Shadow of the Moon cover art

Shadow of the Moon

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

Shadow of the Moon

By: M. M. Kaye
Narrated by: Tara Ochs
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £21.79

Buy Now for £21.79

About this listen

The author of The Far Pavilions returns us once again to the vast, intoxicating romance of India under the British Raj. Shadow of the Moon is the story of Winter de Ballesteros, a beautiful English heiress come home to her beloved India. It is also the tale of Captain Alex Randall, her protector, who aches to possess her. Forged in the fires of a war that threatens to topple an empire, their tale is the saga of a desperate and unforgettable love that consumes all in its thrall. Filled with the mystery of moonlit palace gardens and the whisperings of passion and intrigue, M. M. Kaye evokes an era at once of its time, yet timeless.

©1956, 1957, 1979 M.M. Kaye (P)2012 Audible, Inc. Historical Fiction Fiction Heartfelt Thought-Provoking
All stars
Most relevant
MM Kaye has written many books, most of which are not worth reading. She has also written two books about India and the Raj: this and The Far Pavilions. These two are unbelievably brilliant.

This book is about the first Indian Mutiny. MM Kaye beautifully describes the savagery and magnificence of India, and, while Eurocentric, still portrays a depth of understanding and love of the country.

The story follows a young woman of Anglo-Spanish heritage, Winter, who, through a strange series of circumstances ,is born and raised until the age of 5 or so in an Indian palace. She is then sent 'Home' to England until she can return to India. She marries a dreadful slob who makes her life a miserable prison. Her love for her country makes her life tolerable, that and her hopeless love of a British administrator of her husband's district.

Alex Randall shares her love of India. He is one of the administrators of 'John Company', the East India Company who administered India before the Mutiny and the annexation of the country by the Crown of Victoria. He has a deep love and understanding of the people of India and is one of the few who recognises the signs of the coming Mutiny. His warnings are ignored and he watches helplessly as the Mutiny sparks and explodes.

The story is beautifully told with loving descriptions and balance. Alex and Winter's love unfolds against this backdrop.

I'm in two minds about the narration. Many of the Indian words are not pronounced correctly but generally the accents are believable. She manages to cover Indian, Queen's English, 'common' English, even Russian accents, well. Overall, a good job. Easy to listen to and engaging.

Magnificent saga of savagery & beauty of the Raj

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was very disappointed that the narrator was from 'across the pond'. I felt that a very British and Indian story deserved a British voice. However I could live with this but what really grated was that the many local words which were an important part of the story were pronounced wrongly, surely there was some research done as to how these words had to be said. Again after 30 hours of listening I came to just shout the correct word at the speaker. But what I simply can't forgive is an ordinary word like 'plait' - meaning a plait of hair was consistently pronounced as PLATE. Unforgivable. Out of all the Audible books I have this is the worst recording I have heard. It did spoil my enjoyment of an otherwise excellent story. I shall buy the book and am unlikely to listen to this again.

Poor narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
But disappointed with the last rushed chapters where the story line lacked details esp compared to the rest of the book

Enthralling

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As expected from M M Kaye, a beautifully researched and well written story with likeable, believable characters. Shame about the American pronunciation for many words spoken by British characters.

Fabulous, sweeping story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Completely spoiled by the awful narration by an American who couldn’t pronounce even the simplest English or Indian place names or use the English pronunciation of simple words like “mama” or “papa”. This really spoiled my enjoyment of a much-loved book. Fortunately I know the story from the book, so I could understand the narration, which was gratingly poor.

The awful narration by an American.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews