Literary Fiction Audiobooks | Literature

"PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • A "cleanly written [and] artful . . . page-turner" (San Francisco Chronicle) about a nine-year-old girl's disappearance and the lasting impact it has on her close-knit community "Compelling . . . both harrowing and deeply felt."-New York Daily News On an evening like any other, nine-year-old Katie Mackey, daughter of the most affluent family in a small town on the plains of Indiana, sets out on her bicycle to return some library books. This simple act is at the heart of The Bright Forever, a suspenseful, moving novel about the choices people make that change their lives forever. Playing fact, speculation, and contradiction off one another as the details unfold, Lee Martin creates a fast-paced story that's as gripping as it is richly human. His beautiful, clear-eyed, spartan prose builds to an extremely nuanced portrayal of the complicated give and take among people struggling to maintain their humanity in the shadow of loss. Memorable for its perceptions and power, The Bright Forever is a captivating and emotional tale about the human need to know even the hardest truths."

Lee Martin (Author), Various (Narrator)

Audiobook

The History of Love

"Nicole Krauss' first novel, Man Walks Into a Room, was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and her short fiction has been collected in Best American Short Stories. Now The History of Love proves Krauss is among our finest and freshest literary voices. It has been decades since Leo Gursky first surrendered his heart, then wrote a book about it, at the tender age of 10, and he's been in love with the same person ever since. Leo believes his book is lost to time, but what he doesn't know is, not only has it survived 60 years without him, it has also been an inspiration to others. Fourteen-year-old Alma was even named for a character from the book. When she realizes how deeply the story touched her lonely mother, she embarks on a search for answers. The History of Love is an imaginative tale of love and loss that is at once funny, mysterious, and deeply passionate."

Nicole Krauss (Author), Andy Paris, Barbara Caruso, George Guidall, Julia Gibson (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Breakdown Lane

"Where can a woman turn when her own life threatens to overwhelm her ability to keep her children safe? New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard takes the readers of her newest novel on a wry and moving journey of loss and healing. Giving advice is what Julieanne does for a living -- every Sunday she doles it out in a column in her local Wisconsin paper. But when it comes to her personal life, Julie herself seems to have missed some clues. Having worked creatively to keep her twenty-year marriage to Leo fresh and exciting and to be a good mother, she is completely caught off guard when he tells her he needs to go on a ''sabbatical'' from their life together, leaving Julie and their three children behind. But it soon becomes clear that his leave of absence is meant to be permanent. Things take a turn for the worse when Julie is diagnosed with a serious illness and the children undertake a dangerous journey to find Leo -- before it's too late. As the known world sinks precariously from view, the clan must navigate their way through the shoals of love, guilt, and betrayal. Together, with the help of Leo's parents and Julie's best friend, they work their way back to solid ground and a new definition of family. No one illuminates modern love, marriage, and parenting better than Jacquelyn Mitchard. Written with her trademark poignancy, humor, and insight, The Breakdown Lane is her most moving, eloquent, and life-affirming work yet."

Jacquelyn Mitchard (Author), Anna Fields (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Journeys of Socrates

"The international bestselling author is back with a page-turning tale of the origins of the peaceful warrior In the heart of nineteenth century Tsarist Russia an orphaned boy born of both Jewish and Cossack blood desperately seeks to find a place in a dangerous world. Sergei Ivanov’s (Socrates’) journey from a military academy to America is a spellbinding and tragic odyssey of courage and love. This riveting novel reveals how a boy became a man, how a man became a warrior, and how a warrior discovered peace. From his birth, this boy—Sergei Ivanov—is destined to become the peaceful warrior and sage who changed the life of Dan Millman and millions of readers worldwide."

Dan Millman (Author), Sam Tsoutsouvas (Narrator)

Audiobook

Rules for Old Men Waiting: A Novel

"A brief, lyrical novel with a powerful emotional charge, Rules for Old Men Waiting is about three wars of the twentieth century and an ever-deepening marriage. In a house on the Cape “older than the Republic,” Robert MacIver, a historian who long ago played rugby for Scotland, creates a list of rules by which to live out his last days. The most important rule, to “tell a story to its end,” spurs the old Scot on to invent a strange and gripping tale of men in the trenches of the First World War. Drawn from a depth of knowledge and imagination, MacIver conjures the implacable, clear-sighted artist Private Callum; the private’s nemesis Sergeant Braddis, with his pincerlike nails; Lieutenant Simon Dodds, who takes on Braddis; and Private Charlie Alston, who is ensnared in this story of inhumanity and betrayal but brings it to a close. This invented tale of the Great War prompts MacIver’s own memories of his role in World War II and of Vietnam, where his son, David served. Both the stories and the memories alike are lit by the vivid presence of Margaret, his wife. As Hearts and Minds director Peter Davis writes, “Pouncey has wrought an almost inconceivable amount of beauty from pain, loss, and war, and I think he has been able to do this because every page is imbued with the love story at the heart of his astonishing novel.”"

Peter Pouncey (Author), Simon Vance (Narrator)

Audiobook

Sudden Rain

Maritta Wolff (Author), Barbara Rosenblat (Narrator)

Audiobook

Around the World in 80 Days

"Shocking his stodgy colleagues at the exclusive Reform Club, enigmatic Englishman Phileas Fogg wagers his fortune, undertaking an extraordinary and daring enterprise to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days. With his French valet Passepartout in tow, Verne's hero traverses the far reaches of the earth, all the while tracked by the intrepid Detective Fix, a bounty hunter certain he is on the trail of a notorious bank robber. Combining exploration, adventure, and a thrilling race against time, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS gripped audiences upon its original publication and remains hugely popular to this day."

Jules Verne (Author), Jim Dale (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Changed Man

"“Francine Prose has a knack for getting to the heart of human nature. . . . We are allowed to enter the moral dilemmas of fascinating characters whose emotional lives are strung out by the same human frailties, secrets and insecurities we all share.” —USA Today One spring afternoon, Vincent Nolan, a young neo-Nazi walks into the office of a human rights foundation headed by Meyer Maslow, a charismatic Holocaust survivor. Vincent announces that he wants to make a radical change. But what is Maslow to make of this rough-looking stranger with Waffen SS tattoos who says that his mission is to save guys like him from becoming guys like him? As Vincent gradually turns into the sort of person who might actually be able to do that, he also begins to transform everyone around him, including Maslow himself. Masterfully plotted, darkly comic, A Changed Man poses essential questions about human nature, morality, and the capacity for change, illuminating the everyday transactions, both political and personal, in our lives."

Francine Prose (Author), Eric Conger (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Thread of Grace: A Novel

"NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • "A powerfully imagined novel . . . [a] profoundly moving book that engages the heights and depths of human experience."-Los Angeles Times It is September 8, 1943, and fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum and her father are among the thousands of Jewish refugees scrambling over the Alps toward Italy, where they hope to find safety now that the Italians have broken from Germany and made a separate peace with the Allies. The Blums will soon discover that Italy is anything but peaceful, as it quickly becomes an open battleground for the Nazis, the Allies, Resistance fighters, Jews in hiding, and ordinary Italian civilians trying to survive. Tracing the lives of a handful of fascinating characters-a charismatic Italian Resistance leader, a priest, an Italian rabbi's family, a disillusioned German doctor-Mary Doria Russell tells the little-known story of the vast underground effort by Italian citizens who saved the lives of 43,000 Jews during the final phase of World War II. A Thread of Grace puts a human face on history. Praise for A Thread of Grace "An addictive page-turner . . . [Mary Doria] Russell has an astonishing story to tell-full of action, paced like a rapid-fire thriller, in tense, vivid scenes that move with cinematic verve."-The Washington Post Book World "Hauntingly beautiful, utterly unforgettable."-San Francisco Chronicle "Rich . . . Based on the heroism of ordinary people, [A Thread of Grace] packs an emotional punch."-People "[A] deeply felt and compellingly written book . . . The progress of each character's life is marked or measured by acts of grace. . . . Russell is a smart, passionate and imaginative writer."-Cleveland Plain Dealer "A feat of storytelling . . . an important book [that] needs to be widely read."-Portland Oregonian "Mary Doria Russell's fans (and aren't we all?) will rejoice to see her new novel on the shelves. A Thread of Grace is as ambitious, beautiful, tense, and transforming as any of us could have hoped."-Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club "A story of love and war, A Thread of Grace speaks to the resilience and beauty of the human spirit in the midst of unimaginable horror. It is, unquestionably, a literary triumph."-David Morrell, author of The Brotherhood of the Rose and First Blood"

Mary Doria Russell (Author), Cassandra Campbell (Narrator)

Audiobook

Le Morte D'Arthur

"For over 1,000 years, tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table have enthralled people, among them Henry VIII and T. E. Lawrence. Proof of the Arthurian legend's timeless appeal is the fact that scarcely a year goes by without a new adaptation. Published in 1485, Sir Thomas Malory's epic poem Le Morte d'Arthur became the standard source for future Arthurian works such as Idylls of the King by Lord Tennyson and T.H. White's The Once and Future King. With its expressive, vigorous dialogue, Le Morte d'Arthur resounds with colloquial liveliness and ceremonious dignity, the style for a fifteenth-century gentleman. This audio recording grips the listener with the fascinating, fateful story of Arthur's ascension to the throne as a boy, his marriage to Guenevere, the formation of the Round Table Knights, the quest for the Holy Grail, the ill-fated passion between Lancelot and Guenevere, the treachery of Arthur's illegitimate son Mordred, and the ultimate destruction of Arthur's realm. A superb story of adventure, love, honor, and betrayal, Le Morte d'Arthur is filled with dramatic power and deep, tragic irony."

Sir Thomas Malory (Author), Derek Jacobi (Narrator)

Audiobook

The River King

"For more than a century, the small town of Haddan, Massachusetts, has been divided, as if a line was drawn down the center of Main Street, separating those born and bred in the village from those who attend the prestigious Haddan School. But one October night the two worlds are thrust together due to an inexplicable death, and the town’s divided history is revealed in all its complexity. The lives of everyone involved are unraveled: from Carlin Leander, the fifteen-year-old girl who is as loyal as she is proud, to Betsy Chase, a woman running from her own destiny; from August Pierce, a boy who unexpectedly finds courage in his darkest hour, to Abel Grey, the police officer who refuses to let unspeakable actions—both past and present—slide by without notice. Entertainment Weekly has declared that Alice Hoffman’s worlds are “replete with miracles” and The Boston Globe has praised her “iridescent prose, taut narrative suspense, and alluring atmosphere.”“An inventive, romantic, and insightful storyteller, Hoffman touches everyone and everything with her magic wand, illuminating the power of emotion and exquisite mysteries of life.” —Booklist"

Alice Hoffman (Author), Laural Merlington (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse

"A New York Times Notable Book “Stunning. . . a moving meditation. . . infused with mystery and wonder.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution In a masterwork that both deepens and enlarges the world of her previous novels, acclaimed author Louise Erdrich captures the essence of a time and the spirit of a woman who felt compelled by her beliefs to serve her people as a priest. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse deals with miracles, crises of faith, struggles with good and evil, temptation, and the corrosive and redemptive power of secrecy. For more than a half century, Father Damien Modeste has served his beloved Native American tribe, the Ojibwe, on the remote reservation of Little No Horse. Now, nearing the end of his life, Father Damien dreads the discovery of his physical identity, for he is a woman who has lived as a man. To further complicate his quiet existence, a troubled colleague comes to the reservation to investigate the life of the perplexing, possibly false saint Sister Leopolda. Father Damien alone knows the strange truth of Leopolda's piety, but these facts are bound up in his own secret. He is faced with the most difficult decision: Should he tell all and risk everything . . . or manufacture a protective history for Leopolda, though he believes her wonder-working is motivated solely by evil? The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse is a work of an avid heart, a writer's writer, and a storytelling genius."

Louise Erdrich (Author), Anna Fields (Narrator)

Audiobook

Literary Fiction Audiobooks in Literature