Audiobook Sample

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  • Title: Place Called Freedom
  • Author: Ken Follett
  • Narrator: Simon Prebble
  • Length: 14:42:00
  • Version: Abridged
  • Release Date: 07/04/2015
  • Publisher: Recorded Books
  • Genre: Fiction & Literature, Historical Fiction
  • ISBN13: 9.78E+12
Hello fellow seekers of stories that transport us through time and space,

The first time I pressed play on Simon Prebble’s narration of “A Place Called Freedom”, I was winding through the Blue Ridge Mountains, the mist clinging to the road like the coal dust that clings to Mack McAsh in Ken Follett’s sweeping historical epic. There’s something magical about how a great audiobook can transform your surroundings – how the Virginia plantations of the story seemed to materialize in the fog outside my windshield, how the clatter of 18th century London streets seemed to echo in the patter of rain on my rental car’s roof. This is the alchemy that Follett’s masterful storytelling and Prebble’s exceptional narration achieve together.

Follett has always been a writer who understands that history lives in the bodies of those who lived it – the ache of muscles after a day in the mines, the sting of salt on a ship’s deck, the oppressive weight of silk petticoats. “A Place Called Freedom” immerses us in 1766 through the alternating perspectives of Mack McAsh, a Scottish miner burning with revolutionary spirit, and Lizzie Hallim, an English gentlewoman suffocating in gilded captivity. Their twin journeys – one from physical slavery, the other from societal bondage – converge in the American colonies with all the inevitability and power of tectonic plates shifting.

Listening to this during my Appalachian drive reminded me of a storytelling tradition I encountered deep in the Ozarks, where an old miner would spin tales about his grandfather’s union organizing efforts. There’s that same raw authenticity in how Follett portrays the mining communities – the way Prebble’s voice drops into the guttural Scots dialect for Mack, making you feel the coal grit between your teeth. The narrator’s range is astonishing – from Lizzie’s refined but tremulous English to the Virginia planters’ drawls that hide calculated cruelty behind magnolia-sweet tones.

What makes this audiobook exceptional is how Prebble captures the novel’s central tension between confinement and freedom. You can hear it in his pacing – the claustrophobic quickness of the mine scenes versus the expansive, breathy delivery of the American frontier passages. When Mack first sees the open sky after being underground, Prebble’s pregnant pause made me pull over my car just to look up at the same endless blue through my sunroof.

Follett’s genius lies in weaving personal struggles with historical forces, and Prebble’s performance highlights this beautifully. The courtroom scene where Mack defends miners’ rights vibrates with the same energy as the Stamp Act protests occurring in the background. I found myself thinking about Oaxaca’s grandmother again – how she would weave local politics into folktales until you couldn’t separate the personal from the historical.

The audiobook does have moments where the 18th century dialogue feels overly expositional – a common challenge in historical fiction. Some listeners might find the romantic subplot between Mack and Lizzie leans toward melodrama in certain scenes. Yet Prebble’s nuanced delivery saves even these passages, finding the authentic emotional core beneath the period language.

For those who loved “Pillars of the Earth” or Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe series, this offers a similar blend of meticulous research and pulse-quickening adventure. But where Follett’s cathedral builders shape stone, here he shapes something more ephemeral – the very idea of freedom itself. There’s a particularly moving passage where an indentured servant explains that freedom isn’t a place but ‘a fire inside you’ – a line Prebble delivers with such quiet intensity that I had to replay it three times.

As a travel writer, I’m always searching for stories that make you feel a location’s bones. This audiobook does that spectacularly – from the sulfur stink of London’s slums to the cicada-filled nights of Virginia. The revolutionary fervor thrumming through the colonies feels as tangible as the vibration of a plucked banjo string.

Technical notes: The audio quality is pristine throughout, important for a book with such dynamic range – from whispered midnight conversations to riotous tavern brawls. At 14+ hours, it’s an investment, but one that pays rich dividends. The scenes aboard the transatlantic ship alone – with Prebble’s masterful handling of crew members’ various accents – are worth the journey.

Having listened to hundreds of audiobooks on remote roads from Patagonia to Bhutan, I can say this stands among the best historical fiction performances available. It’s the kind of audiobook that doesn’t just tell you about 18th century life – it lets you smell the hemp ropes on slave ships, taste the bitterness of stolen liberty, and finally, feel the wild hope of that place called freedom just beyond the frontier’s edge.

May your own journeys – whether through pages or across continents – lead you to places of unexpected freedom. Until the next story calls us both onward,
Marcus Rivera