• The Tenth Island

  • Finding Joy, Beauty, and Unexpected Love in the Azores
  • By: Diana Marcum
  • Narrated by: Rebecca Mozo
  • Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (323 ratings)

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The Tenth Island  By  cover art

The Tenth Island

By: Diana Marcum
Narrated by: Rebecca Mozo
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Publisher's summary

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer comes an exuberant memoir of personal loss and longing, and finding connection on the remote Azorean islands of the Atlantic Ocean.

Reporter Diana Marcum is in crisis. A long-buried personal sadness is enfolding her - and her career is stalled - when she stumbles upon an unusual group of immigrants living in rural California. She follows them on their annual return to the remote Azores islands in the Atlantic Ocean, where bulls run down village streets, volcanoes are active, and the people celebrate festas to ease their saudade, a longing so deep that the Portuguese word for it can’t be fully translated.

Years later, California is in a terrible drought, the wildfires seem to never end, and Diana finds herself still dreaming of those islands and the chuva - a rain so soft you don’t notice when it begins or ends.

With her troublesome Labrador retriever, Murphy, in tow, Diana returns to the islands of her dreams only to discover that there are still things she longs for - and one of them may be a most unexpected love.

©2018 Diana Marcum (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Mozo's performance breathes life into the real-life people in this audiobook.... Marcum's words and Mozo's performance are a lovely combination, which is sure to help listeners escape to a more tranquil place - at least in their minds." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about The Tenth Island

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great depiction of the Azorean customs

I too am one of the summer regulars to the islands. Spot on storytelling about my people, customs and the land of "Saudade".
I wasn't to fond of the narrator. Some of the Portuguese words were not pronounced correctly, and she was using a Brazilian accent.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Kept expecting ....

I did not enjoy this audiobook as much as I thought I would. At first the Portuguese words sounded prerecorded, out of place and they where distracting, got better by the end but still sounded forced. The voice of the reader was not very engaging and is a beautiful voice but in my opinion I would hear her voice in a novel audiobook.

I laughed out loud in a couple of parts. Enjoyed some chapters of the book. But kept waiting to hear the end of a chapter, and felt like it was not finished. Even the books ending left me with a sense that it was missing something.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

just a small note

I thought that the story was a great one. The author is really able to capture the essence of the Azores islands which my ancestors call home. The only note I have is for the narrator. The book is about a love for the European Portuguese islands of the Azores, but the narrator pronounced the few Portuguese phrases from the book in the Brazilian Portuguese style. Not a huge note, but a little off considering the story is about the life of the Azores

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Narration may have ruined the book

I was so excited to read this book because I've lived among Azorean's for my entire life. I am unsure if this book is good or not, but the narration is over-the-top incorrect. Did the author approve this? Had she really spent time among the central valley Porteguese she would have never approved the mispronunciation of both Portuguese words, as well as the basic pronouciations of locals. It was distracting to say the least.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

didn't care for the narrator

I enjoyed the story. the narrator seemed to me to be angry most of the time. it took me a while to get passed that.i going to read this book. I think it will be much more enjoyable in print.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Entrancing, romantic, educational and entertaining

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist has a chance encounter with a little known ethnic group which leads her to discover the Azores: a small group of islands literally in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Author Diana Marcum’s journalistic expertise and research inform this delightful book: memoir, travelogue, immersion in Portuguese and Azorian history, romance, confessional, and thoughtful essay on a remote and beautiful land with timeless and relevant lessons in traditions and sustainability.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good Human Interest Piece

Diana Marcum's look at the Azores is engaging. The exploration of the connection between immigrants and their mother land is fascinating and grabs the reader. Her character portraits are well done and we get a sense of true love of the Azores from her and those she writes about. She did have a lot of characters and it sometimes got hard to keep them straight (Marcum usually writes human interest features for the LA Times so adding more humans to be interested in likely contributed to this). Rebecca Mozo is a talented voice artist and I enjoyed her narration for the most part. She changed how she pronounced Azores a few times and there were some extra long pauses that threw off the flow, but her tone and grasp of Portuguese musical pronunciations made up for it.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating story about Azores and Azores diaspora

This is a very personal story by a journalist who knows how to write an excellent text about others and about her own experiences. It covers strong connections between the Azorean people who have emigrated to California and other places in North America with the Azores islands and culture. The descriptions of life in the small communities on the island are warm and very interesting. I listened to this almost without stopping.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing Get Away from it Book

The Tenth Island is beautifully written and exceptionally performed. It takes you on a voyage of sights, tastes and feelings.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

never grabbed me

This is the second time I have tried listeningto this book, and I did make it further than I have in the past. but I still just could never really get into it. It's not exactly boring it just never really gets the story for me it feels like it's just rah rah rah, Azores are cool, rah rah rah

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1 person found this helpful