Out of Africa & Shadows on the Grass - Isak Dinesen, Karen Blixen Audiobook

Written by Isak Dinesen, Karen Blixen
Read by Susan Lyons
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Release date: July 21, 2015
Duration: 16:35:46

Out of Africa:
In this audiobook, the author of Seven Gothic Tales gives a true account of her life on her plantation in Kenya. She tells with classic simplicity of the ways of the country and the natives: of the beauty of the Ngong Hills and coffee trees in blossom: of her guests, from the Prince of Wales to Knudsen, the old charcoal burner, who visited her: of primitive festivals: of big game that were her near neighbors—lions, rhinos, elephants, zebras, buffaloes—and of Lulu, the little gazelle who came to live with her, unbelievably ladylike and beautiful.

Shadows on the Grass:
Isak Dinesen takes up the absorbing story of her life in Kenya begun in the unforgettable Out of Africa, which she published under the name of Karen Blixen. With warmth and humanity these four stories illuminate her love both for the African people, their dignity and traditions, and for the beauty and wildness of the landscape. The first three were written in the 1950s and the last, ‘Echoes from the Hills’, was written especially for this volume in the summer of 1960 when the author was in her seventies. In all they provide a moving final chapter to her African reminiscences.

To hear Susan Lyons narrate these classics is to be transported back to their time and place–British East Africa (now Kenya) in the early twentieth century. In tones rich, rolling, earthly, and regal, she personifies equally well the Baroness Blixen and the land itself. The author’s love and concern for the land and its people shine through this simple yet stately presentation. Steeped as these stories are in time and place, they also cannot avoid reflecting that other artifact of their time: a certain white NOBLESSE OBLIGE that skims below, and occasionally breaks the surface of, the story. But even in this, Lyons’s performance remains true to the text. While a picture in time taken from a particular vantage point, this audio and Lyons’s performance are a memorable and faithful portrait. K.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015,