Literary Fiction Audiobooks | Literature

"'When I'm dead and buried . . . you get the hell out of here . . . Make a life somewhere else . . . a life that I can't even imagine.' Jo has a gift. She is a mathematical prodigy—a woman who sees and thinks in numbers. She secures a job as a teller at Central Bank & Trust, where she recreates herself as a modern woman and rises through the professional ranks. While working at the bank, Jo becomes fascinated by Levi Arrowood, the dark and mysterious manager of the Sky Club, an infamous speakeasy and jazz club on the mountainside above town. When the Great Depression brings Central Bank & Trust down in a seismic crash, Jo is forced to find a new home and job. She finds both at the Sky Club, where she strikes a partnership with the alluring Arrowood as she is drawn deeper into a glamorous and precarious life of bootlegging, jazz, and love. The Sky Club is the story of money, greed, and life after the crash from the eyes of one remarkable woman as she creates her own imagined life."

Terry Roberts (Author), Heather Nichols (Narrator)

Audiobook

There Is Happiness: New and Selected Stories

"'Here is a generous portion of the work of a swiftly passing lifetime. Bountiful is the deserving page,' Joy Williams writes in her introduction to this selection of Brad Watson's published and unpublished stories: 'excellent, assured, funny, startling, heartbreaking, wild,' full of 'freakish flair' and 'melancholy realism.' Brad Watson was a master of dark comedy, extraordinary lyricism, appalling grotesquerie, and unabashed vulnerability; a sublime prose stylist whose novels and stories drew upon the fecundity and moodiness of the South. Male meltdown is a theme, as is young love and its disillusionment, as are strange neighbors who cannot be understood. A leopard that consumes its zookeeper, pronghorn antelope tenderly transporting the poop of their young, insufferably articulate birds and restless, tolerant dogs—this is also eco-fiction of a very peculiar sort, in which nature reassures, transcends, and finally escapes judging or being judged by us. Roller-coastering from the mournful to the comical, Watson's work is both embedded in a literary heritage tied to place and at home in a universal literature of the absurd. His stories waltz with lovely and strange melancholy, infused with wit and astonishing beauty. There Is Happiness embodies the twisted hilarity and undeniable grace of an underrecognized literary genius."

Brad Watson (Author), John Mclain (Narrator)

Audiobook

One Day

"A brand-new recording narrated by Annabel Scholey, star of Being Human and Walking on Sunshine. TWENTY YEARS, TWO PEOPLE, ONE DAY 15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows? 'A wonderful, wonderful book' THE TIMES 'Perfect' NEW YORK TIMES 'A modern classic' DAILY MIRROR 'You'd be hard pressed to find a sharper, sweeter romantic comedy' INDEPENDENT 'Big, absorbing, smart, fantastically readable' NICK HORNBY"

David Nicholls (Author), Annabel Scholey (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Second Coming

"A luminous novel from the New York Times bestselling author of City on Fire, plunging us deep into the lives of a teenage girl and her father as they navigate love, grief, addiction, redemption and connection. When 13-year-old Jolie Aspern drops her phone onto the subway tracks in 2011, her estranged dad, Ethan, seems like the furthest thing from her mind. A convicted felon and recovering addict, Ethan has always struggled to see past himself. But then a call from his ex makes him fear their daughter's in deeper trouble than anyone realises. Believing he's the only one who can save her, he decides to return to New York with a gift: the whole of his life, its hard-won triumphs and harrowing mistakes... So begins the intimate epic of Jolie and Ethan: child and adult, apart and together, different yet the same. Their journey toward each other will face opposition from grandparents and siblings and friends. It will strain connections with roommates and benefactors and a probation officer desperate to help. It will push Jolie out past her depth with a mysterious admirer, and Ethan in over his head with his first love, Jolie's mom. But as father and daughter struggle to find their footing, new vistas beckon: from a surf break in mid-'90s Delaware to group therapy during the Great Recession, from an encampment at Occupy Wall Street to a HoJo on Maryland's Eastern Shore, from the heights of the Brooklyn Bridge to horizons seldom seen in fiction. The Second Coming is at once an incandescent feat of storytelling and an exploration of an enduring mystery: can we ever really outrun the past, stay true to ourselves while still chasing something new? Full of music and pathos and passion, this beautifully attuned work of fiction makes good Garth Risk Hallberg's extraordinary promise."

Garth Risk Hallberg (Author), Ari Fliakos, Gail Shalan (Narrator)

Audiobook

I Will Crash

"It was a peace offering, I knew that you don't appear on someone's doorstep uninvited, saying Alright unless you want to make amends It's been six years since Rosa last saw her brother. Six years since they last spoke. Six years since they last fought. Six years since she gave up on the idea of having a brother. She's spent that time carefully not thinking about him. Not remembering their childhood. Not mentioning those stories, even to the people she loves. Now the distance she had so carefully put between them has collapsed. Can she find a way to make peace - to forgive, to be forgiven - when the past she's worked so hard to contain threatens to spill over into the present? From the acclaimed author of little scratch, this is a moving, powerfully honest novel about how we love, how we grieve and how we forgive."

Rebecca Watson (Author), Rebecca Watson (Narrator)

Audiobook

In Defence of the Act

"LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2024 Are we more like a coffee bean, a carrot or an egg? What happens to us when we are boiled in the trials and tribulations of life? Jessica Miller is fascinated by the somewhat perplexing tendency of humans to end their own lives, but she secretly believes such acts may not be that bad after all. Or at least, she did. Jessica is coming to terms with her own relationships, and reflecting on what it means to be queer, when a single event throws everything she once believed into doubt. Can she still defend the act? ‘In death obsessed scientist Jess, Effie Black has created one of the freshest, most engaging characters I’ve encountered in years. In Defence of the Act is a whip-smart exploration of what it means to truly live.Fresh, thought-provoking and, at times, surprisingly funny.’ Laura Wilkinson (Author of Skin Deep)"

Effie Black (Author), Helen Phillips (Narrator)

Audiobook

Small Acts of Kindness

"The uplifting new novel from Sunday Times bestseller Caroline Day. Friendship can bloom in the unlikeliest of places . . . Kiki grew up in New Zealand, dreaming of one day going to Glastonbury Festival. Now, mourning the loss of her beloved Yaya - the woman who raised her - she travels to the UK to follow that dream. It is only when she leaves home that she realises just how sheltered her life has been up until now. Ned lives an active and exciting life. Well, he did until the accident. Now, he's woken from his coma, except no one knows. He can hear everything happening around him but can't make his body respond. Still grieving for her best friend, the one person who'd known how difficult her marriage was, Mrs Malley, finds herself lonely and isolated with only her dog, Wordsworth, to keep her company. These three strangers are each in need of a little kindness in their lives, and this beautifully poignant novel shows us the world through their eyes whilst highlighting the power of human connection."

Caroline Day (Author), Ben Allen, Helen Lloyd, Natalie Beran (Narrator)

Audiobook

Firebrand

"Brought to you by Penguin. FIREBRAND is now a MAJOR MOTION PICTURE starring Alicia Vikander and Jude Law For fans of WOLF HALL and the BBC's THE WHITE QUEEN Dive into the Fremantle's vivid Tudor England and meet the woman who survived Henry VIII My name is Katherine Parr. I’m thirty-one years old – already twice widowed. I love a man I can’t have. I’m to wed a man no one would want. He has cast aside two wives and watched another die in childbirth. Two more have had their heads struck from their bodies, on his order. What will become of me as Henry VIII’s sixth wife? I will have the king’s ear. With that comes power. But power means danger in the Tudor court. Many have fallen. Will I fall too? *previously published as Queen’s Gambit* PRAISE FOR ELIZABETH FREMANTLE 'An unforgettable, moving and important story told with great skill and care' JENNIFER SAINT 'Outstanding. A powerful novel about women who are shamed and silenced, and how they learn to survive. A literary knockout' ANNA MAZZOLA, author of The Clockwork Girl 'An unforgettable book - visceral and lush and fierce. The last few pages left me gasping. An absolute triumph' EVE CHASE © Elizabeth Fremantle 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024"

Elizabeth Fremantle (Author), Georgina Sutton (Narrator)

Audiobook

[German] - Der Bademeister ohne Himmel (Ungekürzte Lesung)

"'Es gibt zwei Menschen, die mich von der Sache mit dem Auto abhalten. Kevin und Hubert. Kevin wohnt um die Ecke, ist voll intelligent und Hubert wohnt im dritten Stock und ist voll dement.' Linda ist fünfzehn und spielt mit dem Gedanken vor ein Auto zu laufen. Doch noch halten zwei Menschen sie davon ab, ihr Vorhaben in die Tat umzusetzen: Ihr einziger Freund Kevin, der daran verzweifelt, dass die Welt am Abgrund steht. Und Hubert, sechsundachtzig Jahre alt, ein Bademeister im Ruhestand, der seine Wohnung kaum mehr verlässt, Karotten toastet und auf seine Frau wartet, die vor sieben Jahren verstorben ist. Dreimal wöchentlich verbringt Linda den Nachmittag mit Hubert, um ihr Taschengeld aufzubessern und die polnische Pflegerin Ewa zu entlasten, die mit durchaus eigenwilligen Mitteln ihren Beruf ausübt. Der Alltag gelingt mal mehr, meist weniger. Mit eigensinnigem Humor und Geschichten aus dem Schwimmbad versucht Linda, die Erinnerungen des alten Bademeisters wach zu halten - an die Sommer im Strandbad oder die Liebe zu seiner Frau Rosalie. Bis das Schicksal Lindas Pläne durchkreuzt ..."

Petra Pellini (Author), Marie-Isabel Walke (Narrator)

Audiobook

[Spanish] - Mala letra

"La autora de este libro coge mal el lápiz. Lo ha cogido mal desde niña, cuando algunos profesores se empeñaban en corregirla porque «hay que escribir como Dios manda», e, incapaz de aprender, ha seguido cogiéndolo mal hasta el día de hoy, con todas las consecuencias. Porque... ¿puede acaso salir buena letra de un lápiz torcido? Ésta es una de las cuestiones que planean sobre este conjunto de cuentos: la de la escritura indócil, libre y acelerada, la escritura que araña y rasga la memoria, que destroza los recuerdos y hace de ellos otra cosa. Las historias que aparecen en este volumen abordan temas como la culpa y la redención, la falta de libertad y esos «pequeños instantes, epifanías, revelaciones, imágenes que se abren, palabras que se desdoblan», cuando «algo se quiebra, y todo cambia». Niños que se resisten a obedecer y que viven con asombro y soledad el difícil proceso de crecer; chicas rebeldes cuya rebeldía es subterránea, rabiosa y poco aprovechable; seres atormentados –o no– por los remordimientos y las dudas; picabueyes y nutrias que representan agresión o consuelo; el desconcierto de vidas en apariencia normales que a veces encierran crímenes y otras únicamente el deseo de cometerlos. Sara Mesa ha construido un conjunto sólido y coherente de voces con su ya peculiar estilo tensado y sin artificios, que se revela aún más depurado en el manejo de las formas cortas. La finalista del Premio Herralde de Novela 2012 con Cuatro por cuatro y autora de Cicatriz, perturbadora novela que obtuvo un notable éxito entre los lectores y la crítica, entrega ahora su libro quizá más personal e intimista. Este libro confirma los diagnósticos de Rafael Chirbes: «Sara Mesa levanta una literatura de alto voltaje trabajada con precisión de orfebre», y Marta Sanz: «Una escritura desnuda y fría, repleta de imágenes poderosas que desasosiegan en la misma medida que magnetizan.»"

Sara Mesa (Author), Marta Martín Jorcano (Narrator)

Audiobook

We Were the Universe

"The trip was supposed to be fun. When Kit's best friend gets dumped by his boyfriend, he begs her to ditch her family responsibilities for a quick, idyllic weekend in the Montana mountains. They'll soak in hot springs, then sneak a vape into the local dive bar like old times. But it's soon clear that this getaway only gets Kit closer to something dire and unfathomable that's been building inside her for years, ever since her sister Julie died. Back in the Dallas suburbs, Kit tries to settle into her usual routine: long afternoons spent taking care of her irrepressible young daughter, going on therapist-advised dates with her concerned husband, and reluctantly taking her mother's phone calls. In the secret recesses of Kit's mind, though, she's dreaming of an impossible threesome with her kid's pretty gymnastics teacher and the cool mom she just met at the playground. She's reminiscing too much about the band she used to be in-and how they'd go out to the desert after shows and drop acid. Keyed into everything that might distract from her surfacing pain, Kit longs to be anywhere but inside the confines of her own life. As her already thin boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, Kit begins to wonder: Is Julie really gone? Neon bright in its insight, both heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny, We Were the Universe is an ambitious, inventive novel from a revelatory new voice in American fictiona fearless exploration of sisterhood, motherhood, friendship, marriage, psychedelics, and the many strange, transcendent shapes love can take."

Kimberly King Parsons (Author), Justin Bolding, Kristen Sieh (Narrator)

Audiobook

[Spanish] - Oryx y Crake (Trilogía de MaddAddam 1)

"Una conmovedora historia sobre el último habitante del planeta en un inquietante mundo postapocalíptico. Primera parte de la llamada Trilogía de MaddAddam. Oryx y Crake es una inolvidable historia de amor y una conmovedora imagen de un cercano e inquietante horizonte postapocalíptico. Conocido como Jimmy antes de que el planeta se viese asolado por una serie de desastres naturales, Hombre de las Nieves llora la pérdida de Crake, su mejor amigo, y de la bella y esquiva Oryx, de quien ambos estaban enamorados, mientras lucha por sobrevivir en absoluta soledad sobre la faz de la Tierra. A merced de los elementos, acechado por los recuerdos y sin más compañía que la de los Hijos de Crake, esos seres de ojos verdes que lo consideran una especie de profeta, Hombre de las Nieves se pregunta cómo ha podido cambiar todo en tan poco tiempo y emprende un doble viaje hacia su pasado y hacia la burbuja de alta tecnología creada por Crake, el lugar donde empezó todo. La crítica ha dicho... «Margaret Atwood no solo es una escritora brillante, es también una de las más premiadas, de más éxito de nuestros tiempos. Se ha convertido en una intelectual a la que muchos recurrimos en busca de respuesta, como una suerte de visionaria.» Sandra Sabaté, El intermedio «Con una historia de amor que se va descubriendo según avanza la historia, un análisis de los conflictos familiares y las relaciones paterno y maternofiliales, y un sentimiento permanente de soledad, Oryx y Crake imagina un futuro distópico no muy lejos de la realidad en algunos aspectos. [...] Salamandra continúa la recuperación de lo mejor de la obra de Margaret Atwood publicando, por primera vez completa en español esta visionaria trilogía distópica sobre el fin del mundo. Y, aunque nos dé un poco de miedo descubrir qué nuevo futuro 'posible' se le pasa por la cabeza, estamos deseando devorar el próximo.» El Español «Un argumento que anticipa un futuro tan próximo que podemos olerlo desde aquí [...]. Atwood se ha superado a sí misma.» Georgia Straight «A la altura de las grandes distopías del siglo XX como Un mundo feliz, 1984 o Mercaderes del espacio en cuanto a su impacto dramático y fertilidad imaginativa. [...] Un retrato feroz de la globalización y de un mundo que se desgarra por sus costuras ecológicas [...]. Un libro majestuoso.» The Washington Post «Un amplio lienzo en el que Atwood luce su brillante talento para la sátira y los juegos de palabras, así como su considerable nivel de conocimiento del mundo natural.» Quill & Quiere «Un viaje narrativo de una viveza maravillosa.» National Post «Perfecta, divertida y satírica. Imaginativa y profética. Incluso apocalíptica y extrañamente plausible. [...]. Brillante.» Winnipeg Free Press «Los escritores contemporáneos raras veces escriben sobre ciencia o tecnología. Margaret Atwood aborda ambos campos -y muchos más- en una novela sorprendente.» The Economist"

Margaret Atwood (Author), Diego Rousselon (Narrator)

Audiobook

Literary Fiction Audiobooks in Literature