detective story in iambic pentameter. After two SF novels in prose, he returns to the long-form poem with this epic tale of a bold plan to bioengineer a new h

      2 min read

    • Article

      'Queen Of The Conquered' Serves Revenge With Delicacy And Savagery

      Nov 14, 2019

      In their new novel, Kacen Callender builds a vast, immersive landscape based on the colonial history of the Caribbean, but it's their morally conflicted heroine who will really hook readers.

      2 min read

    • Article

      10 Best Books Of January

      Jan 24, 2019

      A new novel by 'The Thirteenth Tale' author Diane Setterfield and a nonfiction title about the mass exodus of one-quarter of Shanghai’s population in the 1940s are two of the titles that Monitor reviewers liked best this month.

      3 min read

    • Article

      June Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      Jun 2, 2021

      This June, we're tentatively removing our masks in public parks and curling up with new books from Kate Zambreno, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Lisa Taddeo, Kristen Arnett, Rivka Galchen, and Italo Calvino. The post June Preview: The Millions Most Anticipate

      8 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring O’Farrell, Sexton, Homes, and MOre

      Sep 6, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Maggie O’Farrell, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, A.M. Homes, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to he

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Best Fiction Books Of 2019 End The Year On A High Note

      Dec 6, 2019

      Monitor reviewers share the titles that stood out, including two impressive debut novels and stories centered on global themes.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Books Of The Month

      Jan 21, 2022

      by Nikki May “Wahala” means, loosely, trouble, and there’s plenty of it in this entertaining debut. Friends since university, where they bonded over their mixed Nigerian and British heritage, Ronke, Boo and Simi live in London, where they pivot betwe

      2 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Burns, Adiga, Taylor, Phillips, Vollmann, and More

      Feb 18, 2020

      Our own Thomas Beckwith take a look at some notable books publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Burns, Adiga, Taylor, Phillips, Vollmann, and More appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Enchanting chapters WEEKLY TOP 10

      Nov 20, 2022

      With best-selling author Nicky Pellegrino One of New Zealand’s best-loved novels, this is the story of five-year-old Rose, who arrives with her mother in the bleak coal-mining settlement of Denniston on the West Coast in the late 1800s. It is a rough

      3 min read

    • Article

      Books

      May 25, 2020

      In this novel, set amid the Spanish Civil War, Isabel Allende gives us a short but incisive account of the horrors of war, as seen through the eyes of the Dalmau family from Barcelona, the Republican forces’ centre. It’s 1938, and the Republicans are

      5 min read

    • Article

      'The Fetishist' Examines Racial And Sexual Politics

      Jan 10, 2024

      Katherine Min's well-crafted posthumous novel is inspired by Lolita -- but with an Asian fetishist as Humbert Humbert and the objects of his objectification given voice.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Apr 19, 2023

      Great Read
      7 min read

    • Article

      4 Ways to Write Hooks for Books

      Dec 11, 2023

      Book authors have to hook readers twice. Like all other writers, authors have to hook readers with the writing in their books. But they also have the additional challenge of hooking readers before they ever crack open the spine or open the digital fi

      5 min read

    Reviews for The Book of Night Women

    4.5/5

    195 ratings18 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This is a vivid, emotional, intriguing account of North American plantation life. Powerful, powerful stuff. Written with a narrative dialect, much like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but from a decidedly non-white perspective. (Note: if you would be intolerant of certain terms used in Huck Finn, you will be totally destroyed by this book.) Yet, this is not just Huck Finn from Jim's perspective. In fact, this book reminded me of when the movie M*A*S*H came out. America was neck deep in the Vietnam War and critics offered that M*A*S*H had to be set in the earlier Korean War to give the audience some emotional distance. In that respect, the author's setting of this story in late 1700 British Jamaica instead of America's mid-1800s Deep South, gives some distance, but was it necessary? Is there really anything that's different about the relationships between the white slave owners and the black slaves? Who but the ashamed would use the meager difference the author provides. Jim in Twain's Huck Finn had some degree of gentleness to him. This is not a book with gentle characters. Patience, yes. There is tenderness and love, but not in packages normally found in fictional works. I'm still shaking my head at why I was the only person to have one of the multiple copies of this book checked out of my local library. This deserves so much more respect and interest. It would make a stunning movie. Admittedly, it's not always an easy narrative to tolerate, but it is more than worthy. It will resonate with me a very long time.
    • 5/5
      I started reading this one like I would a typical fiction book, a few chapters a night before bed. But after two nights of that I knew my usual method wasn't to work with this novel, so I spent most of a Saturday with it instead, and that proved a good decision. It's a book that demands close attention and absorption, and wow is it excellent. Recommended very highly.
    • 1/5
      Terrible, I read maybe 85 pages, before I gave up on the author'sJamaican pidgin style. Everyone who knows the sugar islands should know that the reason for the high rate of death was that the Engish would not feed them, preferring to get new people from Africa as long as the slave trade lasted. Why do you think that slaves would fear bring sold down the river.to sugar plantations?
    • 5/5
      A very uncomfortable book about the horrors of slavery set in the early 1800's in Jamaica. It also explores the impossible conflict of being in the half way spot between black and white. Excellently written.
    • 5/5
      There are a lot of novels about slavery. This is one of the best. Beautifully written, painful to read but impossible to put down, memorable characters that stay in your head long after you've finished this outstanding book.
    • 5/5
      Loved this one and the audio was fantastic!
    • 2/5
      I saw a review referring to this book as slavery porn. That describes my feeling about it. Combined with the annoying dialect (inconsistently used), I found this a crude, unpleasant reading experience.
    • 5/5
      The story begins with the birth of the main character, Lilith, a green-eyed mulatto. Set on a Jamaican plantation in the late eighteenth century, this fictional narrative follows the lives of seven mulatto sisters. The narrative explores the relationship between the sisters, slaves and master/overseers, and the hierarchies--even amongst the slaves--that would have existed on a slave plantation. The narrative is graphic, cruel, and brutal, so I would suggest the book be read by 12th grade students and above. I had a professor say that she wouldn't introduce this book to college freshman, but I think that by the time students reach age 17, they've seen and read some pretty graphic materials. Many countries began with chattel slavery, and I think that, with a responsible instructor, this book should be on the syllabus of a history class. I hesitantly make this recommendation because I wouldn't want the book to be segregated (as much Black literature is), but It could also be used in a Black literature, or Black history class.Lastly, the narrator speaks in a Jamaican dialect, not English. This is an excellent book. It changed me in a profound way, and that is what great writing does.
    • 5/5
      This was a hard book to read, both for its language and for its style. If it hadn't been for book club, I probably wouldn't have picked it up. The story is of the slavery past, what slavery does to people, both slave and slave holder, and what slavery can lead to. I would require anybody who thinks slavery has any redeeming points read this book.
    • 3/5
      Marlon James left nothing to the imagination when it came to slave life on this Jamaican plantation. The story was intense, graphic, and at times borderline vulgar. Even with all the vivid descriptions and imagery that was used, I’m sure the reality was much worse. We come to view slavery on this sugar plantation through the eyes of, Lilith, a young slave girl. There was this dark bewitching aura that surrounded Lilith. This intangible quality was detected by the ever watchful head house slave Homer. Homer rescued Lilith from the consequences of a tragic event. What Lilith soon discovers is that behind all of Homer’s care and concern is a hidden agenda. I have strong and mixed feelings about this book. The plot was beyond disturbing and at times disgusting, I did not connect with any of the characters, but I still could not put it down. The book was not a slow dreadful read but I think it was such a dark story that I continued reading to try and find some light or redemption in it. James took the reader into the rancid belly of slavery with his imagery. There was a period of time during the novel where Lilith was beaten daily until she wore “quilt” of scars on her back. Lilith’s scars being referred to as a quilt was so moving and painful. There was a naive quality to Lilith that reminded me of Granada’s character in The Healing. Lilith’s loneliness spread over the entire novel as did her insurmountable suffering.My low rating comes from what I thought was at times the unnecessary use of profanity and graphic details. The Jamaican dialect in which it was written took some getting use to at first. When I finished, I felt like I missed something. Maybe I was too caught up in the horror of it all. The Book of Night Women is overwhelming and a lot to digest.
    • 5/5
      I have to admit, I was wary of this book at first, mostly because of the writing style. While it took a while for me to get into this book, it was well worth the effort. I felt as through I had been transported to Jamaica in the early nineteenth century and I felt all the confusing and conflicting emotions of the central character of Lilith, who is both complex and dynamic, evolving into an admirable woman in a harsh world. Marlon James is clearly a very talented writer and his prose makes The Book of Night Women a gripping read.
    • 5/5
      Unpredictable and epic. The Book of Night Women changes the way I look at the legacy of slavery and its echoes in today's society. More powerfully, it is a brilliant pschological portrayal of the impact that a life of slavery might have on the emotional and moral development of a spirited, intelligent girl, raised without moral guidance or education or love, who develops her own common sense and moral complass only after she has suffered the very painful consequences of acting senselessly. So often I would say to Lilith, "Noooooooo, why are you doing that?!" only to realize that a girl in her situation would have no reason or sense to act otherwise. Finally, this is the most action-packed novel I have ever read. It opens with a stunning scene, then in the middle of the book provides another stunning scene that could have been the rousing climax to the novel, and then continues to a final stunning scene; and every single stunner took me completely by surprise, often only pages after I thought I had a good idea of where the story was going.
    • 2/5
      Sometimes you finish a book and you are sorry its come to an end. This isn't one of those books. This book is so violent and so brutal that I questioned why I kept reading it. I'm not sure why I persisted with it except that the plot was so compelling that I really wanted to see what happened to Lilith. And I was disappointed--nothing really changes for Lilith as a result of the slave rebellion that she grudgingly supports and privately questions. The book is written in a slave dialect that makes it difficult to understand at first, but I soon picked up the words I didn't know from their context. The plot is similar to Allende's latest, Islands Beneath the Sea, which I much preferred.
    • 5/5
      One of the most powerful, disturbing books I've read in a long time. It is written almost entirely in a Jamaican patois, which some readers found difficult, but I got used to it very quickly and it only added to the book's appeal. I wish I could give it more stars.
    • 5/5
      Imagine yourself on a sugar plantation in Jamaica during the late eighteenth century. You are forced to endure the stronghold of slavery but you feel out of place, peculiar and different. Something deep inside is telling you that you don’t belong here but you have no where to run and no where to hide. All you have is a dream that someone will see past your black skin into your green eyes and rescue you. I know it seems crazy but this is the life of Lillith, the main character in The Book of Night Women. Lillith, the daughter of a teenage slave girl and the plantation overseer, is raised in a home with a man and woman that she calls mother and father but she shares no resemblance. Deep in her heart she knows that she is different. Not only does Lillith know that she is different but the Night Women also know as they secretly keep an eye on her. As Lillith matures and comes face-to-face with her “darkness,” she is rescued by Homer, the leader of the Night Women. Homer is sure that Lillith just may be the one that will make their plot of a slave revolt successful. I must admit, I have never read a book written with the eloquence, detail and imagery used by Marlon James to bring the Night Women to life. James not only created characters that I could relate to but he created women characters that any woman could relate to. The Night Women possessed strength, gumption, skill and a desire for freedom and they were willing to get it at any cost. These women led by Homer, a house slave, were not fazed by the absence of men in this plot. They carried the load as they strategically used their plantation jobs to work for them so they could have eyes everywhere at once. I must add, in the beginning I wasn’t sure about this book because the patois/dialect frustrated me initially but I endured and it was well worth my time. I would recommend this book to anyone as a must-read and I nominate James for the Pulitzer Prize (if he is an American citizen that is.) However, for now, Marlon James is the 2009 award winner of the Spinks Prize for literary fiction. :)P.S. I will be re-reading this book. It was just that good! Kiss KissNotorious Spinks
    • 5/5
      INTENSE. Story of survival on a Jamaican plantation in the 1800's. If you can get through the brutal treatment of the slaves by the whites and by each other and the constant rape of the women, you will find a story about survival and revenge. I had a hard time in the beginning with the language it was written in -- slave jargon -- and the lack of quotes when characters where speaking. Once I got into the rhythm I was easier but had to reread many exchanges to figure out 1. what they were saying and 2. who was saying it. Not for the lighthearted.
    • 4/5
      A grim and terrifying recreation of the life of slaves, as told by a woman named Lilith, who survives the unsurvivable. Unforgettable, vivid, fully-formed men and women populate this story of the misery that slavery brings to all living beings, the masters as well as those enslaved.
    • 3/5
      I didn't enjoy it until midway through, at which point the narrative finally begins to incorporate metaphor and ambiguity. For much of the first half, James tells his reader exactly how the narrative should be read and there are few things more irksome in a work of literature.