Literary Fiction Audiobooks | Literature

This Could be Everything: 'Exquisite. Enchanting. Quite possibly perfect. The next One Day/Me Before

"The perfect, feel-good, comforting read to cosy up with as the nights draw in. Escape to 1990, Notting Hill, first love, and hope. 'Exquisite. Enchanting. Quite possibly perfect. The next One Day/Me Before You' VERONICA HENRY 'Every time I have read one of Eva Rice's books it has felt like a modern classic. Tender, and acutely observed, the characters of This Could Be Everything have stayed with me. Reading it every night felt like wrapping myself a comfort blanket' JOJO MOYES 'The most gorgeous feel-good story about love and grief and how the smallest things can start a journey of healing.' GEORGINA MOORE, author of The Garnett Girls 'I finished it in a breathless emotional gulp. Truly wonderful, incredibly moving...funny, witty, wise and superbly written...The age beautifully evoked' STEPHEN FRY 'You will rejoice as February gradually finds happiness again, consoled by two little canaries, the treadmill of the Top 40, the rare beauties of Nineties London and finally true love. Eva's latest story HAS everything' JILLY COOPER It's 1990. The Happy Mondays are in the charts, a 15-year-old called Kate Moss is on the cover of the Face magazine, and Julia Roberts wears thigh-boots for the poster for a new movie called Pretty Woman. February Kingdom is nineteen years old when she is knocked sideways by family tragedy. Then one evening in May she finds an escaped canary in her kitchen and it sparks a glimmer of hope in her. With the help of the bird called Yellow, Feb starts to feel her way out of her own private darkness, just as her aunt embarks on a passionate and all-consuming affair with a married American drama teacher. THIS COULD BE EVERYTHING is a coming-of-age story with its roots under the pavements of a pre-Richard Curtis-era Notting Hill that has all but vanished. It's about what happens when you start looking after something more important than you, and the hope a yellow bird can bring… Praise for This Could Be Everything: 'A beautiful, atmospheric, brilliantly observed thing of joy. Eva Rice is a fantastic observer and relayer of the human experience. Absolutely wonderful' Mel Giedroyc 'A beautiful balm of a book full of hope and possibility, This Could Be Everything will break your heart and piece it back together again with wit, warmth and magic. The way Rice weaves together fiction and reality is delicious, with details on every page that will have pop fans, Londoners and 90s nostalgics squealing with delight. Nobody captures the exhilaration of first love and teen fandom quite like her' Lauren Bravo 'A reason to be cheerful - THIS COULD BE EVERYTHING is the book I've been waiting my whole life for, a perfect 90s period piece about sisters, it's glam, gorgeous, a little bit melancholic and a lot charming' Daisy Buchanan 'This moving, hopeful and brilliantly told story inhabits the West London of my youth. I loved it' Betty Boo 'A gorgeous story about first love and hope' Red 'A moving novel about sisterhood, grief and first love' Good Housekeeping 'The story of loss, love - and ultimately hope - is beautifully told. You won't be able to put it down' Heat"

Eva Rice (Author), Jessica Alade (Narrator)

Audiobook

Western Lane: Shortlisted For The Booker Prize 2023

"SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023 LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024 LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL AWARD 2023 'A beautiful and evocative novel about grief, about growing up, about losing and winning. The people and places in this book will stay with me for a long time.' - Sally Rooney Selected by Dua Lipa as one of Service95's 'Books of the Year' A 'Book of the Year' in The Economist, The Independent, The Week, The New York Times and The Guardian A deeply moving novel about grief, sisterhood and a teenage girl's struggle to transcend herself. Eleven-year-old Gopi has been playing squash since she was old enough to hold a racket. When her mother dies, her father enlists her in a quietly brutal training regimen, and the game becomes her world. Slowly, she grows apart from her sisters. Her life is reduced to the sport, guided by its rhythms: the serve, the volley, the drive, the shot and its echo. But on the court, she is not alone. She is with her pa. She is with Ged, a thirteen-year-old boy with his own formidable talent. She is with the players who have come before her. She is in awe. An unforgettable coming-of-age story, Chetna Maroo's first novel is a moving exploration of the closeness of sisterhood, the immigrant experience, and the collective overcoming of grief. 'With this gorgeous debut, Maroo blows most of the competition off the court.' - The Times 'Stunning . . . Spare, tender, brilliantly achieved . . . A novel that unfolds in silences . . . and dares to leave much unsaid.' - The Guardian"

Chetna Maroo (Author), Maya Saroya (Narrator)

Audiobook

Endpapers

"In this page-turning novel set in 2003 New York City, a genderqueer book conservator feels trapped by her gender presentation, her ill-fitting relationship, and her artistic block-until she discovers a decades-old hidden queer love letter and becomes obsessed with tracking down its author. It's 2003, and artist Dawn Levit is stuck. A bookbinder who works in conservation at the Met, she spends her free time scouting the city's street art, hoping something might spark inspiration. Instead, everything looks like a dead end. And art isn't the only thing that feels wrong: wherever she turns, her gender identity clashes with the rest of her life. Her relationship, once anchored by shared queerness, is falling apart as her boyfriend Lukas increasingly seems to be attracted to Dawn only when she's at her most masculine. Meanwhile at work, Dawn has to present as female, even on the days when that isn't true. Either way, her difference feels like a liability. Then, one day at work, Dawn finds something hidden behind the endpaper of an old book: the torn-off cover of a '50s lesbian pulp novel, Turn Her About. On the front is a campy illustration of a woman looking into a handheld mirror and seeing a man's face. And on the back is a love letter. Dawn latches onto the coincidence, becoming obsessed with tracking down the note's author. Her fixation only increases when her best friend Jae is injured in a hate crime, for which Dawn feels responsible. As Dawn searches for the letter's author, she is also looking for herself. She tries to understand how to live in a world that doesn't see her as she truly is, how to get unstuck in her gender, and how to rediscover her art, and she can't shake the feeling that the note's author might be able to help guide her to the answers. A sharply written, deeply evocative story about what it means to live authentically-even within an identity whose parameters have not yet been defined-Endpapers will appeal to readers of queer, nonbinary, or trans fiction like Torrey Peters' Detransition, Baby as well as anyone who loves character-driven, setting-rich stories like Tell the Wolves I'm Home or The Immortalists. "

Jennifer Savran Kelly (Author), Dani Martineck (Narrator)

Audiobook

Victory City

"Brought to you by Penguin. She will breathe a new empire into life – but all worlds can escape their creator… In the wake of an unimportant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for a goddess, who tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga, ‘victory city’. Over the next two hundred and fifty years, Pampa Kampana’s life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga’s as she attempts to make good on the task that the goddess set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception. ‘Full of adventure… A celebration of the power of storytelling’ GUARDIAN ‘Mesmerising’ ELIF SHAFAK, author of The Island of Missing Trees ‘A total pleasure to read’ SUNDAY TIMES ‘One of the planet’s greatest writers’ EVENING STANDARD ‘A triumph… Enthralling’ I © Salman Rushdie 2023 (P) Penguin Audio 2023"

Salman Rushdie (Author), Sid Sagar (Narrator)

Audiobook

What Napoleon Could Not Do: A Novel

"One of the Books Barack Obama Is Reading This Summer One of Vulture's Best Books of 2023 One of Goodreads' Buzziest Debut Novels of 2023 One of Essence's 31 Books You Must Read One of the most anticipated books by Town & Country and Elle America is seen through the eyes and ambitions of three characters with ties to Africa in this gripping novel When siblings Jacob and Belinda Nti were growing up in Ghana, their goal was simple: to move to America. For them, the United States was both an opportunity and a struggle, a goal and an obstacle. Jacob, an awkward computer programmer who still lives with his father, wants a visa so he can move to Virginia to live with his wife-a request that the U.S. government has repeatedly denied. He envies his sister, Belinda, who achieved, as their father put it, "what Napoleon could not do": she went to college and law school in the United States and even managed to marry Wilder, a wealthy Black businessman from Texas. Wilder's view of America differs markedly from his wife's, as he's spent his life railing against the racism and marginalization that are part of life for every African American living here. For these three, their desires and ambitions highlight the promise and the disappointment that life in a new country offers. How each character comes to understand this and how each learns from both their dashed hopes and their fulfilled dreams lie at the heart of what makes What Napoleon Could Not Do such a compelling, insightful read."

Dk Nnuro (Author), Adam Lazarre-White, Ana Hoffman, Kofi Boakye (Narrator)

Audiobook

Playhouse: A novel

"From the prize-winning fiction writer Richard Bausch ("A master of the novel as well as the story . . . Effortlessly engaging" -Sven Birkerts, The New York Times), a sharp, affecting, masterly new novel about a close-knit theater community in Memphis and one turbulent, transformative production of King Lear. As renovations begin at the Shakespeare Theater of Memphis, life for the core members of the company seems to be falling into disarray. Their trusted director has just retired, and theater manager Thaddeus Deerforth-staring down forty and sensing a rift growing slowly between himself and his wife, Gina-dreads the arrival of an imperious, inscrutable visiting director. Claudette, struggling to make ends meet as an actor and destabilized by family troubles, is getting frequent calls from her ex-boyfriend-and also the narcissistic, lecherous television actor who has been recruited to play King Lear in their fall production. Also invited to the cast is Malcolm Ruark, a disgraced TV anchor muddling through the fallout of a scandal involving his underaged niece-and suddenly in an even more precarious situation when the same niece, now eighteen, is cast to play Cordelia. As tensions onstage and off build toward a breaking point, the bonds among the intimately drawn characters are put to extraordinary tests-and the fate of the theater itself may even be on the line. Deftly weaving together the points of view of Thaddeus, Claudette, and Malcolm, and utterly original in its incorporation of Shakespeare's timeless drama, Playhouse is an unforgettable story of men and women, human frailty, art, and redemption-a work of inimitable imaginative prowess by one of our most renowned storytellers. Cover images: The Storm (detail) by Georges Michel. The Art Institute of Chicago; (theater seats) Paleha/Getty Images"

Richard Bausch (Author), Lee Osorio (Narrator)

Audiobook

Angeline

"A moving, lyrical, melancholy, and spiritual novel by the acclaimed author of The Night Child, in which Sister Angeline, unwillingly sent to a radical convent and confronting her tragic past, asks the question, follow your heart or follow the rules? After surviving a tragedy that killed her entire family, sixteen-year-old Meg joins a cloistered convent, believing it is her life’s work to pray full time for the suffering of others. Taking the name Sister Angeline, she spends her days and nights in silence, moving from one prayerful hour to the next. She prays for the hardships of others, the sick and poor, the loved ones she lost, and her own atonement. When the Archdiocese of Chicago runs out of money to keep the convent open, she is torn from her carefully constructed life and sent to a progressive convent on a rocky island in the Pacific Northwest. There, at the Light of the Sea, five radical feminist nuns have their own vision of faithful service. They do not follow canonical law, they do not live a cloistered life, and they believe in using their voices for change. As Sister Angeline struggles to adapt to her new home, she must navigate her grief, fears, and confusions, while being drawn into the lives of a child in crisis, an angry teen, an EMT suffering survivor’s guilt, and the parish priest who is losing his congregation to the Sisters’ all-inclusive Sunday masses. Through all of this, something seems to have awakened in her, a healing power she has not experienced in years that could be her saving grace, or her downfall. In Angeline, novelist Anna Quinn explores the complexity of our past selves and the discovery of our present truth; the enduring imprints left by our losses, forgiveness and acceptance, and why we believe what we believe. Affecting and beautifully told, Angeline is both poignant and startling and will touch the hearts of anyone who has ever asked themselves: When your foundations crumble and you’ve lost yourself, how do you find the strength to go on? Do you follow your heart or the rules?"

Anna Quinn (Author), Cassandra Campbell (Narrator)

Audiobook

One Hundred Years of Solitude

"Brought to you by Penguin. ONE OF THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS BOOKS AND WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE 'Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice' Gabriel García Márquez's great masterpiece is the story of seven generations of the Buendía family and of Macondo, the town they built. Though little more than a settlement surrounded by mountains, Macondo has its wars and disasters, even its wonders and its miracles. A microcosm of Columbian life, its secrets lie hidden, encoded in a book, and only Aureliano Buendía can fathom its mysteries and reveal its shrouded destiny. Blending political reality with magic realism, fantasy and comic invention, One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the most daringly original works of the twentieth century. 'Should be required reading for the entire human race' The New York Times 'The book that sort of saved my life' Emma Thompson 'No lover of fiction can fail to respond to the grace of Márquez's writing' Sunday Telegraph © Gabriel Garcia Marquez 2007 (P) Penguin Audio 2022"

Gabriel García Márquez (Author), Ben Onwukwe (Narrator)

Audiobook

Love in the Time of Cholera

"Brought to you by Penguin. A CLASSIC STORY OF ENDURING LOVE FROM THE NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR 'It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love' Fifty-one years, nine months and four days have passed since Fermina Daza rebuffed hopeless romantic Florentino Ariza's impassioned advances and married Dr Juvenal Urbino instead. During that half-century, Flornetino has fallen into the arms of many delighted women, but has loved none but Fermina. When Fermina's husband is killed trying to retrieve his pet parrot from a mango tree, Florentino seizes his chance to declare his enduring love. But can young love find new life in the twilight of their lives? 'The most important writer of fiction in any language' Bill Clinton 'An exquisite writer, wise, compassionate and extremely funny' Sunday Telegraph 'An amazing celebration of the many kinds of love between men and women' The Times © Gabriel Garcia Marquez 2007 (P) Penguin Audio 2022"

Gabriel García Márquez (Author), Allan Corduner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Chronicle of a Death Foretold

"Brought to you by Penguin. Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a compelling, moving story exploring injustice and mob hysteria by the Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez, author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. 'On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on' Santiago Nasar is brutally murdered in a small town by two brothers. All the townspeople knew it was going to happen - including the victim. But nobody did anything to prevent the killing. Twenty seven years later, a man arrives in town to try and piece together the truth from the contradictory testimonies of the townsfolk. To at last understand what happened to Santiago, and why. . . 'A masterpiece' Evening Standard 'A work of high explosiveness - the proper stuff of Nobel prizes. An exceptional novel' The Times 'Brilliant writer, brilliant book' Guardian © Gabriel Garcia Marquez 2008 (P) Penguin Audio 2022"

Gabriel García Márquez (Author), Ben Cura (Narrator)

Audiobook

Someone Else’s Shoes

"A story of mix-ups, mess-ups and making the most of second chances, this is the new novel from international sensation Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You and The Giver of Stars 'A delightful reverse-Cinderella story of two women who seem polar opposites - until circumstance forces them to experience each other's lives. Nobody writes women the way Jojo Moyes does - recognizably real and complex and funny and flawed' JODI PICOULT Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else's shoes? Meet Sam . . . She's not got much, but she's grateful for what she has: a job she's just about clinging on to and a family who depend on her for everything. She knows she's one bad day away from losing it all - and just hopes today isn't it . . . Meet Nisha . . . She's got everything she always dreamed of - and more: a phenomenally rich husband; an international lifestyle; and . . . she's just been locked out of all of it after her husband initiates divorce proceedings . . . Sam and Nisha should never have crossed paths. But after a bag mix-up at the gym, their lives become intertwined - even as they spiral out of control. Each blames the other as they feel increasingly invisible, forgotten, lost - and desperately alone. But they're not. No woman is an island. Look around. Family. Friends. Strangers. Even the woman you believe just ruined your life might turn out to be your best friend. Because together you can do anything - like take back what is yours . . . Praise for Jojo Moyes: 'Moyes somehow manages to break your heart before restoring your faith in love' Sunday Express 'Storytelling at its best' Marie Claire 'A deeply satisfying book full of big emotions' Good Housekeeping 'Britain's best contemporary female author' Sun on Sunday"

Jojo Moyes (Author), Daisy Ridley (Narrator)

Audiobook

My Nemesis: A Novel

"From the acclaimed author of Miss Burma, longlisted for the National Book Award and the Women’s Prize, comes a tense and thought-provoking exploration of an intellectual affair and its reverberations across the lives of two couples. Tessa is a successful white woman writer who develops a friendship, first by correspondence and then in person, with Charlie, a ruggedly handsome philosopher and scholar based in Los Angeles. Sparks fly as they exchange ideas about Camus and masculine desire, and their intellectual connection promises more—but there are obstacles to this burgeoning relationship. While Tessa’s husband, Milton, enjoys Charlie’s company on his visits to the East Coast, Charlie’s mixed-race Asian wife, Wah, is a different case, and she proves to be both adversary and conundrum to Tessa. Wah’s traditional femininity and subservience to her husband strike Tessa as weaknesses, and she scoffs at the sacrifices Wah makes as adoptive mother to a Burmese girl, Htet, once homeless on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. But Wah has a kind of power too, especially over Charlie, and the conflict between the two women leads to Tessa’s martini-fueled declaration that Wah is “an insult to womankind.” As Tessa is forced to deal with the consequences of her outburst and considers how much she is limited by her own perceptions, she wonders if Wah is really as weak as she has seemed, or if she might have a different kind of strength altogether. An exercise in empathy, an exploration of betrayal, and a charged story of the thrill of a shared connection—and the perils of feminine rivalry—My Nemesis is a brilliantly dramatic and captivating story from a hugely talented writer whose portrayals are always gracefully phrased and keenly observed."

Charmaine Craig (Author), Charmaine Craig (Narrator)

Audiobook

Literary Fiction Audiobooks in Literature