Literary Fiction Audiobooks | Literature

"An Observer Best Debut of the Year A Granta Best Young British Novelist ‘I loved this book’ JULIA ARMFIELD ‘Exhilarating’ MONICA HEISEY 'Astonishing' ANDREA LAWLOR 'Should be on everyone's summer reading list' iNEWS 'Scorching … One of our favourite reads' TIME OUT A Guardian Essential Summer Read A sensual debut novel of the forbidden love between a young woman and a headmaster’s wife, unfolding across a single heatwave summer. In an elite English boarding school where the girls kiss the marble statue of the famous dead author who used to walk the halls, a young Australian woman arrives to take up the antiquated role of ‘matron’. There she meets Mrs S, the headmaster’s wife, a woman who is her polar opposite: assured, sophisticated, a paragon of femininity. Over the course of a long, restless heatwave, the matron finds herself irresistibly drawn ever closer into the older woman’s world with their unspoken desire blooming into an illicit affair of electric intensity. But, as the summer begins to fade, both know that a choice must finally be made. ‘Desire crackles through these pages like fire’ TELEGRAPH ‘Wildly sexy … I kept forgetting to exhale’ CHARLOTTE MENDELSON ‘There’s nothing else like it out there’ THE TIMES 'Compulsively readable … beautiful, brilliant' OBSERVER ‘Moody, generous and brilliant’ JESSIE BURTON 'Rare and thrilling' SARAH WINMAN"

K Patrick (Author), Nicolette Chin (Narrator)

Audiobook

Locks

"'1993 was the year that Stephen Lawrence got murdered by racists, and I became an angry Black lad with a "chip on his shoulder"' Aeon, a mixed-up and mixed-race teenager from a leafy Liverpool suburb, is desperate to understand the Black identity thrust upon him. He grows dreadlocks and immerses himself in 'gangsta' rap. But Aeon's journey of self-discovery is hampered by the fact that the only Black people in his life are his dad and his cousin, Increase. Aeon's ambition to find his place in the world takes him to Jamaica. Here, Aeon soon finds that smoking loads of weed, growing messy locks and wearing massive red boots don't necessarily help him to fit in. Within days of his arrival he is mugged, arrested and banged up in a Jamaican detention centre. Seen as the 'White boy', he finds that his journey of self-discovery has only just begun - and he's going to have to fight for the respect and recognition he deserves . . . A coming-of-age comedy of errors, Locks is an electric debut novel about growing up, wising up, and finding your place in a world of opposites. 'Blends humour and introspection, poetry and the poignant' - Derek Owusu, author of the Desmond Elliott Prize-winning That Reminds Me 'Irreverent, authentic and utterly enthralling. A wonderful book' - Jimmy McGovern, creator of the drama series Cracker 'Twisty, energetic, voice-led . . . Nugent is pure talent' - Raymond Antrobus, author of the Rathbones Folio Prize-winning The Perseverance 'Thought provoking and funny' - David Beckler, author of A Long Shadow"

Ashleigh Nugent (Author), Ashleigh Nugent (Narrator)

Audiobook

Mr Kato Plays Family: A Novel

"'Tokyo-born-and-raised multilingual Nishii makes an ideal cipher for the recently retired Mr Katō...'- Booklist Milena Michiko Flašar's Mr Katō Plays Family is an eccentric second-lease-on-life novel for fans of A Man Called Ove and Beautiful World, Where Are You. Mr Katō—a curmudgeon and recent retiree—finds his only solace during his daily walks, where he wonders how his life went wrong and daydreams about getting a dog (which his wife won’t allow). During one of these walks, he is approached by a young woman. She calls herself Mie, and invites him to join her business Happy Family, where employees act as part-time relatives or acquaintances for clients in need, for whatever reason, if only for a day. At first reluctant, but then intrigued, he takes the job without telling his wife or adult children. Through the many roles he takes on, Mr Katō rediscovers the excitement and spontaneity of life, and re-examines his role in his own family. Using lessons learned with his “play families,” he strives to reconnect with his loved ones, to become the father and husband they deserve, and to live the life he’s always wanted. A Macmillan Audio production from Forge Books."

Milena Michiko Flašar (Author), Brian Nishii (Narrator)

Audiobook

Sally Brady's Italian Adventure: A Novel

"'Elise Roth makes the transitions smoothly as this novel moves between Sally Brady's life in Depression-era America and the lives of a group of Italians before and during WWII.' - AudioFile “Richly evocative of the charms and contradictions of Italy. Brava!”—Chris Pavone, New York Times bestselling author What if you found yourself in the middle of a war armed only with lipstick and a sense of humor? Abandoned as a child in Los Angeles in 1931, dust bowl refugee Sally Brady convinces a Hollywood movie star to adopt her, and grows up to be an effervescent gossip columnist secretly satirizing Europe’s upper crust. By 1940 saucy Sally is conquering Fascist-era Rome with cheek and charm. A good deed leaves Sally stranded in wartime Italy, brandishing a biting wit, a fake passport, and an elastic sense of right and wrong. To save her friends and find her way home through a land of besieged castles and villas, Sally must combat tragedy with comedy, tie up pompous bureaucrats in their own red tape, force the cruel to be kind, and unravel the mystery, weight, and meaning of family. Heir to Odysseus’s wiles and Candide’s optimism, Sally Brady is a heroine for the 21st century. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press."

Christina Lynch (Author), Elise Roth (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Bee Sting

"Brought to you by Penguin. WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2023 WINNER OF AN POST IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE WRITERS’ PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024 The Barnes family are in trouble. Until recently they ran the biggest business in town, now they’re teetering on the brink of bankruptcy – and that’s just the start of their problems. Dickie and Imelda’s marriage is hanging by a thread; straight-A student Cass is careening off the rails; PJ is hopelessly in debt to the school bully. Meanwhile the ghosts of old mistakes are rising out of the past to meet them, but everyone’s too wrapped up in the present to see the danger looming . . . 'A tragicomic triumph. You won't read a sadder, truer, funnier novel this year' Guardian 'Generous, immersive, sharp-witted and devastating; the sort of novel that becomes a friend for life' Financial Times ‘Paul Murray [is] the undisputed reigning champion of epic Irish tragicomedy’ Spectator ‘An instant classic’ Washington Post ‘[An] astute, remorselessly funny novel’ Daily Mirror ‘A wagyu steak of a novel . . . A classic in the mode of The Corrections’ The Times ©2023 Paul Murray (P)2023 Penguin Audio"

Paul Murray (Author), Barry Fitzgerald, Beau Holland, Ciaran O'brien, Heather O’sullivan, Lisa Caruccio Came (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Unbroken Beauty of Rosalind Bone

"Brought to you by Penguin. 'Beautiful, incredibly painterly and full of breathtaking details. A devastating portrait of a particular place, which draws you in with its brutality and beauty' CARYL LEWIS, author of DRIFT Tucked into the Welsh valleys and encircled by silver birch and pine, the village of Cwmcysgod may appear a quiet, sleepy sort of place. But beneath the surface, tensions simmer, hearts ache, and painful truths threaten to emerge. Sixteen-year-old Catrin Bone knows only what she has been told. Now, she is beginning to question her small world, and a version of the past that seems to entrap and embitter her reclusive mother, Mary. Mary had a sister once, a girl of unparalleled beauty. Why did she disappear from the village in a shroud of shame all those years ago - and where is she now? Meanwhile the Clements brothers, skint and all out of hope, run rampant across the hills and lanes. And old Dai Bevel, whose frailty masks a dark history, dreams of a girl he used to know... The sins of the past are approaching, for it takes a village: to raise a child, to bring down a woman, to hide something monstrous and to look the other way. In this tender, sly, exquisitely wrought novella, a unique cast of characters give voice to their versions of the truth. But it is the story of Rosalind Bone, of her strength and of all that she has endured, that rises above the rest, shimmering with hope and possibility... ©2023 Alex McCarthy (P)2023 Penguin Audio"

Alex Mccarthy (Author), Rachel Isaac (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Late Americans

"Brought to you by Penguin. Seamus, Fyodor, Ivan, Noah and Fatima are running out of time to decide on their futures, in the new novel from the Booker-shortlisted author of Real Life. In a university town, a circle of lovers and friends navigate tangled webs of connection while they try to work out what they want, and who they are. As they test their own desires in a series of relationships, these young men and women ask themselves and each other: what is the right thing to stake a life on? Work, love, money, dance, poetry? And what does true connection look like, in an age of precarity? ‘Funny, merciless, brilliant . . . I loved it’ CURTIS SITTENFELD ‘A constellation of characters shines in [this] campus-set tale of aspiring artists’ Financial Times ‘Intimate, hilarious, poignant . . . A gorgeously written novel of youth’s promise’ Oprah Daily ‘Elegant and razor-sharp’ EMMA CLINE ©2023 Brandon Taylor (P)2023 Penguin Audio"

Brandon Taylor (Author), Kevin R. Free (Narrator)

Audiobook

Reproduction

"'Compelling, elegant and bitingly smart, Reproduction left me reeling. It is playful and serious, witty and searing, inventive and heart-rending. I utterly loved it.' Nell Stevens, author of Briefly, A Delicious Life 'I read this novel in a single rapturous sitting, torn between the desire to hurtle through its hypnotic prose and the desire to reread every perfect sentence. Reproduction exquisitely captures the lunacy of inhabiting an animal body with a human mind, and somehow manages also to be gross, funny, heartrending, and formally acrobatic. Louisa Hall is a singular talent and I am a devotee.' Melissa Febos, author of Body Work and Girlhood 'A brave and dynamic novel about the creation of life and art - narratively free, compulsively readable, and true to life.' Tao Lin, author of Leave Society and Taipei 'What a brilliant novel! I was moved, troubled, enchanted; hardly able to breathe as I read. Hall's dazzling and original tale has the force of myth, embodying the monstrous challenges of reproducing in our strange new world.' Andrea Barrett, author of Ship Fever and Natural History For readers of Rachel Cusk, Jenny Offill, and Doireann Ní Ghríofa, a deeply intimate novel about pregnancy, birth, and artistic creation, by the Dylan Thomas Prize-shortlisted author of Trinity and Speak. A woman begins work on a novel about Mary Shelley while pregnant for the first time. Recently married, she has just moved from New York to Montana. As the woman writes, fragments of Shelley's story begin to detach themselves from the page. Moving through her reproductive years, Shelley endured a catalogue of losses painful beyond comprehension. Still, she wrote, conceiving Frankenstein in 1818. The woman's experiences of pregnancy, miscarriage and labour are traumatic and disorienting, especially in the context of political upheaval, climate crisis, and an ongoing pandemic. Finally, she gives birth to a daughter and together they emerge into another world. Then a friend from the past reappears. Anna is a biochemist who has been struggling to become a parent, a scientist who sees everything as an experiment. How far will she go in her desire to bring a baby into being? A Frankenstein for the twenty-first century, Reproduction is a story of intense grief and transformative joy, and a powerful depiction of the emotional and physical costs of creating new life. 'Louisa Hall is a writer to be admired.' Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds 'Crystalline, utterly persuasive and transfixing.' New York Times on Speak 'Hypnotic . . . Hall has a knack for the precise, underwritten image.' Guardian on Speak"

Louisa Hall (Author), Stacey Glemboski (Narrator)

Audiobook

Four Seasons in Japan

"Brought to you by Penguin Flo is sick of Tokyo. Suffering from a crisis in confidence, she is stuck in a rut, her translation work has dried up and she's in a relationship that's run its course. That's until she stumbles upon a mysterious book left by a fellow passenger on the Tokyo Subway. From the very first page, Flo is transformed and immediately feels compelled to translate this forgotten novel, a decision which sets her on a path that will change her life... It is a story about Ayako, a fierce and strict old woman who runs a coffee shop in the small town of Onomichi, where she has just taken guardianship of her grandson, Kyo. Haunted by long-buried family tragedy, both have suffered extreme loss and feel unable to open up to each other. As Flo follows the characters across a year in rural Japan, through the ups and downs of the pair's burgeoning relationship, she quickly realises that she needs to venture outside the pages of the book to track down its elusive author. And, as her two protagonists reveal themselves to have more in common with her life than first meets the eye, the lines between text and translator converge. The journey is just beginning. From the author of The Cat and the City, Four Seasons in Japan is a gorgeously crafted book-within-a-book about literature, purpose and what it is to belong. ©2023 Nick Bradley (P)2023 Penguin Audio"

Nick Bradley (Author), Hanako Footman (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Spectacular: A Novel

"From the New York Times Bestselling Author of The Magnolia Palace: A thrilling story about love, sacrifice, and the pursuit of dreams, set amidst the glamour and glitz of Radio City Music Hall in its mid-century heyday. New York City, 1956: Nineteen-year-old Marion Brooks knows she should be happy. Her high school sweetheart is about to propose and sweep her off to the life everyone has always expected they'd have together: a quiet house in the suburbs, Marion staying home to raise their future children. But instead, Marion finds herself feeling trapped. So when she comes across an opportunity to audition for the famous Radio City Rockettes-the glamorous precision-dancing troupe-she jumps at the chance to exchange her predictable future for the dazzling life of a performer. Meanwhile, the city is reeling from a string of bombings orchestrated by a person the press has nicknamed the "Big Apple Bomber," who has been terrorizing the citizens of New York for sixteen years by planting bombs in popular, crowded spaces. With the public in an uproar over the lack of any real leads after a yearslong manhunt, the police turn in desperation to Peter Griggs, a young doctor at a local mental hospital who espouses a radical new technique: psychological profiling. As both Marion and Peter find themselves unexpectedly pulled in to the police search for the bomber, Marion realizes that as much as she's been training herself to blend in-performing in perfect unison with all the other identical Rockettes-if she hopes to catch the bomber, she'll need to stand out and take a terrifying risk. In doing so, she may be forced to sacrifice everything she's worked for, as well as the people she loves the most."

Fiona Davis (Author), Kimberly Farr, Rachel L. Jacobs (Narrator)

Audiobook

Countries of Origin: A Novel

"This stunning debut chronicles a tumultuous, passionate love affair between two young men from vastly different worlds during one, extraordinary summer in Spain, in what is ultimately a meditation on identity, class, belonging and desire. "Full of so many pleasures-literary, culinary, amorous… Fuentes has created something beautiful, honest, heartbreaking and hopeful." -Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Less Is Lost It is 2007, and twenty-four-year-old Demetrio is a celebrated pastry chef in New York at the French restaurant Le Bourrelet. This will be his seventh year as the pâtissier and the chef-owner, stern but paternal, feels he should move on. When Demetrio is offered a position as head of pastries at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York, he wants nothing more than to accept it. But as an undocumented immigrant he is terrified that he will be found out, so Demetrio makes the difficult decision to return permanently to his homeland which he has not seen since he was a small child. It will mean leaving the only family he knows-his beloved uncle Chus who has brought him up. On his flight to Madrid, Demetrio sits next to the handsome, playful, and sensitive Jacobo, a student at NYU going home to his aristocratic, fascist family and there is an instant, unacknowledged electricity between them. In dimly lit bars in Madrid and on pebbled beaches by the sea far outside the city, Demetrio and Jacobo's subtle but intense relationship unfolds. Demetrio is tortured by a fear of true intimacy and by anxiety about their class difference. Both are struggling with their identities and sexuality, and they avoid their true feelings until a family tragedy sets them on a collision course back into one another's lives. Countries of Origin is powerfully sensual and moving. Javier Fuentes takes you on a journey that will immerse you in the intense and heartbreaking emotions and conflicts of love and loss. Cover photograph: Boy on a Raft by Peter Hujar © 2022 The Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York"

Javier Fuentes (Author), Timothy Andrés Pabon (Narrator)

Audiobook

Bellies

"Brought to you by Penguin. It begins as your typical boy meets boy. While out with friends at a university drag night, Tom buys Ming a drink. Confident and witty, a charming young playwright, Ming is the perfect antidote to Tom's awkward energy, and their connection is instant. Tom finds himself deeply and desperately drawn into Ming's orbit, and on the cusp of graduation, he's already mapped out their future together. But, shortly after they move to London to start their next chapter, Ming announces her intention to transition. From London to Kuala Lumpur, New York to Cologne, we follow Tom and Ming as they face shifts in their relationship in the wake of Ming's transition. Through a spiral of unforeseen crises - some personal, some professional, some life-altering - Tom and Ming are forced to confront the vastly different shapes their lives have taken since graduating, and each must answer the essential question: is it worth losing a part of yourself to become who you are? 'Smart, hilarious and deeply moving' Elliot Page, author of Pageboy 'Bellies announces Nicola Dinan as a genuine literary talent, a gimlet-eyed cartographer of the human heart' Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti 'Thoughtful, seductive, and entirely engrossing - Bellies is already a classic' Bryan Washington, author of Memorial and Lot ©2023 Nicola Dinan (P)2023 Penguin Audio"

Nicola Dinan (Author), Nathaniel Curtis, Octavia Nyombi (Narrator)

Audiobook

Literary Fiction Audiobooks in Literature