{"product_id":"blue-hours","title":"Blue Hours (Pre-Order)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis is a pre-order of Blue Hours and will be available in your Audiobrary app on September 1, 2026. Upon the publication of the audiobook, you will receive a notification in your app and email saying it’s live! However, once you place this order, the project will preemptively appear in your app. In there, you will have an audio message from Julia filling you in on what to expect.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e(Run Time: 8:42)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA \"spellbinding\" (Booklist) mystery linking Manhattan circa 1991 to eastern Afghanistan in 2012, Blue Hours tells of a life-changing friendship between two memorable heroines. When we first meet Mim, she is a recent college graduate who has disavowed her lower middle-class roots to befriend Kyra, a dancer and daughter of privilege, until calamity causes their estrangement. Twenty years later, Kyra has gone missing from her NGO’s headquarters in Jalalabad, and Mim—now a recluse in rural New England—embarks on a journey to find her. \"Rich and layered\" (Boston Globe) and morally complex, Blue Hours becomes an unexpected page-turner about freedom and America's role in the conflicted, interconnected world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0802\/3756\/0086\/files\/daphne-kalotay.jpg?v=1782932263\" alt=\"Daphne Kalotay\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDaphne Kalotay (Author)\u003c\/strong\u003e is published in 20+ languages. She is the author of five books concerning the arts, war, and cultural heritage. Her work includes the award-winning novels \u003cem\u003eRussian Winter\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSight Reading\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eBlue Hours\u003c\/em\u003e, and two story collections: \u003cem\u003eCalamity and Other Stories\u003c\/em\u003e and, most recently, \u003cem\u003eThe Archivists\u003c\/em\u003e, winner of the Grace Paley Prize and longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, among others. Daphne lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, where she is a Special Program Instructor in the Masters in Creative Writing \u0026amp; Literature Program at Harvard University's Department of Continuing Education.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0802\/3756\/0086\/files\/julia-whelan.jpg?v=1723758797\" alt=\"Julia Whelan\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJulia Whelan (Narrator)\u003c\/strong\u003e is an author, screenwriter, lifelong actor, and acclaimed audiobook narrator of over 700 titles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe is, most recently, the recipient of Spotify's Narrator of the Year Award (the most listened-to narrator globally), the first-ever Gracie Award for Best Fiction Narrator (presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation), the SOVAS (Society of Voice Arts and Sciences) Lifetime Achievement Award, and winner of the Audie Award for Best Fiction Narrator of 2025. She also captured both the winner and runner-up slots in the inaugural audiobook category of the Goodreads Choice Awards.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHer latest books — the Audie nominated duet romance, \u003cem\u003eCasanova LLC\u003c\/em\u003e (coming in print, Spring 2027), and the annotated Victorian poetry anthology \u003cem\u003eThe Poetry Of My Oxford Year\u003c\/em\u003e — debuted exclusively on Audiobrary. \u003ca rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/jmwhelan.com\" title=\"jmwhelan.com\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ejmwhelan.com\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Audiobrary","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51489204470038,"sku":"1782930107140s","price":14.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0802\/3756\/0086\/files\/blue-hours-800x1280.jpg?v=1782930904","url":"https:\/\/audiobrary.com\/products\/blue-hours","provider":"Audiobrary","version":"1.0","type":"link"}