
To Keep the Sun Alive
A Novel
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 $17.16
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Rabeah Ghaffari
-
By:
-
Rabeah Ghaffari
About this listen
The year is 1979. The Iranian Revolution is just around the corner, as is a once-in-a-lifetime solar eclipse. Meanwhile, in the northeastern city of Naishapur, a retired judge and his wife, Bibi, run an ancient orchard, growing apples, plums, peaches, and sour cherries, and looking after several generations of family members. The days here are marked by long, elaborate lunches on the terrace and arguments about government corruption and the rise of religious fundamentalism, peppered with tales of ancient Persia that foreshadow the seismic political changes to come. And yet life continues.
Bibi, the matriarch, struggles to keep her family together. Her young nephew goes to the university, hoping to lead the fight for a new Iran and marry his childhood sweetheart. Another nephew surrenders to opium, while his father longs for a life in Europe. Her brother-in-law evolves into a powerful Islamic cleric while her husband retreats into intellectual reflection.
Told through a host of vivid, unforgettable characters, ranging from children to servants to friends of the family, To Keep the Sun Alive is the kind of compelling, rich story that not only informs the past, but also reminds us of the human aspirations that animate historical events.
©2019 Rabeah Ghaffari (P)2019 Blackstone PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Ardent Swarm
- A Novel
- By: Yamen Manai, Lara Vergnaud - translator
- Narrated by: Youssif Kamal
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sidi lives a hermetic life as a bee whisperer, tending to his beloved “girls” on the outskirts of the desolate North African village of Nawa. He wakes one morning to find that something has attacked one of his beehives, brutally killing every inhabitant. Heartbroken, he soon learns that a mysterious swarm of vicious hornets committed the mass murder - but where did they come from, and how can he stop them? If he is going to unravel this mystery and save his bees from annihilation, Sidi must venture out into the village and then brave the big city and beyond in search of answers.
-
-
Descriptions Will Make You Literally SICK
- By Debbie on 07-25-22
By: Yamen Manai, and others
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
-
The Complete Jaipur Trilogy
- The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, and The Perfumist of Paris
- By: Alka Joshi
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan, Ariyan Kassam, Deepa Samuel
- Length: 33 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vivid and compelling, The Henna Artist opens a door into a world that is at once lush and fascinating, stark and cruel. Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist—and confidante—to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own. Years later, she is confronted by her husband who has tracked her down.
-
-
An fabulously expanding adventure !
- By Miki Lee on 11-24-23
By: Alka Joshi
-
Half of a Yellow Sun
- By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Narrated by: Zainab Jah
- Length: 18 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adichie illuminates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in southeastern Nigeria during the late 1960s. We experience this tumultuous decade alongside five unforgettable characters: Ugwu, a 13-year-old houseboy working for Odenigbo, a university professor full of revolutionary zeal; Olanna, the professor’s beautiful young mistress who's abandoned her life in Lagos for a dusty town and her lover’s charm; and Richard, a shy young Englishman infatuated with Olanna’s willful twin sister Kainene.
-
-
A Little Background Adjustment
- By Perkbrooke on 03-13-18
-
The Dew Breaker
- By: Edwidge Danticat
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the universally acclaimed author of Breath, Eyes, Memory and Krik? Krak!, a brilliant, deeply moving work of fiction that explores the world of a "dew breaker", a torturer, a man whose brutal crimes in the country of his birth lie hidden beneath his new American reality.
-
-
Almost, but not quite
- By Patricia on 06-15-04
By: Edwidge Danticat
-
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
- A Novel
- By: Kim Michele Richardson
- Narrated by: Katie Schorr
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything - everything except books, that is. Thanks to Roosevelt's Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome's got its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter. Cussy's not only a book woman, however, she's also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else. Not everyone is keen on Cussy's family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble.
-
-
A LOVELY, SAD AND PROFOUND BOOK!
- By Janna Wong Healy on 08-17-19
-
The Ardent Swarm
- A Novel
- By: Yamen Manai, Lara Vergnaud - translator
- Narrated by: Youssif Kamal
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sidi lives a hermetic life as a bee whisperer, tending to his beloved “girls” on the outskirts of the desolate North African village of Nawa. He wakes one morning to find that something has attacked one of his beehives, brutally killing every inhabitant. Heartbroken, he soon learns that a mysterious swarm of vicious hornets committed the mass murder - but where did they come from, and how can he stop them? If he is going to unravel this mystery and save his bees from annihilation, Sidi must venture out into the village and then brave the big city and beyond in search of answers.
-
-
Descriptions Will Make You Literally SICK
- By Debbie on 07-25-22
By: Yamen Manai, and others
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
-
The Complete Jaipur Trilogy
- The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, and The Perfumist of Paris
- By: Alka Joshi
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan, Ariyan Kassam, Deepa Samuel
- Length: 33 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vivid and compelling, The Henna Artist opens a door into a world that is at once lush and fascinating, stark and cruel. Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist—and confidante—to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own. Years later, she is confronted by her husband who has tracked her down.
-
-
An fabulously expanding adventure !
- By Miki Lee on 11-24-23
By: Alka Joshi
-
Half of a Yellow Sun
- By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Narrated by: Zainab Jah
- Length: 18 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adichie illuminates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in southeastern Nigeria during the late 1960s. We experience this tumultuous decade alongside five unforgettable characters: Ugwu, a 13-year-old houseboy working for Odenigbo, a university professor full of revolutionary zeal; Olanna, the professor’s beautiful young mistress who's abandoned her life in Lagos for a dusty town and her lover’s charm; and Richard, a shy young Englishman infatuated with Olanna’s willful twin sister Kainene.
-
-
A Little Background Adjustment
- By Perkbrooke on 03-13-18
-
The Dew Breaker
- By: Edwidge Danticat
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the universally acclaimed author of Breath, Eyes, Memory and Krik? Krak!, a brilliant, deeply moving work of fiction that explores the world of a "dew breaker", a torturer, a man whose brutal crimes in the country of his birth lie hidden beneath his new American reality.
-
-
Almost, but not quite
- By Patricia on 06-15-04
By: Edwidge Danticat
-
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
- A Novel
- By: Kim Michele Richardson
- Narrated by: Katie Schorr
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything - everything except books, that is. Thanks to Roosevelt's Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome's got its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter. Cussy's not only a book woman, however, she's also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else. Not everyone is keen on Cussy's family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble.
-
-
A LOVELY, SAD AND PROFOUND BOOK!
- By Janna Wong Healy on 08-17-19
-
The Book Woman's Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Kim Michele Richardson
- Narrated by: Katie Schorr
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the ruggedness of the beautiful Kentucky mountains, Honey Lovett has always known that the old ways can make a hard life harder. As the daughter of the famed blue-skinned Troublesome Creek packhorse librarian, Honey and her family have been hiding from the law all her life. But when her mother and father are imprisoned, Honey realizes she must fight to stay free, or risk being sent away for good.
-
-
Good read!
- By Oh Sugar on 09-12-22
-
A Thousand Splendid Suns
- By: Khaled Hosseini
- Narrated by: Atossa Leoni
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss, and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them, in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul, they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation.
-
-
Completely brilliant
- By Suze Weinberg on 06-01-07
By: Khaled Hosseini
-
Rain
- By: Dana McNeely
- Narrated by: Joseph Robert Courtemanche
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In ancient Samaria, Aban anticipates his rites of passage with excitement and dread. He yearns to join the priesthood of Ba’al Melqart, unlock the power of the rain god, and hear the deity’s voice. He’s been warned the licentious ceremony can take a dangerous turn, but as eldest son of the high priestess, he holds a privileged position. If he can make it through the ceremony, one day he’ll rise to high priest.
-
-
Exciting Read! Story really transported me!
- By Preferred Customer on 05-03-23
By: Dana McNeely
-
And the Mountains Echoed
- By: Khaled Hosseini
- Narrated by: Khaled Hosseini, Navid Negahban, Shohreh Aghdashloo
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Khaled Hosseini, the number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations.
-
-
Does the End Justify the Means
- By FanB14 on 05-24-13
By: Khaled Hosseini
-
The Night Watchman
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Louise Erdrich
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, DC, this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.
-
-
Beautiful
- By Melanie on 03-09-20
By: Louise Erdrich
-
Where the Lost Wander
- A Novel
- By: Amy Harmon
- Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo, Shaun Taylor-Corbett
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Overland Trail, 1853: Naomi May never expected to be widowed at 20. Eager to leave her grief behind, she sets off with her family for a life out West. On the trail, she forms an instant connection with John Lowry, a half-Pawnee man straddling two worlds and a stranger in both. But life in a wagon train is fraught with hardship, fear, and death. Even as John and Naomi are drawn to each other, the trials of the journey and their disparate pasts work to keep them apart.
-
-
Good story, bad reader
- By LoverofClassics on 06-09-20
By: Amy Harmon
-
The Second Life of Mirielle West
- By: Amanda Skenandore
- Narrated by: Nicole Poole
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Los Angeles, 1920s: Socialite Mirielle West's days are crowded with shopping, luncheons, and prepping for the myriad glittering parties she attends with her actor husband, Charlie. She's been too busy to even notice the small patch of pale skin on the back of her hand. Other than an occasional overindulgence in gin and champagne, which helps to numb the pain of recent tragedy, Mirielle is the picture of health. But her doctor insists on more tests, and Mirielle reluctantly agrees. The diagnosis - leprosy - is devastating and unthinkable.
-
-
Unique historical fiction not often told
- By TCS on 04-21-22
-
The Beauty of Humanity Movement
- A Novel
- By: Camilla Gibb
- Narrated by: Jenny Ikeda
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Camilla Gibb reached international best seller status with novels that garner immense critical acclaim for their stunning insights into the human condition. In The Beauty of Humanity Movement, three people’s lives in modern Vietnam turn on the whims of fate—even as each strives for a finer reality. Freshly returned from the United States, Maggie is an art curator in search of her father. Old Man Hung, a soup seller, may hold the secret that could change Maggie's destiny. And Tu’ is a tour guide who will have a stunning effect on them both.
-
-
A book I won't forget
- By Amazon Customer on 10-20-11
By: Camilla Gibb
-
Song of a Captive Bird
- A Novel
- By: Jasmin Darznik
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All through her childhood in Tehran, Forugh Farrokhzad is told that Persian daughters should be quiet and modest. She is taught only to obey, but she always finds ways to rebel - gossiping with her sister among the fragrant roses of her mother's walled garden, venturing to the forbidden rooftop to roughhouse with her three brothers, writing poems to impress her strict, disapproving father, and sneaking out to flirt with a teenage paramour over café glacé. During the summer of 1950, Forugh's passion for poetry takes flight - and tradition seeks to clip her wings.
-
-
I really wanted to love this book, but...
- By Susan on 06-25-18
By: Jasmin Darznik
-
Take What You Can Carry
- A Novel
- By: Gian Sardar
- Narrated by: Vaneh Assadourian
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1979. Olivia Murray, a secretary at a Los Angeles newspaper, is determined to become a photojournalist and make a difference with her work. When opportunity arrives, she seizes it, accompanying her Kurdish boyfriend, Delan, to northern Iraq for a family wedding, hoping to capture an image that lands her a job in the photo department. More important, though, the trip is a chance to understand Delan’s childhood and bridge the differences of their pasts. Yet when the return home proves less safe than Delan believed, Olivia is confronted with a reality she had not expected.
-
-
read, don't listen
- By Annielewme on 05-17-21
By: Gian Sardar
-
The Septembers of Shiraz
- By: Dalia Sofer
- Narrated by: Firdous Bamji
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Accused of spying for Israel, Isaac Amin's real crime is simply being Jewish, which gets him tossed into jail after the Iranian Revolution feeds the flames of Islamic fanaticism. As Isaac endures the brutality of imprisonment, his wife fights despair while searching for answers. Hoping to prevent further injustices, his precocious daughter steals files from the man in charge of the prison. And half a world away in Brooklyn, Isaac's adult son suffers when his family's financial support vanishes.
-
-
Beautiful book
- By Amazon Customer on 05-25-12
By: Dalia Sofer
-
The Man Who Could Move Clouds
- A Memoir
- By: Ingrid Rojas Contreras
- Narrated by: Marisol Ramirez
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Ingrid Rojas Contreras, magic runs in the family. Raised amid the political violence of 1980s and '90s Colombia, in a house bustling with her mother’s fortune-telling clients, she was a hard child to surprise. Her maternal grandfather, Nono, was a renowned curandero, a community healer gifted with what the family called “the secrets”: the power to talk to the dead, tell the future, treat the sick, and move the clouds.
-
-
Enjoyable and challenging adventure
- By Kevin K. on 09-30-22
What listeners say about To Keep the Sun Alive
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ailin Boghouspour
- 09-21-21
Enjoyed every second
Nobody will understand the sadness that lyes between the lines of this book but an Iranian who lived through this pages and witnessed it.
I appreciate ms Ghaffari ‘s narration on her own book because she put all her feelings while writing into her reading. It was a real life experience, one familiar with the situation would be able to even smell the food she described, feel the breeze and hear the songs and the music, and also feel the terror of a badly covered hair situation, or passing of the car full of angry resentful men looking for a bait. Thank you for the good book and for the good read . Hope to see more of her books here .
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sarah Kamalu
- 11-12-21
oh man what a ride
I absolutely love this story I had a little trouble keeping the family tree together but it was an absolutely amazing story
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ali Tafti
- 10-11-22
One of my favorite novels
A brilliant story and a great way to understand Iran, especially the context of the Iranian revolution.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Necole
- 09-29-23
Wow! Just wow!
Chills, beautiful and yet horrific at the same moment. The utter brutality of humans and their beliefs yet a delicate humanity all told through the story of one family during Iran’s Revolution.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jayep99
- 11-27-21
Interesting story
I loved the story but would only give it a 3.5. I kept getting lost and confused. But when I knew what was going on it was great. I only believe this to be because of the unfamiliarity of the characters names. So totally my fault not the author!!!!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Martha
- 11-12-20
Brillant
Both story and narration outstanding. Evocative, and informative. Filled as much with Iranian culture as with human relationships, character development, and feeling. Could not put it down.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Avid reader
- 10-05-21
A challenging journey but so worth it.
Not an easy book to read for so many reasons, but I learnt so much.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Diane Q
- 04-09-22
Touching.
I’m so glad that I came upon this book. Such a lovely touching sad story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Carly
- 10-03-22
Perfect Storytelling & Character Dev.
Thank you Rabeah for this beautiful, heartfelt and bittersweet story. It is always the individual stories that get set aside in the midst of historical events, and this book allows the reader to understand and contemplate those individual stories in a history that it still ongoing. A new favorite novel and a very timely read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- S. Price
- 02-07-23
Very powerful story
I highly recommend this well written and well-performed story of an extended family's undoing during the Arab spring and the crackdown that followed. The characters are all well developed, surprising for a book with so many characters, and their life contexts and motivation clearly described. cultural and historical references put everything into context, and most primarily the author is an amazing storyteller. And although it pales in importance to the story itself, those who find comfort in food or in cooking will also find this book to be a treat.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!