The Orphanage Audiobook By Serhiy Zhadan cover art

The Orphanage

A Novel

Preview

Try for $0.00
Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

The Orphanage

By: Serhiy Zhadan
Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $15.56

Buy for $15.56

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

A devastating story of the struggle of civilians caught up in the conflict in eastern Ukraine

If every war needs its master chronicler, Ukraine has Serhiy Zhadan, one of Europe’s most promising novelists. Recalling the brutal landscape of The Road and the wartime storytelling of A Farewell to Arms, The Orphanage is a searing novel that excavates the human collateral damage wrought by the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine.

When hostile soldiers invade a neighboring city, Pasha, a thirty-five-year-old Ukrainian language teacher, sets out for the orphanage where his nephew Sasha lives, now in occupied territory. Venturing into combat zones, traversing shifting borders, and forging uneasy alliances along the way, Pasha realizes where his true loyalties lie in an increasingly desperate fight to rescue Sasha and bring him home.

Written with a raw intensity, this is a deeply personal account of violence that will be remembered as the definitive novel of the war in Ukraine.

©2017 The original Ukrainian edition was first published under the title Інтернат by Meridian Czernowitz, Chernivtsi in 2017. © 2017 by Serhij Zhadan. © 2018 by Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin. All rights reserved by and controlled through Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin. Translation © 2021 by Reilly Costigan-Humes and Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing
Fiction War & Military War
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about The Orphanage

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    13
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good, but not Great

Overall, the biggest hinderence to this novel is the first half. it begins to come into it's own, but there is an absence of sense of place and distance. Pasha's journey is great, but when I finished I struggled to get a clear sense of each character and location he has been. a few stand out, like "Sir" and the "iguana," and a few locations stand out too, but for an almost 11 hour book much feels lost. still, worth a read. Slava Ukraine.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Powerful and insightful!

Beautifully written and narrated story about life during war and occupation. Zhadan’s insights into human psychology are on full display.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great, necessary story

Not an easy listen but a necessary one, very well told. Perfectly haunting in the best way. Slava Ukraini.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!