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Fearless and Free
- Author
- Josephine Baker
- Publisher
- Random House
- Publish Date
- 6 February 2025
- Run Time
- 8 hours 42 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Genre
- Memoirs, Autobiography: arts and entertainment, Autobiography: historical, political and military, Musicians, singers, bands and groups, Individual actors and performers, Dancers / choreographers, Human rights, civil rights
- Rating
- 4.0 (1 review)
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
This is the iconic Josephine Baker in her own words.
Funny, candid and unconventional: the wildly famous but elusive Josephine Baker tells her own story in this enchanting memoir.
Baker took Paris by storm in the 1920s, dazzling audiences with her humour, beauty and effervescence on stage. She became an icon. Later, as one of the most recognisable women in the world, she became a spy for the French resistance and was awarded the Légion d’honneur for military service. After the war she became a civil rights activist, and in 1963 she spoke at the March on Washington alongside Martin Luther King. All this from a girl of mixed heritage, born in Missouri to a poor mother and a father she did not know.
Formed from a series of conversations with the French journalist Marcel Sauvage over a period of more than twenty years, and now translated into English for the first time, this gorgeous book offers an insight into one of the most beguiling figures of the twentieth century.
‘Translated gorgeously into English… A delightful, nourishing read’ Guardian
‘She was a beacon of joy and fellowship and her smile…reaches out to us across the years’ Financial Times
‘Josephine Baker certainly shook things up. This memoir demonstrates - vividly - the pleasure she took in doing it’ Washington Post
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY IJEOMA OLUO
TRANSLATED BY ANAM ZAFAR AND SOPHIE LEWIS
© Josephine Baker 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
Critics Review
-
Translated gorgeously into English… [Baker’s] storytelling is writerly and precise, with satisfying arcs in a single sentence or a page… a delightful, nourishing read
Guardian
-
[Baker] skips across her life, never dwelling on hardship, with an imaginative joie de vivre that offers a real glimpse of her presence…. She was a beacon of joy and fellowship and her smile…reaches out to us across the years
Financial Times
-
As with Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, its joy lies in its distinctive voice… it feels like the closest you are going to come with an audio with the woman… Baker was no saint, but this book leaves you with no doubt about her unique power
The Times
-
Josephine Baker certainly shook things up. This memoir demonstrates - vividly - the pleasure she took in doing it
Washington Post
See more reviews See fewer reviews
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A vivid impression of her ebullient personality, extravagant love for animals, and overflowing generosity
Kirkus
-
This gorgeous, captivating gem of a memoir will both introduce Baker to a new generation of readers, and cement her legacy as an enduring international icon
Abbott Kahler
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[Fearless and Free] is lively and humorous, at once candid and reticent… [it] paint[s] an engaging picture of the early world of light entertainment and of the movements against racism that swept the world in the 1950s and 1960s
Times Literary Supplement
User Reviews
Book 4.0
Narration 4.0
-
4.0 4.0
This was an interesting way to find out more about Josephine Baker. Not the usual memoir, it was more like long-read magazine articles, collated by the journalist. However, I could picture Josephine sitting in front of him saying these things. Much of that was aided by the excellent narrator.
ClareR 2025-03-18
Details
- Author
- Josephine Baker
- Narrator
- Quentin Bruno, Jade Wheeler, Ijeoma Oluo
- Duration
- 8 hours 42 minutes
- Release Date
- 6 February 2025
- ISBN
- 9781529957471
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Random House
- Genre
- Memoirs, Autobiography: arts and entertainment, Autobiography: historical, political and military, Musicians, singers, bands and groups, Individual actors and performers, Dancers / choreographers, Human rights, civil rights
- Rating
- 4.0(1 review)
- Narration
- 4.0(1 review)
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin.This is the iconic Josephine Baker in her own words.Funny, candid and unconventional: the wildly famous but elusive Josephine Baker tells her own story in this enchanting memoir.Baker took Paris by storm in the 1920s, dazzling audiences with her humour, beauty and effervescence on stage. She became an icon. Later, as one of the most recognisable women in the world, she became a spy for the French resistance and was awarded the Légion d’honneur for military service. After the war she became a civil rights activist, and in 1963 she spoke at the March on Washington alongside Martin Luther King. All this from a girl of mixed heritage, born in Missouri to a poor mother and a father she did not know.Formed from a series of conversations with the French journalist Marcel Sauvage over a period of more than twenty years, and now translated into English for the first time, this gorgeous book offers an insight into one of the most beguiling figures of the twentieth century.‘Translated gorgeously into English… A delightful, nourishing read’ Guardian‘She was a beacon of joy and fellowship and her smile…reaches out to us across the years’ Financial Times‘Josephine Baker certainly shook things up. This memoir demonstrates - vividly - the pleasure she took in doing it’ Washington PostWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY IJEOMA OLUOTRANSLATED BY ANAM ZAFAR AND SOPHIE LEWIS© Josephine Baker 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
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