Literary Fiction Audiobooks | Literature

"Winner of the New England Book Award for Fiction From Lily King, beloved author of Writers and Lovers, Father of the Rain is a mesmerising novel about the complexity and power of familial love. Gardiner Amory's life is reeling - Nixon is being impeached, his wife is leaving him and his worldview is rapidly becoming outdated. His daughter, Daley, has spent her life negotiating her parents' conflicting worlds: the liberal realm of her mother and the conservative, liquor-soaked life of her father. But when the pair divorces, Gardiner's basest impulses are unleashed in a deluge, and the chasm between all of them widens. As she reaches adulthood, Daley rejects her father's prejudices and embarks on her own life - until Gardiner hits rock bottom. Returning home to help her father get sober, Daley risks everything, including a chance at love, in an attempt to repair a trust that was broken long ago . . . 'A gripping epic about a father and daughter that plumbs the dark side of a family riven by addiction and mental illness' - Entertainment Weekly"

Lily King (Author), Cassandra Campbell (Narrator)

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The English Teacher

"A Chicago Tribune and Publishers Weekly Best Novel 'A domestic drama with the adrenaline-fuelled beating heart of a thriller' - Elle From Lily King, author of Writers and Lovers, The English Teacher is a compelling drama about the fragility of a life built from ruins and the need to protect it. Fifteen years ago, English teacher Vida Avery arrived alone and pregnant at the elite Fayer Academy. Living on the campus off the coast of New England, she worked to become a beloved fixture of the school - and to shelter herself and her son, Peter, from a painful secret she left behind. Then she accepts the impulsive marriage proposal of ardent widower Tom Belou, and the prescribed life Vida has constructed begins to come apart. As Peter bonds with Tom and his new step-siblings, Vida retreats further into the books she teaches. To embrace life and a chance at happiness, she will have to face the nightmares of her former self - and shed the pain she has held onto for far too long."

Lily King (Author), Christina Moore (Narrator)

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The Pleasing Hour

"A New York Times Notable Book The Pleasing Hour, the debut novel by Lily King, is a profoundly moving story of family, betrayal and the naivety of youth. Young, inexperienced and fleeing a terrible personal loss, Rosie travels to France to become an au pair to the Tivot family. Nicole, the cool, distant and beautifully polished mother of the three children she cares for is impossible to connect with - there is something about the woman that both fascinates and unnerves Rosie. The same is true of the rest of the Tivot clan. Nicole's husband, Marc, and their children all seem to be caught in an unending struggle against each other for love and acceptance. Only when Rosie is sent to care for Nicole's now-elderly guardian - the storyteller of the family's secrets - does she finally discover the truth. There, Rosie will learn of a past darkened by war, duplicity and a tragedy that still resonates in the Tivot's lives."

Lily King (Author), Suzanne Toren (Narrator)

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Running Out of Air

""An exhilarating adventure." -Zoje Stage, USA Today bestselling author of Baby Teeth and Dear Hanna A smart, thrilling and powerful debut by Lilli Sutton that asks what it costs to pursue your wildest dreams? Evelyn and Sophie, sisters and best friends, were known as one of the climbing world's strongest teams-but that was before Evelyn had an affair with Sophie's husband. Now they can't even be in the same room together. That is, until they're both offered a mountaineer's dream: a chance to summit the eight-thousand-meter peak Yama Parvat. Sophie has been aimless since Evelyn's betrayal. She hasn't summited a Himalayan mountain in nearly two years, all the joy drained from the sport for her, and this trek offers a chance to reestablish herself as a top climber before her sponsors withdraw their funding. Evelyn has been happy with Miles since he left Sophie, but guilt continues to shadow her, clouding her judgment and the ability to move forward. Now she's willing to gamble everything for the chance to be part of the first team to summit this as-yet unclimbed mountain and prove herself a capable leader. Stranded during a devastating storm on top of the world, Evelyn and Sophie are forced to climb together. Whether or not they make it off the mountain alive hinges on their trust in one another-something lost years ago-as they face down the question of how much they're willing to sacrifice to get it all back."

Lilli Sutton (Author), Lindsey Dorcus (Narrator)

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Lazarus Man: A Novel

"In this electrifying novel, Richard Price, the author of Clockers and a writer on The Wire, gives us razor-sharp anatomy of an ever-changing Harlem. 'Novelist Richard Price has as fine an ear for American speech as anyone writing today...'—AudioFile East Harlem, 2008. In an instant, a five-story tenement collapses into a fuming hill of rubble, pancaking the cars parked in front and coating the street with a thick layer of ash. As the city’s rescue services and media outlets respond, the surrounding neighborhood descends into chaos. At day’s end, six bodies are recovered, but many of the other tenants are missing. In Lazarus Man, Richard Price, one of the greatest chroniclers of life in urban America, creates intertwining portraits of a group of compelling and singular characters whose lives are permanently impacted by the disaster. Anthony Carter—whose miraculous survival, after being buried for days beneath tons of brick and stone, transforms him into a man with a message and a passionate sense of mission. Felix Pearl—a young transplant to the city, whose photography and film work that day provokes in this previously unformed soul a sharp sense of personal destiny. Royal Davis—owner of a failing Harlem funeral home, whose desperate trolling of the scene for potential “customers” triggers a quest to find another path in life. And Mary Roe—a veteran city detective who, driven in part by her own family’s brutal history, becomes obsessed with finding Christopher Diaz, one of the building’s missing. Price, the bestselling author of Lush Life and, most recently, The Whites, has created a bravura portrait of a community on the edge of disintegration. Rich with indelible characters and high drama, Lazarus Man is a riveting work of suspense and social vision by one of our major writers. A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux"

Richard Price (Author), Robb Moreira (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Proof of My Innocence

"Brought to you by Penguin. Post-university life doesn’t suit Phyl. Time passes slowly, living with her parents and working a zero-hours contract at Heathrow Airport, while her budding plans of becoming a writer are going nowhere. That is, until family friend Chris comes to stay. He’s been investigating a radical think tank, founded at Cambridge University in the 1980s, that’s been scheming to push the British government in an ever more extreme direction. When he follows this story to a conference in a rambling old hotel deep in the Cotswolds, events take a bizarre and sinister turn. Soon he is caught up in a world of cryptic clues, secret passages and, eventually, murder. In the end, despite the efforts of a suitably eccentric detective, it falls to Phyl herself – ably assisted by Chris’s outspoken adopted daughter Rashida - to look for answers to the fatal mystery. But will they lie in contemporary politics, or in a literary enigma that is almost forty years old? 'A brilliant, shrewd, satirical novel – gimlet-eyed, funny, very clever and a searchingly profound look at the state of this strange country of ours' William Boyd 'My comfort read: anything by Jonathan Coe' Bob Mortimer 'Coe shows an understanding of this country that goes beyond what most cabinet ministers can muster . . . he is a master of satire but pokes fun subtly, without ever being cruel, biting or blatant . . . his light, funny writing makes you feel better' Evening Standard 'A novelist who gains in range and reputation with every book' Pat Barker 'Please, God … if there’s a next life, let me write as well as Jonathan Coe' Anthony Bourdain 'Probably the best English novelist of his generation' Nick Hornby ©2024 Jonathan Coe (P)2024 Penguin Audio"

Jonathan Coe (Author), Alana Maria, Charlotte Worthing, Mark Stobbart, Roy McMillan, Sam Woolf (Narrator)

Audiobook

Fire

"Brought to you by Penguin. On the face of it, Freya lives a gilded existence, dancing solely to her own tune. She has all the trappings of wealth and privilege, a responsible job as a surgeon specialising in skin grafts, a beautiful flat in a sought-after development, and a flash car. But it wasn’t always like this. Hers is a life founded on darkness. Did what happened to Freya as a child one fateful summer influence the adult she would become – or was she always destined to be that person? Was she born with cruelty in her heart or did something force it into being? In Fire, John Boyne takes the reader on a chilling, uncomfortable but utterly compelling psychological journey to the epicentre of the human condition, asking the age-old question: nurture – or nature? © John Boyne 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024"

John Boyne (Author), Anna Friel (Narrator)

Audiobook

[Spanish] - Two Novels of Love and Redemption Dos novelas de amor y redención (Sp) Unabr: El trato

"La novela corta El trato de su vida de Fredrik Backman, autor de los bestsellesr Gente ansiosa y Un hombre llamado Ove, es un relato profundo y conmovedor sobre la búsqueda de lo que de verdad importa en la vida. Un padre y su hijo se ven por primera vez después de muchos años. El padre tiene algo que contarle antes de que sea demasiado tarde: la historia de una niña que yace en la cama de un hospital a pocos kilómetros de distancia. La pequeña es valiente y lo bastante inteligente como para saber que no vencerá al cáncer. Ahora, en una fría noche de invierno, el padre tiene la inesperada oportunidad de hacer algo extraordinario que podría cambiar el destino de una niña a la que apenas conoce. Pero antes de poder hacer el trato de su vida, debe averiguar cuánto ha valido realmente la suya, y sólo su hijo puede darle esa respuesta. Y cada mañana el camino a casa se vuelve más y más largo es el relato conmovedor de la lucha de un anciano por aferrarse a sus recuerdos más preciados y de los esfuerzos de su familia por cuidarlo incluso cuando deben encontrar la manera de dejarlo ir. Es una lectura breve, demasiado rápida, pero que llena de amor y ternura. Una novela sobre los recuerdos, esos momentos que solo existen en nuestra memoria, hasta que amenazan con desaparecer. ¿Cómo decir adiós a alguien que no se va físicamente a ninguna parte? Cuando sabes que estás perdiendo la memoria, ¿qué les dices a las personas que quieres, a las que son el centro de esos recuerdos? Y cuando es probable que alguien a quien quieres deje de recordarte dentro de poco, ¿qué le dices ahora mismo que pueda significar algo? Esta novela breve es la historia de tres generaciones que se enfrentan a la pérdida de la memoria. In the short story Deal of a Lifetime, the bestselling author of Anxious People and A Man Called Ove delivers an insightful and poignant tale about finding out what is truly important in life. A father and a son are seeing each other for the first time in years. The father has a story to share before it’s too late. He tells his son about a courageous little girl lying in a hospital bed a few miles away. She’s a smart kid—smart enough to know that she won’t beat cancer. Now, on a cold winter’s night, the father has been given an unexpected chance to do something remarkable that could change the destiny of a little girl he hardly knows. But before he can make the deal of a lifetime, he must find out what his own life has actually been worth, and only his son can reveal that answer. In And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer exquisitely moving portrait of an elderly man’s struggle to hold on to his most precious memories, and his family’s efforts to care for him even as they must find a way to let go. How do you say good-bye to someone who isn’t physically going anywhere? When you know you are going to lose your memory, what do you say to the people you love, those who are at the center of those memories? And when someone you love is likely not to remember you soon, what do you say right now that will mean something? This novella by the author of the bestseller A Man Called Ove is the story of three generations coming to terms with the loss of memory."

Fredrik Backman (Author), Antonio Raluy Zierold (Narrator)

Audiobook

The City and Its Uncertain Walls

"Brought to you by Penguin. The breathtaking new novel about the boundaries between worlds and individuals, from the internationally bestselling author of 1Q84. When a young man’s girlfriend mysteriously vanishes, he sets his heart on finding the imaginary city where her true self lives. His search will lead him to take a job in a remote library with mysteries of its own. When he finally makes it to the walled city, a shadowless place of horned beasts and willow trees, he finds his beloved working in a different library – a dream library. But she has no memory of their life together in the other world and, as the lines between reality and fantasy start to blur, he must decide what he’s willing to lose. A love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a parable for these strange times. 'It’s safe to say that there’s no one like Murakami' Literary Review 'No other author mixes domestic, fantastic and esoteric elements into such weirdly bewitching shades' Financial Times 'Murakami is a master storyteller and he knows how to keep us hooked' Sunday Times © Haruki Murakami 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024"

Haruki Murakami (Author), Brian Nishii (Narrator)

Audiobook

The August Strindberg BBC Radio Collection: 13 Full-Cast Productions including Miss Julie, The Fathe

"A comprehensive selection of August Strindberg’s finest works, featuring an all-star cast and original music Hailed by Arthur Miller as ‘the mad inventor of modern theatre’, Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, poet and novelist whose groundbreaking works mingled naturalism and psychology and paved the way for Expressionist drama. A prolific writer – penning over 60 plays, 19 novels and nine autobiographies – his turbulent life was marked by emotional conflict. This wide-ranging collection brings together 13 of his most important dramas and a semi-autobiographical ‘occult diary’, enhanced through stunning soundscapes and music composed by Strindberg himself. First up is his debut play, the 1872 historical drama Master Olof. Influenced by Ibsen’s Brand, it centres around a revolutionary 16th-century priest’s defiance of the Catholic Church and the monarchy. It is followed by The Father, whose focus is paternity and the battle for power between a husband and wife. Sexuality and social class are scrutinised in a retelling of Strindberg’s classic play Miss Julie, placed in a Scottish context, while in Creditors, a Swedish seaside resort is the setting for marriage-wrecking revenge. Also set by the sea, Strindberg’s black comedy of manners Playing with Fire explores a love triangle between a young couple and their close friend. Begun in 1898 while Strindberg was recovering from a breakdown, To Damascus is a symbolic synthesis of his marital, religious and existential struggles. Erik XIV portrays the last years of the titular King of Sweden’s reign, as the increasingly unstable ruler becomes embroiled in a bitter feud with the nobility. Next is Ingmar Bergman’s version of A Dream Play, Strindberg’s oneiric fantasy exploring human suffering and life’s illusions. Easter tells the redemptive tale of a family fearing ruin who instead find hope, forgiveness and mercy. Performed for the first time in English, The Virgin Bride centres on a wedding that could reconcile two rival families – but can the bride prove her chastity by wearing a bridal crown? Following their father’s death, a brother and sister discover disturbing truths about their mother in The Pelican, and in The Ghost Sonata, adultery, murder and deceit are laid bare in the house of the living dead… Our final piece, Strindberg’s dark prose poem Inferno, recounts his experiments in alchemy and black magic, his sojourn in hell and his quest for faith and love. It is narrated by Alan Badel. These outstanding dramas feature star casts including Brian Cox, Fiona Shaw, Andrew Garfield, Rory Kinnear, Maurice Denham, Martin Jarvis, Trevor Howard, Peggy Ashcroft, Stephen Murray, Judy Bennett, Frank Finlay, Ian Richardson, Janet McTeer and Dorothy Tutin. First published 1872 (Master Olof), 1887 (The Father), 1888 (Miss Julie), 1889 (Creditors), 1892 (Playing with Fire), 1898-1904 (To Damascus), 1899 (Erik XIV), 1901 (A Dream Play, Easter, The Virgin Bride), 1907 (The Pelican), 1908 (The Ghost Sonata), 1912 (Inferno) First broadcast on BBC Radio, 1968-2005 © 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd"

August Strindberg (Author), Andrew Garfield, Brian Cox, Elizabeth Proud, Fiona Shaw, Full Cast, Jonathan Coy, Martin Jarvis, Maurice Denham, Pauline Letts, Peggy Ashcroft, Rory Kinnear, Sarah Badel (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Blood of Others

"Brought to you by Penguin. Potent and vividly emotional, Simone de Beauvoir’s captivating novel questions freedom and individual responsibility in the face of brutality ‘These carefree faces, on which we allowed our smiles to spread, were for others the mask of tragedy.’ Jean Blomart, patriot leader against the German forces of occupation, waits throughout an endless night for his wounded lover, Hélène, to die. Told through memories of his and her life, The Blood of Others paints an intense and moving picture of their love story and life in German occupied Paris during the Second World War. In the face of a seemingly unstoppable force, Hélène and Jean are confronted by the illusion of freedom and made to question their individual roles in the collective struggle against fascism, with devastating consequences. First published in 1945, this powerful novel resonates profoundly today and brings the ideas of one of the most important existentialist thinkers to life in spellbinding prose. © Simone de Beauvoir 1945 (P) Penguin Audio 2024"

Simone de Beauvoir (Author), Ali Smith, Hanako Footman, Rory Alexander (Narrator)

Audiobook

The House on Via Gemito: A Novel

"LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR —the Washington Post & Kirkus Reviews A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE This extraordinary Strega Prize-winning novel confirms Domenico Starnone's reputation as one of Italy's greatest living writers. Told against the backdrop of Naples in the 1960s, a city that itself becomes a vivid character in this lush, atmospheric novel, The House on Via Gemito is a masterpiece of Italian fiction. A modest apartment in Via Gemito smelling of paint and turpentine. Its furniture pushed up against the wall to create a studio. Drying canvases moved from bed to floor each night. Federí, the father, a railway clerk, is convinced that he possesses great artistic promise. If it weren't for the family he must feed and the jealousy of his fellow artists, nothing would stop him from becoming a famous painter. Ambitious and frustrated, talented but also arrogant and resentful, Federí is scarred by constant disappointment. He is a larger-than-life character, a liar, a fabulist, and his fantasies shape the lives of those around him, especially his son, Mimi, who will spend a lifetime trying to get out from under his father's shadow."

Domenico Starnone (Author), Paul Bellantoni (Narrator)

Audiobook

Literary Fiction Audiobooks in Literature