
Ruby Red Skies
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.63
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Nisha Ahuja
-
By:
-
Taslim Burkowicz
About this listen
Ruby used to be a fiery, sexy, musical genius. But when she got pregnant as a teenager in the '90s, her life took a turn into banality. Now a middle-aged Indo-Canadian woman, she feels unseen and unheard by her white husband and struggles to communicate with her mixed-race daughter. When she discovers her husband cheating, she embarks on a quest to unearth exciting secrets from her past. To find what she needs, she drives straight into B.C.’s raging wildfires, accompanied only by the fantastical stories her mother used to tell about their ancient Mughal ancestry—a dancer named Rubina who lived in the concubine quarters of the great Agra Fort. This book is at once historical fiction and political romance, deftly navigating themes of mixed-race relationships, climate change, motherhood, body shame, death and the passage of time.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2022 Taslim Burkowicz (P)2023 Roseway PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
-
Black Sheep
- By: Rachel Harrison
- Narrated by: Jeremy Carlisle Parker
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly...something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep.
-
-
Satanism
- By Martowski on 11-05-23
By: Rachel Harrison
-
Malibu Rising
- A Novel
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malibu: August 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer Mick Riva. The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself.
-
-
Malibu Sinking
- By SB on 06-01-21
-
Too Good to Be True
- By: Kristen Ashley
- Narrated by: Stella Bloom
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heiress Daphne Ryan is uncertain about spending a week at the sprawling country estate of the family of her sister’s boyfriend. For starters, she doesn’t get along with her sister. Then there’s the fact his family is old, wealthy aristocracy, and Daphne’s from brash, new American money. Mostly, it’s that everyone knows Duncroft House is haunted by the ghost of a 1920s film star who died there. Deemed an accident, for nearly a century, people are sure it was murder.
-
-
Mystery
- By susan on 11-18-23
By: Kristen Ashley
-
Mrs. Everything
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Weiner
- Narrated by: Ari Graynor, Beth Malone
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growing up in 1950s Detroit, they live in a perfect “Dick and Jane” house, where their roles in the family are clearly defined. Jo is the tomboy, the bookish rebel with a passion to make the world more fair; Bethie is the pretty, feminine good girl, a would-be star who enjoys the power her beauty confers and dreams of a traditional life. But the truth ends up looking different from what the girls imagined. Jo and Bethie survive traumas and tragedies.
-
-
Absolutely beautiful
- By Courtney Engle on 06-13-19
By: Jennifer Weiner
-
Big Summer
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Weiner
- Narrated by: Danielle Macdonald
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six years after the fight that ended their friendship, Daphne Berg is shocked when Drue Cavanaugh walks back into her life, looking as lovely and successful as ever, with a massive favor to ask. Daphne hasn’t spoken one word to Drue in all this time - she doesn’t even hate-follow her ex-best friend on social media - so when Drue asks if she will be her maid-of-honor at the society wedding of the summer, Daphne is rightfully speechless.
-
-
Book is great; narrator is painful to listen to
- By katherine rosenberg on 05-07-20
By: Jennifer Weiner
-
A Witch in Time
- By: Constance Sayers
- Narrated by: Courtney Patterson, Claire Christie, Brittany Wilkerson, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Helen Lambert has lived several lives-a young piano virtuoso in 1890s Paris, an actress in 1930s Hollywood, a rock star in 1970s Los Angeles - only she doesn't know it. Until she meets a strange man who claims he's watched over her for centuries, bound to her from the beginning. At first, Helen doesn't believe him. Her life is as normal as any other modern career woman's. Then she begins having vivid dreams about ill-fated love and lives cut short. Caught in a curse, Helen will be forced to relive the same tragic events that ruined her previous lives.
-
-
Tired of Heroines’ Repeatedly Making Stupid Decisions
- By Neecie on 03-26-20
By: Constance Sayers
-
Black Sheep
- By: Rachel Harrison
- Narrated by: Jeremy Carlisle Parker
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly...something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep.
-
-
Satanism
- By Martowski on 11-05-23
By: Rachel Harrison
-
Malibu Rising
- A Novel
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malibu: August 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer Mick Riva. The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself.
-
-
Malibu Sinking
- By SB on 06-01-21
-
Too Good to Be True
- By: Kristen Ashley
- Narrated by: Stella Bloom
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heiress Daphne Ryan is uncertain about spending a week at the sprawling country estate of the family of her sister’s boyfriend. For starters, she doesn’t get along with her sister. Then there’s the fact his family is old, wealthy aristocracy, and Daphne’s from brash, new American money. Mostly, it’s that everyone knows Duncroft House is haunted by the ghost of a 1920s film star who died there. Deemed an accident, for nearly a century, people are sure it was murder.
-
-
Mystery
- By susan on 11-18-23
By: Kristen Ashley
-
Mrs. Everything
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Weiner
- Narrated by: Ari Graynor, Beth Malone
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growing up in 1950s Detroit, they live in a perfect “Dick and Jane” house, where their roles in the family are clearly defined. Jo is the tomboy, the bookish rebel with a passion to make the world more fair; Bethie is the pretty, feminine good girl, a would-be star who enjoys the power her beauty confers and dreams of a traditional life. But the truth ends up looking different from what the girls imagined. Jo and Bethie survive traumas and tragedies.
-
-
Absolutely beautiful
- By Courtney Engle on 06-13-19
By: Jennifer Weiner
-
Big Summer
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Weiner
- Narrated by: Danielle Macdonald
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six years after the fight that ended their friendship, Daphne Berg is shocked when Drue Cavanaugh walks back into her life, looking as lovely and successful as ever, with a massive favor to ask. Daphne hasn’t spoken one word to Drue in all this time - she doesn’t even hate-follow her ex-best friend on social media - so when Drue asks if she will be her maid-of-honor at the society wedding of the summer, Daphne is rightfully speechless.
-
-
Book is great; narrator is painful to listen to
- By katherine rosenberg on 05-07-20
By: Jennifer Weiner
-
A Witch in Time
- By: Constance Sayers
- Narrated by: Courtney Patterson, Claire Christie, Brittany Wilkerson, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Helen Lambert has lived several lives-a young piano virtuoso in 1890s Paris, an actress in 1930s Hollywood, a rock star in 1970s Los Angeles - only she doesn't know it. Until she meets a strange man who claims he's watched over her for centuries, bound to her from the beginning. At first, Helen doesn't believe him. Her life is as normal as any other modern career woman's. Then she begins having vivid dreams about ill-fated love and lives cut short. Caught in a curse, Helen will be forced to relive the same tragic events that ruined her previous lives.
-
-
Tired of Heroines’ Repeatedly Making Stupid Decisions
- By Neecie on 03-26-20
By: Constance Sayers
-
Life and Other Inconveniences
- By: Kristan Higgins
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso, Dion Graham, Suzy Jackson, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emma London never thought she had anything in common with her grandmother Genevieve London. The regal old woman came from wealthy and bluest-blood New England stock, but that didn't protect her from life's cruelest blows. Genevieve rose from the ashes of grief and built a fashion empire that was respected the world over, even when it meant neglecting her other son. When Emma's own mother died, her father abandoned her on his mother's doorstep. Genevieve took Emma in and reluctantly raised her - until Emma got pregnant her senior year of high school.
-
-
Another KH Winner
- By S. Plemmons on 08-23-19
By: Kristan Higgins
-
Oona Out of Order
- A Novel
- By: Margarita Montimore
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn 19, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens 32 years in the future in her 51-year-old body.
-
-
Awful
- By M. Esposito on 03-02-20
-
Searching for Sylvie Lee
- A Novel
- By: Jean Kwok
- Narrated by: Angela Lin, Samantha Quan, Caroline McLaughlin
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A poignant and suspenseful drama that untangles the complicated ties binding three women - two sisters and their mother - in one Chinese immigrant family and explores what happens when the eldest daughter disappears, and a series of family secrets emerge, from the New York Times best-selling author of Girl in Translation.
-
-
Wordy and boring
- By Sheila S on 06-11-19
By: Jean Kwok
-
Family Lore
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Acevedo
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Acevedo, Sixta Morel, Danyeli Rodriguez del Orbe
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Flor has a gift: she can predict, to the day, when someone will die. So when she decides she wants a living wake—a party to bring her family and community together to celebrate the long life she’s led—her sisters are surprised. Has Flor foreseen her own death, or someone else’s? Does she have other motives? She refuses to tell her sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila.
-
-
Underwhelming.
- By Karina on 09-18-23
-
The Art of Scandal
- By: Regina Black
- Narrated by: Mela Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the night of her husband Matt’s fortieth birthday, Rachel Abbott receives a sexy, explicit text from her husband that she quickly realizes was meant for another woman. Divorce is inevitable, and Rachel is determined not to leave her thirteen-year marriage empty handed. Meanwhile, Matt, a rising star mayor with his eye on the White House, can’t afford a messy split in the middle of his reelection campaign. They strike a deal: Rachel gets one million dollars and lavish house in the wealthy DC suburb of Oasis Springs, as long as she keeps playing the ideal Black trophy wife until the election.
-
-
Not what I expected.
- By Romance Schmomance on 02-03-24
By: Regina Black
-
Bygones
- By: LaVyrle Spencer
- Narrated by: Emily Sutton-Smith
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bess Curran, 40, is an interior designer in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, still lonely and bitter after her traumatic divorce six years earlier. Her adult daughter, Lisa, anxious for her parents to reconcile, arranges a surprise dinner meeting where she informs them that she is pregnant and about to marry. Bess and former husband, Michael (he left her for another woman, who, in turn, has just left him), can barely control their mutual animosity yet must come to grips with the startling news.
-
-
Pure Misogyny
- By M. Vela on 09-09-23
By: LaVyrle Spencer
-
Our Country Friends
- A Novel
- By: Gary Shteyngart
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the rolling hills of upstate New York, a group of friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months, new friendships and romances will take hold, while old betrayals will emerge, forcing each character to reevaluate whom they love and what matters most. The unlikely cast of characters includes a Russian-born novelist, his Russian-born psychiatrist wife, their precocious child obsessed with K-pop, a struggling Indian American writer, a wildly successful Korean American app developer, a global dandy with three passports.
-
-
Beautifully written, painful, but very, very moving
- By Jim on 11-08-21
By: Gary Shteyngart
-
Don't Let It Get You Down
- Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body
- By: Savala Nolan
- Narrated by: Savala Nolan
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A powerful and provocative collection of essays that offers poignant reflections on living between society’s most charged, politicized, and intractably polar spaces - between Black and White, rich and poor, thin and fat.
-
-
Provocative and beautifully written
- By Lily's Mom on 08-13-21
By: Savala Nolan
-
Banyan Moon
- A Novel
- By: Thao Thai
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay, Catherine Ho, Elyse Dinh
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Ann Tran gets the call that her fiercely beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away, her life is already at a crossroads. In the years since she’s last seen Minh, Ann has built a seemingly perfect life—a beautiful lake house, a charming professor boyfriend, and invites to elegant parties that bubble over with champagne and good taste—but it all crumbles with one positive pregnancy test. With both her relationship and carefully planned future now in question, Ann returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother, Huơng.
-
-
Mean Girls / Soap Opera, But Sans Fun
- By Ignatius on 08-26-23
By: Thao Thai
-
The Prince’s Bride, Part 1
- By: J.J. McAvoy
- Narrated by: Shane East, Wesleigh Siobhan
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He is a spoiled playboy prince whose family is in desperate need of money. She’s an American heiress who can only get her inheritance through marriage. According to their families they are a perfect match. According to each other, arranged marriages have no place in modern times and this could not possibly work.
-
-
Super Sweet Story! Movie Worthy!
- By Chellebelle on 04-21-21
By: J.J. McAvoy
-
White Ivy
- A Novel
- By: Susie Yang
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raised outside of Boston, Ivy’s immigrant grandmother relies on Ivy’s mild appearance for cover as she teaches her granddaughter how to pilfer items from yard sales and second-hand shops. Thieving allows Ivy to accumulate the trappings of a suburban teen - and, most importantly, to attract the attention of Gideon Speyer, the golden boy of a wealthy political family. But when Ivy’s mother discovers her trespasses, punishment is swift and Ivy is sent to China, and her dream instantly evaporates.
-
-
Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.
- By KayMac on 11-06-20
By: Susie Yang
-
Cleopatra and Frankenstein
- By: Coco Mellors
- Narrated by: Kit Griffiths
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank’s life is full of all the excesses Cleo’s lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint and the opportunity to apply for a green card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could’ve predicted.
-
-
Refreshing
- By Sadz on 11-22-22
By: Coco Mellors
Critic reviews
“A story of two women who live centuries apart but share a journey towards resilience. The depictions of Ruby and Rubina, as women travelling arduous paths to understand their needs and aspirations, are as painful as they are accurate. The character of Ruby Malkhana beautifully portrays the tragic experiences of women of colour in Canada, people who are invisible and othered in their own homes and communities. Taslim Burkowicz’s novel encourages us to consider our own journey, the paths that lead us away from ourselves, and the paradigms that explain our choices.”—Kimia Eslah, author of Sister Seen, Sister Heard
“In Taslim Burkowicz’s enchanting novel Ruby Red Skies, two distant places and moments in time—a wildfire-ravaged, contemporary British Columbia and the courtly interiors of seventeenth century Mughal India—are artfully juxtaposed, making for a highly inventive and readable tale driven by questions of paternity, mothering, marriage, race and the quest for self-affirmation. Burkowicz skillfully embroiders each context through the memorable characters of Ruby, a South Asian-Canadian housewife facing a loveless interracial marriage, and Rubina, a dancing girl determined not to fall prey to a concubine’s fate, each of whom reminds us, at every turn of their intersecting stories, that the here and now is often powerfully reimagined by the histories we carry within us. A deftly crafted novel that expands the historical echoes and cultural geographies of Canadian literature.”—Dr. Mariam Pirbhai, author of Isolated Incident