Literary Fiction Audiobooks | Literature

Cursed Bread: Longlisted for the Women’s Prize

"Brought to you by Penguin. From the Booker-nominated author of The Water Cure and Blue Ticket comes a chilling new feminist fable, based on the true story of an unsolved historical mystery... If you eat the bread, you'll die, he said. The statement made no sense, but it filled me with an electric dread. Elodie is the baker's wife. A plain, unremarkable person, largely ignored by her husband and everyone else, she burns with the secret hunger to be extraordinary, to be desired, to be seen. One day a charismatic new couple appear in town - the ambassador and his sharp-toothed wife, Violet - and Elodie quickly falls under their spell. All summer long she stalks them through the shining streets: inviting herself into their home, trying to decipher their coded conversations, longing to possess them at any cost. Meanwhile, beneath the tranquil surface of daily life, strange things are happening. Six horses are found dead in a sun-drenched field, laid out neatly on the ground like an offering. Widows see their lost husbands walking up the river in the night, coming back to claim them. A teenage boy throws himself into the bonfire at the midsummer feast. A dark intoxication is spreading through the town, and when Elodie finally understands her role in it, it will be too late to stop. Audacious and mesmerising, Cursed Bread is a fevered confession, an entry into memory's hall of mirrors, a fable of obsession and transformation. Sophie Mackintosh spins a darkly gleaming tale of a town gripped by hysteria, envy like poison in the blood, and desire that burns and consumes. Praise for Sophie Mackintosh: 'Be sure to read everything Sophie Mackintosh writes' Deborah Levy on Blue Ticket 'An extraordinary debut - otherworldly, luminous, precise' Guardian on The Water Cure 'Dreamlike, tense, compelling, with a pitch-perfect ending' The New York Times on Blue Ticket 'An unsettling dark fantasy... It lingers long after the final page' Daily Telegraph on The Water Cure 'Blue Ticket will worm its way under your skin and haunt your dreams' Red ©2023 Sophie Mackintosh (P)2023 Penguin Audio"

Sophie Mackintosh (Author), Genevieve Gaunt (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Secrets of Hartwood Hall: The mysterious and atmospheric gothic novel for fans of Stacey Hall

"Brought to you by Penguin. It's 1852 and Margaret Lennox, a young widow, is offered a position as governess at Hartwood Hall. She quickly accepts, hoping this isolated country house will allow her to leave her past behind. Cut off from the village, Margaret soon starts to feel there's something odd about her new home, despite her growing fondness for her bright, affectionate pupil, Louis. There are strange figures in the dark, tensions between servants and an abandoned east wing. Even stranger is the local gossip surrounding Mrs Eversham, Louis's widowed mother, who is deeply distrusted in the village. Margaret finds distraction in a forbidden relationship with the gardener, Paul. But despite his efforts to reassure her, Margaret is certain that everyone here has something hide. And as Margaret's own past threatens to catch up with her, she must learn to trust her instincts before it's too late... The Secrets of Hartwood Hall is a chilling gothic mystery, and an authentic and atmospheric love letter to Victorian fiction. 'I loved this fresh take on the gothic genre. Vivid, haunting, surprising' STACEY HALLS, author of Sunday Times bestsellers The Familiars, The Foundling and Mrs England 'A full-blooded gothic mystery with bite, great characterisation and heaps of atmosphere' EMMA STONEX, author of Sunday Times bestseller The Lamplighters ©2023 Katie Lumsden (P)2023 Penguin Audio"

Katie Lumsden (Author), Olivia Vinall (Narrator)

Audiobook

Old Babes in the Wood

"Brought to you by Penguin. A dazzling collection of fifteen stories from Margaret Atwood, the internationally acclaimed, award-winning author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments Margaret Atwood is celebrated as one of the most gifted storytellers in the world. These stories explore the full warp and weft of experience, from two best friends disagreeing about their shared past, to the right way to stop someone from choking; from a daughter determining if her mother really is a witch, to what to do with inherited relics such as World War II parade swords. They feature beloved cats, a confused snail, Martha Gellhorn, George Orwell, philosopher-astronomer-mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria, a cabal of elderly female academics, and an alien tasked with retelling human fairy tales. At the heart of the collection is a stunning sequence that follows a married couple as they travel the road together, the moments big and small that make up a long life of love -- and what comes after. The glorious range of Atwood's creativity and humanity is on full beam in these tales, which by turns delight, illuminate and quietly devastate. ©2023 Margaret Atwood (P)2023 Penguin Audio"

Margaret Atwood (Author), Allan Corduner, Bahni Turpin, Dan Stevens, Dawn Harvey, Kimberly Farr, Linda Lavin, Margaret Atwood, Rebecca Lowman (Narrator)

Audiobook

Künstlers in Paradise

"There was a time when the family Künstler lived in the fairy-tale city of Vienna. Circumstances transformed that fairy tale into a nightmare, and in 1939 the Künstlers found their way out of Vienna and into a new fairy tale: Los Angeles, California, United States of America. For years Mamie Künstler, ninety-three-years-old, as clever and glamorous as ever, has lived happily in her bungalow in Venice, California with her inscrutable housekeeper and her gigantic St. Bernard dog. Their tranquility is upended when Mamie’s grandson, Julian, arrives from New York City. Like many a twenty-something, he has come to seek his fortune in Hollywood. But it is 2020, the global pandemic sweeps in, and Julian’s short visit suddenly has no end in sight. Mamie was only eleven when the Künstlers escaped Vienna in 1939. They made their way, stunned and overwhelmed, to sunny, surreal Los Angeles where they joined a colony of distinguished Jewish musicians, writers and intellectuals also escaping Hitler. Now, faced with months of lockdown and a willing listener, Mamie begins to tell Julian the buried stories of her early years in Los Angeles: her escapades with eminent émigrés like Arnold Schoenberg, Christopher Isherwood, Thomas Mann. Oh, and Greta Garbo. While the pandemic cuts Julian off from the life he knows, Mamie’s tales open up a world of lives that came before him. They reveal to him just how much the past holds of the future. Cathleen Schine’s captivating and comedic twelfth novel explores exile, émigrés, movie stars, musicians, family bonds and the power of stories—both those we hand down and the ones held secretly in the heart. A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt & Company."

Cathleen Schine (Author), Jesse Vilinsky (Narrator)

Audiobook

[Spanish] - El hombre que paseaba con libros

"A pesar de tener setenta y un años, todas las tardes después del trabajo, el librero Carl Kollhoff entrega personalmente los libros que le han encargado los clientes más especiales. Así, cada día da un agradable paseo por las pintorescas calles de la ciudad, ve cómo transcurre la vida fuera de la librería y visita a los lectores voraces que se han convertido en amigos para él. Incluso los compara con personajes de grandes clásicos de la literatura y les ha asignado un apodo muy novelesco. Por ejemplo, un cliente mayor que vive solo en una gran mansión es mister Darcy, y otro que solo lee ensayos históricos, el doctor Fausto. Cuando pierde su trabajo de forma inesperada, será necesario el poder de los libros y el de una niña de nueve años para que todos, incluido el propio Carl, encuentren el coraje para superar sus problemas y acercarse unos a otros."

Carsten Henn (Author), Javier Quero (Narrator)

Audiobook

[Spanish] - La diva. María Callas, la voz de la pasión

"Venecia, 1957. A los treinta y cuatro años, Maria Callas ha llegado a la cúspide de su carrera como soprano, pero la perfección artística que representa en el escenario está empezando a pasarle factura. Llega exhausta a la mansión de su amiga Elsa Maxwell, donde conoce al magnate griego Aristóteles Onassis en una fiesta. Contra todo pronóstico, se enamoran e inician un romance apasionado y tormentoso que durará diez años. Una novela mágica sobre la gran cantante, una artista extraordinaria con todas sus contradicciones."

Michelle Marly (Author), Rocío García Vega (Narrator)

Audiobook

[Spanish] - Oficio de tinieblas 5 (Monólogos 3)

"Una brillante novela sobre la literatura y una inusitada confesión personal. Publicado en 1973, Oficio de tinieblas 5 fue definida por el propio Camilo José Cela como «la purga de mi corazón». En sus páginas, el gran autor gallego reflexiona sin ambages sobre el aventurado acto de escribir, una tarea llena de oscuridad en la que entran en juego ideas sobre el sexo y la muerte, la soledad del individuo y la posibilidad de conectar con un mundo oculto e insospechado. Lúcida, poética y cruel, esta novela veteada de lo que hoy llamaríamos autoficción explora los límites de la literatura, en un admirable movimiento rupturista que la propulsó hacia el futuro de la narrativa contemporánea."

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

Audiobook

Wild Geese: the LAMBDA and GORDON BOWKER VOLCANO PRIZE winner

"WINNER OF THE GORDON BOWKER VOLCANO PRIZE (SoA Award) 2024 WINNER OF THE LAMBDA AWARD IN TRANSGENDER FICTION 2024 Soula is the most exciting new voice in Irish writing' Barry Pierce, i-D 'One of my favourite books so far this year' Shahed Ezaydi, Stylist 'Soula Emmanuel is a phenomenal talent' Laura Kay 'Searingly sharp, deliciously funny, profound' Danielle McLaughlin New home, new name and newly thirty: Phoebe Forde has stepped into emigrant life in Copenhagen with her anxious dog, Dolly. Almost three years into her gender transition, she has learned to move through the world carefully, savouring small moments of joy. A woman without a past can be anyone she wants - that is, until an unexpected visit from Grace, her first love, brings memories of Dublin and a life she thought she'd left behind. Over the course of a single weekend, as their old romance kindles something sweet and radically unfamiliar, Grace helps Phoebe to navigate the jagged edges of migration, nostalgia and hope. 'The must-read trans book of the summer' Pink News"

Soula Emmanuel (Author), Clara Harte (Narrator)

Audiobook

Hello Beautiful

"Brought to you by Penguin. From the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Edward comes a beautifully tender, heartbreaking, and moving story of four sisters over three decades Meet the Padvano girls. Best friends and sisters, they are thought of as inseparable by everyone in their close-knit Chicago neighbourhood. Julia, the eldest, is the 'rocket' of the family - she always has a destination in mind and clear plans for how to get there. Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a life for herself other than the expected path of wife and mother. Cecelia and Emmeline, the twins, are the artist and the caregiver. From childhood, the four sisters complete each other, expecting that their family will always be intact. When Julia falls in love with William Walters, a history student and college sports star, she's delighted by the way her plans for adulthood are coming together. A husband, a house, a family. But when darkness from William's past begins to block the light of his future, it is Sylvie, not Julia, who steps in to help. Suddenly, things shift. Dynamics and relationships, priorities and secrets - everything that was once a given no longer is. Rich and vivid, heartbreaking and heart-mending, Hello Beautiful captures the joy, tragedy, trust, and betrayal to ask: what does it mean to be a family? And once shattered, can it be pieced back together? ***Praise for Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano*** 'Wonderful . . . a beautifully written coming-of-age story' Nina Stibbe 'Powerful' New York Times 'Ann Napolitano's writing is astonishing. I'm in awe' Marian Keyes 'Moving and emotional' Anne Tyler 'That rare book that breaks your heart and stitches it back together' Jodi Picoult 'Stunning, life-affirming' Vogue 'Made me think, nod in recognition, care about its characters, and cry, and you can't ask more of a novel than that' Emma Donoghue ©2023 Ann Napolitano (P)2023 Penguin Audio"

Ann Napolitano (Author), Maura Tierney (Narrator)

Audiobook

Long Live the Post Horn!

"Winner of the 2020 Believer Book Award for Fiction 'A brilliant study of the mundane, full of unexpected detours and driving prose. Hjorth's novel ingeniously orbits the intimate stories that are possible only when a character has put words on paper and sent them through the post.' —New York Times Book Review, 'The Best Post Office Novel You Will Read Before the Election' From the author of the 2019 National Book Award Longlisted Will and Testament Ellinor, a thirty-five-year-old media consultant, has not been feeling herself; she's not been feeling much at all lately. Far beyond jaded, she picks through an old diary and fails to recognize the woman in its pages, seemingly as far away from the world around her as she's ever been. But when her coworker vanishes overnight, an unusual new task is dropped on her desk. Off she goes to meet the Norwegian Postal Workers Union, setting the ball rolling on a strange and transformative six months. This is an existential scream of a novel about loneliness (and the postal service!), written in Vigdis Hjorth's trademark spare, rhythmic and cutting style."

Vigdis Hjorth (Author), Aven Shore (Narrator)

Audiobook

Fishing!: A Novel

"A hilarious saga of fishing, family, and three generations of tough, independent women—the first in a trilogy Having fled the testosterone-soaked world of professional sport fishing, thirty-something RayAnne Dahl is navigating a new job as a consultant for the first all-women talk show about fishing on public television (or, as one viewer's husband puts it, 'Oprah in a boat'). After the host bails, RayAnne lands in front of the camera and out of her depth at the helm of the show. Is she up for the challenge? Meanwhile, her family proves as high-maintenance as her fixer-upper house and her clingy rescue dog. Her dad, star of the one-season Big Rick's Bass Bonanza, is on his sixth wife and falling off the wagon and into RayAnne's career path; her mother, a new-age aging coach for the menopausal rich, provides endless unwanted advice; and her beloved grandmother Dot—whose advice RayAnne needs—is far away and far from well. But as RayAnne says, 'I'm a woman, I fish. Deal with it.' And just when things seem to be coming together—the show is an unlikely hit; she receives the admiration of a handsome sponsor (out of bounds as he is, but definitely in the wings); ungainly house and dog are finally in hand—RayAnne's world suddenly threatens to capsize, and she's faced with a gut-wrenching situation and a heartbreaking decision."

Sarah Stonich (Author), Kimberly M. Wetherell (Narrator)

Audiobook

Reeling: A Novel

"What stage of grief is it when your grandmother's ghost keeps popping up on your electronic devices? Denial? For RayAnne that seems to be the stage for launching the second season of Fishing!—in New Zealand. Ready or not, she is taking public television's first all-women fishing talk show on the road, putting the cold Minnesota winter in the rearview mirror—which, it turns out, Gran is haunting, too. RayAnne and her indefatigable producer Cassi set out across New Zealand in search of noteworthy women who fish, including a skipjack boat captain navigating sexist harbors;a writer of historical suffragette fiction (which is, apparently, a thing); and a reclusive Maori octogenarian who ties fishing flies for dignitaries. Their stories, and a good dose of the country's history, are almost enough to take the edge off RayAnne's homesickness and grief, to say nothing of jetlag. Meanwhile, the romantic and family entanglements she left behind at home haven't exactly come untangled in her absence. You'll come to love Rayanne, our accidental talk-show host, in this tale with a lighthearted surface and surprising depths."

Sarah Stonich (Author), Kimberly M. Wetherell (Narrator)

Audiobook

Literary Fiction Audiobooks in Literature