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Return of a King
- The Battle for Afghanistan
- Narrated by: Sagar Arya
- Length: 20 hrs and 17 mins
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Publisher's Summary
Bloomsbury presents Return of a King by William Dalrymple, read by Sagar Arya.
Shortlisted for The Samuel Johnson Prize 2013
In the spring of 1839, Britain invaded Afghanistan for the first time. Nearly 20,000 British and East India Company troops poured through the high mountain passes and re-established on the throne Shah Shuja ul-Mulk.
On the way in, the British faced little resistance. But after two years of occupation, the Afghan people rose in answer to the call for jihad and the country exploded into violent rebellion. The First Anglo-Afghan War ended in Britain's greatest military humiliation of the 19th century: an entire army of the then most powerful nation in the world ambushed in retreat and utterly routed by poorly equipped tribesmen.
Using a range of forgotten Afghan and Indian sources, William Dalrymple's masterful retelling of Britain's greatest imperial disaster is a powerful parable of colonial ambition and cultural collision, folly and hubris. Return of a King is history at its most urgent and important.
Critic Reviews
"This sorry saga has been recounted many times, but never that I can recall as well as by Dalrymple. He is a master story-teller, whose special gift lies in the use of indigenous sources, so often neglected by imperial chroniclers." (Max Hastings, Sunday Times)
"Enchantingly written.... In Dalrymple’s usual happy style of historical narrative, applied to a fascinating, neat and highly suggestive series of events, this long and involved book will be a great success, and bring the famous story to a large new audience." (Philip Hensher, Spectator)
"Of the books swooped into being by his scholarship (to which he himself has applied the adjective 'obsessive'), this one is the most magnificent.... His account is so perceptive and so warmly humane that one is never tempted to break away.... This book would be compulsive reading even if it were not a uniquely valuable history, which it is, because Dalrymple has uncovered sources never used before." (Diana Athill, Guardian)
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What listeners say about Return of a King
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 13-08-22
Brilliant
When you have a brilliantly researched history and anecdotes woven as a story, you have 'Return of a King'.
You go back in time and relive this period as if it happened in front of you. Not to be missed at any cost.
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- Leonardo
- 21-01-23
Fantastic Narration
It's a fantastic story, deeply researched and wonderfully told as only a Dalrymple can be. But, what distinguishes the what from the chaff, in an audio book, is the narration. Without a doubt, Off clarify it as outstanding and exceptional.
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- anup
- 05-10-21
Must Listen
great book. excellent narration. must read. narrator is also very good. why afghanistan is afghanistan
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1 person found this helpful
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- Roydend
- 21-07-22
Understanding Afghan history was easier after this book
We’ll researched and the audio is so well done it actually takes you to the streets of Kabul and Herat
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- NALIN J.
- 31-03-22
simply exceptional
Dalrymples exceptional research work and story telling, loved the book and narration is great
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- shivaprakash
- 29-01-23
love it
It is one of the best story telling wrt Afghanistan and it's past. There is reason why Afghanistan is called graveyard of empires, and this book brings this notion forward in an interesting manner.
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