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Kim

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Kim

By: Rudyard Kipling
Narrated by: Sam Dastor
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About this listen

Exclusively from Audible

Kipling's masterpiece Kim is his final and most famous work and one of the first and greatest espionage stories ever written. It explores the life of Kimball O'Hara, an Irish orphan who spends his childhood as a vagrant in Lahore. When he befriends an aged Tibetan lama his life is transformed as he is requested to accompany him on a mysterious quest to find the legendary River of the Arrow and achieve Enlightenment. The pilgrimage will take them across the vast continent, across rivers, and up the Himalayas.

While Kim wishes to take part in the imperialistic Great Game, learning espionage from the British secret service, he feels spiritually bound to the lama. Kim has a difficult choice to make: his companion or his country?

A rich and colourful depiction of India's exotic landscape and culture in the imperialistic world of the late 19th century, this audiobook celebrates their friendship and explores a young man's quest for identity.

Rudyard Kipling was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist who was the first English language author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Some of his most memorable works include The Jungle Book and Just So Stories.

In 1998 Kim was ranked at Number 78 on the Modern Library's list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2003 it was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's 'best-loved novel'.

Narrator Biography

A Cambridge graduate who trained at RADA under the direction of Sir Laurence Olivier, Sam Dastor has long featured on screen and stage. He is best known for The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) and for twice portraying Gandhi in both Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy (1986), and Jinnah (1998).Sam Dastor has starred in many West End productions with roles such as Ariel in The Tempest, and Orlando in As You Like It. His most recent work has included starring on stage at the Wolsey Theatre in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2016). He has narrated a large catalogue of audiobooks including V.S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr Biswas.

Public Domain (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Classics Heartfelt Thought-Provoking Espionage
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What listeners say about Kim

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Compelling and genuine

One of my favorite books brought to vivid life by a distinguished actor whose voice and expression exactly suits the book. What more could you ask?

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Immersive

Kipling’s writing is beautiful, and Sam Dastor reads wonderfully, so it’s a tremendous tale to inhabit. I didn’t always find the plot easy to follow, but the atmosphere, characters, and quality of writing and of performance were all rich enough to make up for that!

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1 person found this helpful

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Compelling and lovely

A great book, beautifully written. Kim is an unforgettable character - part Artful Dodger part young philosopher part vulnerable orphan.

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Mesmerising performance

A gentle, spiritual and subtly funny love letter to India, performed with vast skill and restraint.

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Inspirational, delightful, exceptional!

Impossible to do justice to this wonderful literary classic. It was a profound delight and pleasure to enter into the story... So masterfully told and superbly presented....

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Magical escapism

Ideal escapism to another time. Richly detailed descriptions. Knowing humour. Five words are still remaining.

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A tale you don’t want to end

Sam Dastur reads this so well. He really brings the story to louder. I hadn’t read it in an age and just loved this. Will listen again soon

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A great novel quite brilliantly read

The narrator is exceptionally good in the way he captures all the accents and the speech patterns of the different characters. I cannot imagine that I would have had so much pleasure from reading the book myself.

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Revisiting Kipling

I must do it more often , enlightening and extraordinarily wonderful, Sam Dastor’s performance equally compelling, he is so talented , I shall have to find what else he has done !

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Not a new theme

The oneness of the universe perceived by meditation a common theme in many religions with a promise to attain forgiveness of one’s sins accompanied by desire in this case of a priest to return to life on earth for his disciple! Maybe the truth is no one wants to die even if they have achieved salvation. Food for thought?

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