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SYNC Audio -- Weekly Offers -- FAQs -- exp 11 May @ 11:59 pm ET

NOTE: In order to participate in this program, you need to register and set up the Sora app. These books have DRM and you MUST use the Sora app on your mobile device or soraapp.com in your browser in order to download the books for free.

FREE -- The Perfect Nine -- Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o/ Benjamin A Onyango -- 2.5 hrs -- poetry

The Epic of Gikuyu and Mumbi

Benjamin A. Onyango narrates this poetic origin story of the Gikuyu people of Kenya in a knowing tone that resonates. This mythical tale, rendered in musical verse, defies genre. Onyango inhabits Ngugi, the chronicler of the story of Gikuyu and Mumbi, who become the mothers of the 10 Gikuyu clans. This tale of adventure and creation depicts clashes with ogres and epic challenges involving physical danger and love. Onyango uses his rich bass voice to lend a realistic atmosphere to this fantastical tale, which is both contemporary and ancient.

FREE -- This Book Betrays My Brother -- KL Molope/ J Du Toit -- 6.7 hrs -- coming of age

Narrator Jacqui Du Toit’s tone changes from bright and naïve to stunned and pained as 13-year-old Naledi witnesses her brother’s crime. That event makes it clear why she feels the need to betray him years later. Du Toit’s accent reflects the novel’s South African setting. You can hear young Naledi’s coy grins as she details her sheltered family life, which includes running a general store, going to private schools, and living in the glow of the bright star that is her brother Basi. Du Toit creates vivid characters, and she deftly handles the many languages threaded throughout the story. Toxic masculinity lurks behind the coming-of-age antics, subtly revealing the many ways it damages women. A beautiful, suspenseful, and heartbreaking novel and performance.

Week 02 -- Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s chronicle of the origin story of the Gikuyu people, PERFECT NINE, comes to listeners through the cultural sensitivity of narrator Benjamin A. Onyango, a Kenyan-American actor who has appeared in a variety of films.

The Earphones Award-winning realistic novel THIS BOOK BETRAYS MY BROTHER, written by African Canadian author Kagiso Lesego Molope and performed by South African storyteller and actor Jacqui Du Toit, features vivid characters who speak a range of South African languages, all of which Du Toit handles easily.