Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Babayaga
    Babayaga
    Babayaga
    Audiobook14 hours

    Babayaga

    Written by Toby Barlow

    Narrated by Dan John Miller

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Will is a young American ad executive in Paris. Except his agency is a front for the CIA. It's 1959 and the Cold War is going strong. But Will doesn't think he's a warrior-he's just a good-hearted Detroit ad guy who can't seem to figure out Parisian girls.

    Zoya is a beautiful young woman wandering les boulevards, sad-eyed, and coming off a bad breakup. In fact, she impaled her ex on a spike. Zoya, it turns out, has been a beautiful young woman for hundreds of years; she and her far more traditionally witchy-looking companion, Elga, have been thriving unnoticed in the bloody froth of Europe's wars.

    Inspector Vidot is a hardworking Paris police detective who cherishes quiet nights at home. But when he follows a lead from a grisly murder to the abode of an ugly old woman, he finds himself turned into a flea.

    Oliver is a patrician, fun-loving American who has come to Paris to start a literary journal with the help of friends in D.C., who ask for a few favors in return. He's in well over his head, but it's nothing that a cocktail can't fix. Right?

    Add a few chance encounters, a chorus of some more angry witches, a strung-out jazzman or two, a weaponized LSD program, and a cache of rifles buried in the Bois de Bologne-and that's a novel! But while Toby Barlow's Babayaga may start as just a joyful romp though the City of Light, it quickly grows into a daring, moving exploration of love, mortality, and responsibility.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 30, 2013
    ISBN9781452685878
    Babayaga

    Related to Babayaga

    Related audiobooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Brain as Adventurer

      Jun 1, 2023

      Brain as Adventurer
      5 min read

    • Article

      TV, FILM & RADIO

      May 14, 2020

      TV, FILM & RADIO
      5 min read

    • Article

      Jenkins

      Feb 4, 2021

      Jenkins
      6 min read

    • Article

      Thrilling Handel Opera As It Should Be Heard

      Jun 10, 2021

      Lucy Crowe, Iestyn Davies, Joshua Ellicott, Brandon Cedel, Jess Dandy, Tim Mead; The English Concert/Harry Bicket Linn Records CKD 658 188:32 mins (3 discs) Against the odds, director Harry Bicket has gifted us the best ever recording of Rodeli

      28 min read

    • Article

      Echoes

      Jun 22, 2022

      Echoes
      9 min read

    • Article

      Summer Beach Reads

      Jan 10, 2021

      Summer Beach Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      Second Language

      Aug 14, 2017

      Second Language
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Lost Prayer

      Feb 2, 2023

      A Lost Prayer
      10 min read

    • Article

      A Simple Heart (1997)

      Mar 1, 2022

      A Simple Heart (1997)
      3 min read

    • Article

      Echoes

      Jun 29, 2022

      Echoes
      9 min read

    • Article

      What Ray Charles Says

      Mar 1, 2024

      The nighttime is the right time to be with the one you love, says Ray,but according to Hamlet, it’s when “churchyards yawn and hell itselfbreathes out contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood,”says Hamlet, “and do such bitter business as

      2 min read

    • Article

      Venice Peach

      Oct 2, 2023

      1. THE DRESSMAKER AND THE HIDDEN SOLDIER by Doug Gold (A&U) WWII thriller about Kiwi soldier and Greek dressmaker 2. SUMMER FAVOURITES by Vanya Insull (A&U) Recipes from @vj_cooks 3. TE REO KAPEKAPE: Māori Wit and Humour by Hona Black (Oratia) Having

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Girl Who Lived

      Dec 28, 2018

      The Girl Who Lived
      4 min read

    • Article

      Breathing And Interested

      Jul 1, 2019

      I want to tell you a story about my daughter Jane Bell. Not long ago, she was nearly five at the time, we were walking to get the mail. Our driveway is long—about two-fifths of a mile from the house to the mailbox—so it is a substantial hike for some

      15 min read

    • Article

      Looking for Lorraine

      Sep 20, 2018

      Looking for Lorraine
      8 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Play Dead

      Mar 3, 2020

      There was a man, let’s call him Henry VIII. There was his wife, let’s call her Anne B. Let’s give them a castle and make it nice. Let’s give her many boy babies but make them dead. Let’s give him a fussy way of being. Let’s make her smart and sneaky,

      17 min read

    • Article

      A Day At The Beach For Aphrodite

      Jul 1, 2023

      A Day At The Beach For Aphrodite
      14 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Tim Lane

      Dec 8, 2021

      We stopped at the Topaz Internment Camp, where my wife’s family was held during World War II, near the tiny town of Delta, Utah. We found the apocalyptic remnants of one of our country’s great shames. The post A Year in Reading: Tim Lane appeared fi

      7 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      Reading CORNER

      Jan 15, 2023

      It’s time to kick back and lose yourself in romance Light and frothy reading is often called for at this time of year, as we relax as much as possible. Modelled on Lucinda Riley’s Seven Sisters series, this book definitely fits the bill. It’s the fir

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Last Friend on Earth

      May 4, 2023

      It was as if Doreen Saunders had been waiting for me, passing the time until my arrival. She might as well have been sitting in a rocking chair, knitting needles clicking, jam tarts cooling on the side, the door wide open, waiting for the next visito

      6 min read

    • Article

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows

      Nov 1, 2022

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows
      11 min read

    • Article

      A Gathering In The Kitchen

      Dec 1, 2021

      A Gathering In The Kitchen
      13 min read

    • Article

      Spell

      Apr 25, 2018

      Spell
      4 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Jun 16, 2021

      Great Read
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Babayaga

    3.5/5

    65 ratings10 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      This was an imaginative book, hinting at the old Baba Yaga story, but not closely following it. Oddly enough, the most compelling character was not the protagonist, but the French police detective. The wild magic of the story was most liberally applied to his hero's journey. Next I will try Sharp Teeth, which sounds promising.
    • 4/5
      Interesting cast of characters (witches among them) - from a serial killer to a police inspector who gets turned into an insect. Multi-faceted and imaginative. Despite all the different characters of focus, it's at the same time very sexy and other-worldly. SPOILER: A serial-killing witch turns a detective into a flea, but gets her just desserts.
    • 5/5
      This was an unexpected pleasure. A bit of magical farce and love story set in the City of Lights during the Cold War. A page-turner that will leave you wanting more!
    • 3/5
      Multifaceted, mystery; romance, novel set in 1959 Paris with pretty believable witches and a fairly good story line.
    • 2/5
      Okay, I'm done with this one, into the abandoned book pile. The writing wasn't bad, but I'm over halfway through and I just don't care about any of the characters, except maybe the police detective that was turned into a flea (yes, seriously!). Maybe I'll come back to this one someday...
    • 4/5
      Witches, Cold War era ad-men, CIA agents and double-agents...and a man living as a flea? Set the whole thing in glorious 1959 Paris and you've got an utterly engaging book. Great writing, great story, and fabulous characters make this a helluva good read.
    • 3/5
      Will sees his job, and thus his life in Paris, ending as the story begins. But that is the last of his worries, as he becomes entangled with Zoya, a beautiful witch who never dies (though her lovers do...) and enmeshed in a Cold War intrigue. The plot wanders humorously on. There's not much to hold on to here and the destination is unclear, but the ride is quite enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      Will works as an adman, with a tenuous connection to the CIA, in Paris. That connection, and a meeting with a beautiful, mysterious woman, overturn his sedate life in a beautiful city. Suddenly there are murders, kidnappings, danger and mysteries.
    • 3/5
      Zoja und Elga sind Hexen, die seit Jahrhunderten überleben, Männer austricksen, betrügen, auch töten.Will ist Werbetexter, doch eigentlich arbeitet er bei der CIA und gerät in deren Visier. Im Paris der 1950er Jahre verlieben sich Zoja und Will, die CIA und die Polizei verfolgen sie und alles wird etwas unübersichtlich.Das Buch hat durchaus seine Momente. Z.B. finde ich die Geschichte um Elga sehr interessant. Insgesamt ist das Buch aber viel zu lang. Die Hauptpersonen kamen mir (wie gesagt bis auf Elga) nicht nahe. Ich fand sie weder symphatisch noch besonders interessant, obwohl es eigentlich eine interessante Geschichte sein hätte können. Dass es das nicht wurde, lag am Schreibstil und der Figurenzeichnung. Was sollten eigentlich diese uninspirierten Hexenlieder?Ich fand das Buch leider lediglich durchschnittlich.
    • 4/5
      Intertwining stories of two long-living baba yagas with magical powers, a naive advertising writer caught up in CIA misadventures, a detective who loves solving puzzles, and international spying, all in Paris. For me the suspension of disbelief didn't really work.