Literary Fiction Audiobooks | Literature

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop: The perfect book to curl up with - for lovers of Japanese translated

"'A perfect blanket to warm every book lover's heart' - 5***** Reader review 'I love Japanese literature, and this is one of the best' - 5***** Reader review 'A love letter to book lovers and readers everywhere' - 5***** Reader review The Japanese bestseller: a tale of love, new beginnings, and the comfort that can be found between the pages of a good book. When twenty-five-year-old Takako's boyfriend reveals he's marrying someone else, she reluctantly accepts her eccentric uncle Satoru's offer to live rent-free in the tiny room above his shop. Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo, the Morisaki Bookshop is a booklover's paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building, the shop is filled with hundreds of second-hand books. It is Satoru's pride and joy, and he has devoted his life to the bookshop since his wife left him five years earlier. Hoping to nurse her broken heart in peace, Takako is surprised to encounter new worlds within the stacks of books lining the shop. And as summer fades to autumn, Satoru and Takako discover they have more in common than they first thought. The Morisaki bookshop has something to teach them both about life, love, and the healing power of books. Quirky, beautifully written, and movingly profound, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop will appeal to readers of Before The Coffee Gets Cold, The Cat Who Saved Books, and anyone who has had to recover from a broken heart. The charming sequel, More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, is out now. Look out for the brand new novel Days at the Torunka Café coming soon!"

Satoshi Yagisawa (Author), Susan Momoko Hingley (Narrator)

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Little Monsters: PERFECT FOR FANS OF FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE AND THE PAPER PALACE

"Brought to you by Penguin. A riveting novel about Cape Cod, complicated families and long-buried secrets Ken and Abby Gardner were raised in a remote home on Cape Cod. As adults, their relationship is strained, but their lives are still deeply intertwined. Ken is a successful businessman with political ambitions and a picture-perfect family, but when his wife walks in on him in an internet chatroom, she demands they go to therapy. Abby is a talented artist who depends on her brother's goodwill, in part because he owns the studio where she lives and works. Their father, Adam, a brilliant oceanographer, raised them as a single parent. As his seventieth birthday approaches and he begins to stare down his mortality, he comes off his bipolar disorder medication in order to make one last scienti?c breakthrough; he has secretly stopped taking his pills, which he knows will infuriate his children. Meanwhile, Abby and Ken are both harbouring secrets of their own, and there is a new person on the periphery of the family - Steph, who doesn't make her connection known. Set over one fraught summer, Little Monsters is an absorbing, sharply observed family story by a writer who knows Cape Cod inside and out - its Edenic lushness and its snakes. 'Gorgeous, gripping, I couldn't put it down' RUTH OZEKI 'Beautiful, lyrical and unvarnished, Adrienne Brodeur's Little Monsters delivers its powerful emotional punches so subtly that they sneak up on you and leave you floored' MIRANDA COWLEY HELLER, author of THE PAPER PALACE ©2023 Adrienne Brodeur (P)2023 Penguin Audio"

Adrienne Brodeur (Author), Allyson Ryan, Cassandra Campbell, Joy Osmanski, Matt Pittenger, Stephen Graybill, Sura Siu (Narrator)

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[Spanish] - Monólogos: Mrs. Caldwell habla con su hijo; San Camilo 1936; Oficio de tinieblas, 5

"Un volumen con tres novelas en las que destacan la inmediatez, la vocación experimental y la maestría técnica de Camilo José Cela El rasgo más destacable que comparten las tres obras aquí reunidas es la libertad y la audacia insólitas con que fueron escritas. Las tres retan al lector desprevenido y le exigen abandonar sus expectativas relacionadas con lo que debe ser una novela. Mrs Caldwell habla con su hijo tiene mucho de soliloquio alucinado afín al poema en prosa. Oficio de tinieblas 5 es quizá la más visceral de las novelas del autor, que la definió como «la purga de mi corazón». Y San Camilo 1936 es sin duda una de las obras maestras de Cela y acaso la novela más importante y veraz que se ha escrito sobre las raíces de la guerra civil española. La crítica ha dicho: «Cela fue el restaurador de la función de la literatura en una sociedad aturdida y pragmática.» José-Carlos Mainer «Uno de los escritores más radicales de todo el siglo XX. [...] Los relojes corren a favor de Camilo José Cela, segundo a segundo, minuto a minuto, hasta marcar la hora exacta de su eterna maestría.» Alberto Olmos «El último gran escritor español, creador de fábulas, de lenguaje, de palabras, con una capacidad prodigiosa para expresarse.» Francisco Umbral «Su escritura es un deslumbrante artificio multiplicado en páginas, para decirlo con un verso suyo, que alumbraron tan fuerte como si ardieran versos.» El País «Cela ha vuelto a poner en marcha sobre los caminos de la Península al viejo héroe literario, con espíritu muy logrado e indudables aciertos en su reactualización.» Alonso Zamora Vicente «Cela es [...] un heredero de la tragedia clásica, capaz de sumergirnos en las simas de la angustia y del dolor; y también un heredero de la picaresca española.» Juan Manuel de Prada"

Camilo José Cela (Author), Eugenio Barona, Rebeca Hernando (Narrator)

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Chlorine: 'Entrances even as it unsettles' – Buzzfeed

"'This fantastically strange, explosive debut novel entrances even as it unsettles. It's so brilliantly written' BUZZFEED Ren Yu is a swimmer. Her daily life starts and ends with the pool. Her teammates are her only friends. Her coach, her guiding light. If she swims well enough, she will be scouted, get a scholarship, go to a good school. Her parents will love her. Her coach will be kind to her. She will have a good life. But these are human concerns. The concerns of those confined to land. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Stories that called sailors to their doom. Stories that dragged them down and drowned them. Stories of the creature that she's always longed to become: a mermaid. Ren aches to be in the water. She dreams of the scent of chlorine - the feel of it on her skin. And she will do anything she can to make a life for herself where she can be free. No matter the pain. No matter what anyone else thinks. No matter how much blood she has to spill. In the vein of The Pisces and The Vegetarian, Chlorine is a powerful, relevant tale of immigration, sapphic longing, and fierce, defiant becoming."

Jade Song (Author), Catherine Ho, Imani Parks (Narrator)

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Swimming with Ghosts

"It’s June 2012. The magical and slightly cultish River Run swim club is alive with the spirit of fun competition when a perfect storm brews between team moms and best friends Gillian Cloud and Kristy Weinstein. The ghost of family addiction has turned up, looming over their carefully planned pasta parties, tie-dye nights, and pep rallies, forcing them to face their unresolved childhood trauma. Gillian responds by trying to control everyone around her while Kristy relapses into her dangerous addiction to love. Real sparks fly on the night of the derecho—a freak land hurricane—which sweeps through Northern Virginia, knocking out power for days. The storm ignites a tinder box of secrets, leaving Gillian and Kristy alone in the hot dark—their shame their only company. At times humorous and devastating, Swimming with Ghosts is a hauntingly dark, yet uniquely tender story about the various entrapments of addiction and lingering trauma and what it takes to overcome our hidden legacies of disgrace and discover a once unimaginable freedom made possible by confronting life’s greatest storms with the people closest to us."

Michelle Brafman (Author), Hillary Huber, Pete Cross, Scott Brick, Sophie Amoss (Narrator)

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[Spanish] - La invención de Morel

"ALFAGUARA RECUPERA LA OBRA MAESTRA DEL GÉNERO FANTÁSTICO EN ESPAÑOL «He discutido con su autor los pormenores de su trama, la he releído; no me parece una imprecisión o una hipérbole calificarla de perfecta». Jorge Luis Borges Un misterioso edificio construido en una isla en 1924, un diario escrito por un fugitivo encerrado en sí mismo que se enamora de una mujer impasible, y un comentarista que lo desautoriza en distintas notas al pie. Para la mayoría de los lectores —y qué difícil sería desmentirlos—, La invención de Morel es la obra maestra de Adolfo Bioy Casares, una novela con componentes filosóficos tan potente que llegó a influir, especialmente por medio de Lost, sobre el universo aún en boga de las series. Una trama con aparecidos tan adelantada a su tiempo que su lectura es capaz de resignificar, incluso, episodios traumáticos de la historia de Argentina que, al momento de su publicación, ni siquiera podían sospecharse. «La gran novela argentina en lo que hace a su forma y a su fondo donde, además, apenas se esconde el olvido inolvidable de un cuento perfecto». Rodrigo Fresán «Adolfo Bioy Casares fue un escritor que no se parece a nadie, de un talento sui generis». Carlos Fuentes «Me gustaría ser Adolfo Bioy Casares. Quisiera ser Bioy porque siempre lo admiré como escritor y lo estimé como persona». Julio Cortázar «En el mundo narrativo de Bioy hay siempre algo inconcluso, hilos sueltos, fatalidades que no se desencadenan, felicidades que se viven a medias. Esos misterios, que son la estructura invisible de sus obras, permiten también entender lo que podría llamarse, sin paradoja alguna, su modesta grandeza». Tomás Eloy Martínez «Brillante parábola en clave sobre el amor y la identidad personal, Dormir al sol, es uno de los libros fundamentales de la literatura argentina». Claudia Piñeiro «Diario de la guerra del cerdo es la más política de las novelas de Bioy, y también la más alegórica». Matilde Sánchez «El envidiable rigor sin énfasis de un elegante maestro distraído». Juan Sasturián «Bioy es un genio, que entendió que la buena literatura puede ser, al mismo tiempo, un gesto de inteligencia, de elegancia y de buen humor». Eduardo Sacheri «Escueta y brillante». Rafael Narbona, Revista de Libros «Una grandísima historia, una idea genial. [...] Pocas cosas nos ofrecen y regalan de una forma tan fácil abrir un objeto en casa y entrar en la mente genial de alguien que parece, como los habitantes de la isla, que no está pero sí. Bioy Casares, Borges, tantos otros, siempre están. Y estarán. Como pasa con La invención de Morel». Víctor González, Libros y Literatura"

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Author), Andrés Neuman (Narrator)

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The Alexander Pushkin BBC Radio Collection: Including Eugene Onegin, Boris Godunov & The Queen of Sp

"Dramatisations and readings of Pushkin's most famous works - plus biographical programmes and an original play based on his life One of Russia's most iconic poets, Alexander Pushkin is often described as the 'father of Russian literature'. A gambler, playboy and social reformer, he was exiled by the Tsar for his controversial poetry and died aged 37 in a duel defending his wife's honour. This BBC Radio anthology opens with full-cast dramatisations of his two masterpieces, Eugene Onegin and The Bronze Horseman, both set against the backdrop of his turbulent life. The former, set the night before the fateful duel, sees Pushkin (Geoffrey Streitfeild) telling his wife the story of St Petersburg socialite Onegin, his best friend, and the woman who loves him. In the latter, starring Max Irons, Pushkin's epic poem symbolising the battle between Tsar and citizen is interspersed with scenes depicting his own parallel struggles with state power. The inspiration for Rachmaninov's opera Aleko, The Gypsies is a powerful exploration in narrative verse of the conflict between freedom and love. Zemfira brings Aleko, a man running from the law, home to meet her father, but life in a gypsy camp is more challenging than he imagined. Read by Ralph Fiennes, Alex Jennings and Gabrielle Glaister. Set during the 'Time of Troubles' in the early 1600s, Pushkin's only full-length play, Boris Godunov, is a historical drama about the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who was Tsar from 1598 to 1605. It features a stellar cast including Alan Howard, Bill Nighy and Jane Lapotaire. His 'little tragedy', Mozart and Salieri, tells of the rivalry between Mozart and Antonio Salieri, who was rumoured to have been behind Mozart's early death. Starring Paul Scofield as Salieri and Simon Callow as Mozart. Also included are four superb short stories - 'The Snowstorm', starring Janet Maw and Michael Maloney, 'The Squire's Daughter', read by Hattie Morahan, 'The Queen of Spades', featuring Moira Lister, Greg Wise and Amanda Root, and 'The Golden Cockerel', read by Alec McCowen. Finally, two bonus features chart Pushkin's extraordinary life and legacy. Soul of Fire: Alexander Pushkin 1799-1837 comprises three hours of music, drama and biography, as presenter Gerard McBurney visits the places that were formative influences on Pushkin, and introduces dramatised excerpts from his work and operatic adaptations by Tchaikovsky, Glinka and Mussorgsky. And in the original drama Cloudberries, starring Linus Roache as Pushkin, poet Elaine Feinstein tells the story of the great Russian author, from his unhappy childhood to his untimely death. Contents Eugene Onegin The Bronze Horseman The Gypsies Boris Godunov Mozart and Salieri 'The Snowstorm' 'The Squire's Daughter' 'The Queen of Spades' 'The Golden Cockerel' Soul of Fire: Alexander Pushkin 1799-1837 Cloudberries First published 1824 (The Gypsies), 1825 (Boris Godunov), 1830 (Mozart and Salieri), 1831 ('The Snowstorm', 'The Squire's Daughter'), 1833 (Eugene Onegin, The Bronze Horseman), 1834 ('The Queen of Spades', 'The Golden Cockerel') © 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd"

Alexander Pushkin (Author), Alan Howard, Alex Jennings, Alison Pettitt, Bill Nighy, Full Cast, Geoffrey Streatfeild, Greg Wise, Hattie Morahan, Linus Roache, Max Irons, Moira Lister, Paul Scofield, Ralph Fiennes, Simon Callow (Narrator)

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The Nature Book

"Part sweeping evocation of Earth's rhythms, part literary archive, part post-human novel, The Nature Book collages descriptions of the natural world into a singular symphonic paean to the planet. What does our nature writing say about us, and more urgently, what would it say without us? Tom Comitta investigates these questions and more in The Nature Book, a 'literary supercut' that arranges writing about the natural world from three hundred works of fiction into a provocative re-envisioning of the novel. With fiction's traditional background of flora and fauna brought to the fore, people and their structures disappear, giving center stage to animals, landforms, and weather patterns—honored in their own right rather than for their ambient role in human drama. The Nature Book challenges the confines of anthropocentrism with sublime artistic vision, traversing mountains, forests, oceans, and space to shift our attention toward the magnificently complex and interconnected world around us."

Tom Comitta (Author), Josh Bloomberg (Narrator)

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[Spanish] - El sueño de los héroes

"La gran novela de Adolfo Bioy Casares sobre una aventura cotidiana que poco a poco va cobrando tintes fantásticos. Ambientada en los años treinta en una Buenos Aires fantasmal, El sueño de los héroes parte de la juerga que se dan Emilio Gauna y sus amigos durante tres noches de carnaval por los suburbios de la ciudad. Nada debería ser más mundano, pero al recordarla Gauna se convence de que en la última noche vivió «una prodigiosa aventura». Cuando intente repetirla tres años más tarde, el sueño de una revelación se convertirá en un enfrentamiento con su destino. Desde su publicación en 1954, este clásico de la literatura argentina no ha dejado de fascinar a los lectores con su intrigante mezcla de lo fantástico y lo cotidiano. La crítica ha dicho: «La mejor novela de Adolfo Bioy Casares». Juan Sasturain, Página 12"

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Author), Andrés Neuman (Narrator)

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A Life in Bloom

"High school teacher Kristin Caine has a black belt in settling for less and a dying mother who doesn't mince words when it comes to voicing how disappointed this makes her. But when Kristin's status quo is rocked by an unexpected pregnancy and the consequent breakup with her less-than-enthusiastic boyfriend, things change. Suddenly, agreeing to help her overbearing mother complete a bucket list before the big C wins seems not the worst thing in the world—despite their many differences and Kristin's fear of traveling. But Kristin's sense of self-preservation is strong, and if not for the compassion of Lily Landon, a friendly airport stranger with a tissue to spare, the first leg of the trip might have been over before it even began. Lily is like no one Kristin has ever met—a globe-trotting photographer full of joie de vivre who is on a first-name basis with the flight crew—and in her presence, the impossible suddenly seems . . . possible. As a journey of physical and emotional adventures, belated mother-daughter bonding, and unexpected romantic feelings for Lily ensues, Kristin must challenge preconceived notions of motherhood, love, and what it means to live life fully, one bucket-list checkmark at a time. Only if she succeeds will she be able to create a new future free of self-imposed limits, for herself and her unborn child."

Anna E. Collins (Author), Lindsey Dorcus (Narrator)

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An Astronomer in Love

"Part swashbuckling adventure on the high seas and part modern-day love story set in the heart of Paris, An Astronomer in Love is an enchanting tale of adventure, destiny, and the power of love from bestselling author Antoine Laurain. In 1760, Guillaume le Gentil, real-life astronomer to King Louis XV, sets out for the oceans of India to document the transit of Venus. The weather is turbulent, the seas are rough and his quest may be more complicated than initially thought. 250 years later, estate agent Xavier Lemercier chances upon Guillaume's telescope in a property he's sold. As he looks out across the rooftops of Paris, he discovers an intriguing woman with a zebra in her apartment. Then the woman walks through the doors of his office, and his life changes forever . . ."

Antoine Laurain (Author), Dan Calley (Narrator)

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Bodies of Light

"A masterwork of tragedy and heartbreak from the two-time Sydney Morning Herald Young Novelist of the Year. A quiet, small-town existence. An unexpected Facebook message, jolting her back to the past. A history she’s reluctant to revisit: dark memories and unspoken trauma, warning knocks on bedroom walls, unfathomable loss. She became a new person a long time ago. What happens when buried stories are dragged into the light? ’Brutal and beautiful—I couldn’t stop reading it. Jennifer Down is a brilliant writer.’ Victoria Hannan ‘Jennifer Down is going to be a major part of the future of Australian literature.’ Readings Monthly"

Jennifer Down (Author), Casey Withoos (Narrator)

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