Historical Fiction Audiobooks | Fiction & Literature

Amidst the violent weather of Europe's Little Ice Age, 'A Slender Tether' offers a novel in linked stories on self-discovery, woven into a rich tapestry of 14th century France. Christine de Pizan, now heralded as Europe's first feminist and brilliant author, grapples with ambition and alienation amid the beautiful women at court. A doctor finds an unusual way to cope with the death of his wife. And opportunity alternates with disasters in the lives of four commoners who are yoked by necessity: a papermaker struggling to keep his business, a falconer with a mysterious past, a merchant's daughter frantic to avoid an arranged marriage, and a down-on-his-luck musician with a broken guitar and the voice of an angel.

Jess Wells (Author), Jess Wells (Narrator)

Audiobook

[Italian] - Rivoluzione

Al grido di 'Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité' la rivoluzione francese ha rivoluzionato la storia dell'Occidente. Ha cambiato il nostro modo di pensare, di vivere e di fare politica. Non perdere l'occasione di rivivere questo fondamentale e affascinante periodo storico attraverso lo sguardo dolce e inconsapevole di una graziosa dama italiana. Dallo splendore della reggia di Versailles alle tumultuose strade di Parigi.

Anna Nihil (Author), Isabella Pojavis (Narrator)

Audiobook

[Spanish] - Juan XXIII, una vocación frustrada

San Juan XXIII el Papa humilde o el Papa bueno, que de ambas formas era conocido, sigue siendo considerado el Papa del Concilio por la gran trascendencia que el Vaticano II ha tenido y tendrá en la Iglesia contemporánea y en la del futuro. Además, participó como enfermero en la Primera Guerra Mundial, fue delegado apostólico en Bulgaria. Grecia y Turquía -donde ayudó a salvar a muchos judíos de las garras del nazismo-, así como nuncio en París, Patriarca de Venecia... A la hora de su muerte, desfilan por su mente las personas a las que quiso y confia en que se le abrirán las puertas del Cielo, no por lo que hizo, sino por lo que amó. Su familia y sobre todo su madre, el tío Zaverio. el párroco don Rebuzzini, el obispo Tedeschi, la niña Catalina Hudson. enferma de leucemia, que tanto le impresionó, su fiel secretario Loris Capovilla... y al fondo, un paisaje recurrente: la ladera sagrada de Sotto il Monte, el pueblo donde nació. Fue canonizado por el Papa Francisco el 27 de abril de 2014. José Luis Olaizola ha investigado el Diario del alma de san Juan XXIII, las cartas a familiares e incluso su testamento espiritual, para recrear, en primera persona y con un estilo sencillo y emocionado, la peripecia vital de este gran hombre que nació con vocación de cura de aldea y terminó siendo Papa por obediencia.

José Luis Olaizola (Author), Alvaro Moreno Gelabert (Narrator)

Audiobook

[Spanish] - Cova Dónnica

Año 717. Al-Hurr, el nuevo gobernador de al-Ándalus, se dispone a aniquilar los últimos focos de resistencia del reino visigodo. La conquista musulmana está a punto de consumarse bajo la despiadada tutela de Opas, el obispo metropolitano de Toledo, y los principales linajes hispanogodos deben enviar rehenes a Corduba. Fruela, hijo de Pedro, el duque de Cantabria, acude a la capital de al-Ándalus para garantizar la lealtad de su gente. Sin embargo, su verdadero propósito será encontrarse con Pelayo, un noble astur, antiguo espatario del rey Rodrigo, para entregarle una carta que desencadenará una rebelión en las montañas del norte. Al mismo tiempo, al otro lado del Mediterráneo, el Imperio bizantino lucha por su supervivencia. Los sarracenos han reunido el mayor ejército desde que Jerjes cruzó el Helesponto para invadir Grecia doce siglos atrás. Mil ochocientas naves de guerra y ciento veinte mil muqatila avanzan, como una marea de fuego, hacia Constantinopla, y nada parece detenerlos… Yeyo Balbás nos sumerge en una trepidante narración ambientada en un momento crucial de la Historia, en el que solo el valor y la tenacidad de unos pocos consiguieron frenar a un imperio que parecía imparable.

Yeyo Balbás (Author), José Luis Espina (Narrator)

Audiobook

[French] - Sir Nigel

Si Conan Doyle est surtout passé à la postérité pour les enquêtes de Sherlock Holmes, c'est de son grand roman historique, « La Compagnie blanche » et de son préquel « Sir Nigel » qu'il était le plus fier. Il a conçu les 2 romans comme un dyptique pouvant se lire dans l'ordre voulu. On suit dans celui-ci les débuts de Sir Nigel, rejeton orphelin d'une noble famille ruinée, dont les terres ont été indûment accaparées par l'abbaye voisine. Déterminé à faire valoir ses droits, il se met au service du roi d'Angleterre pour aller faire campagne en France durant la guerre de 100 ans. Batailles, embuscades, bagarres, duels, tournois : les aventures se succèdent à un rythme échevelé. Ajoutez-y la verve et l'humour coutumiers de Conan Doyle et vous avez là un magnifique roman d'aventures et de chevalerie qui se dévore avec avidité ! Illustration Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Author), Frédéric Kneip (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Moon in the Mango Tree

From Pamela Binnings Ewen, bestselling author of The Queen of Paris and Émilienne, The Moon in the Mango Tree is a lush historical novel set in the 1920s. It is a dazzling decade, and Barbara Bond is a beautiful young singer torn between her fierce desire for independence and her deep, abiding love for her husband, a brilliant doctor. She has trained for years to sing grand opera, but soon after her marriage to Harvey Perkins, she learns that he has accepted an assignment as a medical missionary in the country of Siam. Suddenly Barbara is forced into the duty of a “good wife'—to support her husband’s career, not her own. As resentment slowly grows, she travels with Harvey first to the jungles of Siam, then to the capital city of Bangkok, where he is now physician to the royal court. As she struggles with the secrets straining their marriage, Barbara wonders if she has made the right choice. At last, leaving her husband in Bangkok, she flees to Paris, then Rome, where she can finally sing on stage. If Harvey loves her, the risk is worth it for a chance to have it all—her husband and her career. Why should she be forced to choose? And, if she chooses, must the other be lost forever?

Pamela Binnings Ewen (Author), Elizabeth Evans (Narrator)

Audiobook

Prophets & Kings: Prequel Collection

What if you could climb into Mesu Andrews' mind while she plotted a biblical novel? Have you ever wished you knew more about a character's motivation? Or more personal history that led to the characters' emotional reactions? Prophets & Kings answer those questions. His Unfathomable Plan attests to God's absolute goodness and sovereignty over even the most painful events of our lives. Before Aya becomes Isaiah's prophetess wife, she cares for a little girl who young Prince Ahaz later agrees to marry. Adnah's Legacy proves even the wickedest villain could have once been capable of love. Meet Shebna as an innocent boy, living with his father and brother. Both brothers fall in love with the household servant, Adnah. In Isaiah's Legacy, Adnah's daughter becomes the Queen of Judah. In the prequel, you'll discover how Shebna and his brothers' broken hearts formed them. Of Heroes and Kings illustrates that only the greatest kings realize Yahweh creates true heroes. In this prequel to Of Fire and Lions, meet Prince Nebuchadnezzar. Discover why Daniel and his parents' lives are about to collide with Nebuchadnezzar when King Josiah involves Judah in a senseless war.

Mesu Andrews (Author), Nan Mcnamara (Narrator)

Audiobook

Among the Great

A tale of courage and true heroism set during the reign of England's greatest king! The year is AD 877, and King Alfred has succeeded in driving the marauding Danes from his kingdom - for the time being. Edwin and his sister Edith are just beginning to enjoy their liberty when, one terrible night, their lives change forever. Separated from one another, and caught up in the turmoil of their times, Edwin and Edith must learn to discern between truth and falsehood, friend and foe, or be swept away on a tide of treachery. A blind bard, a lame blacksmith, and an ambitious warrior all have their role in this tale of courage and true heroism set during the reign of Alfred the Great. 'Captivating! Among the Great moves forward at a quick pace and kept me turning the pages to find out what happens next.' Emily Hall, Author of Becoming Lottie Moon 'This was excellently written and such an engaging story! ... Such a joy to read!' Darya C., Editor

Amy Ullrich (Author), Deedee Ash (Narrator)

Audiobook

In the Night of Memory: A Novel

When Loretta surrenders her young girls to the county and then disappears, she becomes one more missing Native woman in Indian Country's long devastating history of loss. But she is also a daughter of the Mozhay Point Reservation in northern Minnesota, and the mother of Azure and Rain, ages three and four, and her absence haunts all the lives she has touched-and all the stories they tell in this novel. In the Night of Memory returns to the fictional reservation of Linda LeGarde Grover's previous award-winning books, introducing listeners to a new generation of the Gallette family as Azure and Rain make their way home. After a string of foster placements, from cold to kind to cruel, the girls find their way back to their extended Mozhay family, and a new set of challenges, and stories, unfolds. Deftly, Grover conjures a chorus of women's voices (sensible, sensitive Azure's first among them) to fill in the sorrows and joys, the loves and the losses that have brought the girls and their people to this moment. Though reconciliation is possible, some ruptures simply cannot be repaired; they can only be lived through, or lived with. In the Night of Memory creates a nuanced, moving, often humorous picture of two Ojibwe girls becoming women in light of this lesson learned in the long, sharply etched shadow of Native American history.

Linda Legarde Grover (Author), Lanecia Edmonds (Narrator)

Audiobook

Palace of Shadows

An outstanding historical novel for fans of The Essex Serpent and Piranesi, Ray Celestin's Palace of Shadows can lay claim to having at its centre the most Gothic House of them all . . . "I'm not asking you to build something impossible. I'm asking you to build something that contains all the strangeness and confusion that you can muster." Samuel Etherstone, a penniless artist, is adrift in London. His disturbing art is shunned by patrons and critics alike, his friend Oscar Wilde is now an exile living in Paris, and a personal tragedy has taken its toll. So when he is contacted by a mysterious heiress, Mrs Chesterfield, and asked to work on a commission for the house she is building on the desolate Smugglers' Coast of North Yorkshire, he accepts the offer. Staying overnight in the local village pub, Samuel is warned not to spend too much time there. He is told of the fate of the house's original architect, Francisco Varano, chilling tales of folk driven mad by the house, of it being built on haunted land where young girls have vanished, their ghosts now calling others to their deaths... It is only on arrival at the Chesterfield house that he learns the sinister details of Varano's disappearance. And yet its owner keeps adding wing upon wing, and no one will tell him the reason behind her chilling obsession . . . But as Samuel delves deeper into the mysteries that swirl about the house, the nature of the project becomes terrifyingly clear.

Ray Celestin (Author), Daniel Weyman, Mark Meadows (Narrator)

Audiobook

M. R. James: Stories I Have Tried to Write: Seven Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramas

A series of full-cast ghost stories based on plots by M. R. James In 1929, M. R. James penned an essay called 'Stories I Have Tried to Write', in which he detailed plots that had failed to blossom and fragments of tales that never materialised, recalling them 'for the benefit of someone else'. In this BBC Radio series, Sheila Hodgson takes advantage of his generosity, fleshing out these sketchy ideas into full-blown dramas. Some are narrated by M. R. James himself, while others feature the author as a character, caught up in strange, inexplicable events. The Whisper in the Ear - M. R. James recounts the curious affair of young undergraduate Robert Stafford and his mysterious train companion. Turn Turn Turn - The Cambridge provost tells a chilling cautionary tale of witchcraft in Cambridge, in an attempt to heal a rift between a vicar and his son. The Backward Glance - The unsettling story of a mysterious 18th-century mask made of black silk - and skin... Here Am I, Where Are You? - The tale of a cursed professor with a curious red book, a wayward nephew and a Georgian tankard. Echoes from the Abbey - An invitation to spend Christmas at Medborough Abbey leads to a ghostly encounter for distinguished academic Dr James. The Lodestone - A young illustrator becomes obsessed with drawing the gravestone of a 17th-century witch. The Boat Hook - Visiting Trondheim Cathedral, Dr James is unsettled by the appearance of a small model boat... David March and Michael Williams star in these haunting supernatural dramas, which will thrill all fans of M. R. James' original ghost stories. NB: Due to the age of some of the recordings, the sound quality may vary Written by Sheila Hodgson Based on ideas by M.R. James Directed by David Johnston © 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Sheila Hodgson (Author), David March, Full Cast, Michael Williams (Narrator)

Audiobook

[German] - Das Vogelmädchen von London - Historischer Roman (Ungekürzt)

'Die Götter sind Vögel, und die Vögel sind Götter.' London, 1601. Shay ist Botenmädchen, Falknerin und Wahrsagerin, die in den Flügen der Vögel die Zukunft zu sehen vermag. Nonesuch ist der Star des sagenumwobenen Blackfriars-Theaters, wo eine Gruppe von Jungen für den Londoner Adel auftritt. Als sie über den Dächern Londons fliehen müssen, weil Shay gefangene Vögel befreit hat, lernen die beiden sich kennen - und verlieben sich. Dann gründen sie gemeinsam das Ghost Theatre, das in den versteckten Winkeln der Stadt phantastische Stücke aufführt. Doch bald verbreitet sich der Ruf Shays als Wahrsagerin - bis auch Königin Elizabeth sie aufsucht. Shay fällt wie üblich in Trance und weissagt der Königin - mit ungeahnten Folgen. Eine abenteuerliche Reise in das elisabethanischen London, wie man es noch nie gesehen hat - ein schillernder Roman über Theater, Magie und die Gefahren einer alles verzehrenden Liebe.

Mat Osman (Author), Tabea Hilbert (Narrator)

Audiobook

Historical Fiction Audiobooks in Fiction & Literature