Audiobooks narrated by Athena Karkanis

"A decade apart, a painful secret-can two childhood sweethearts find their way back to a love that defies cultures and time? Lia Juma thought she'd buried the dreams of her heart long ago. But when she's forced to return to her family's summer cottage on Pike Bay, the life she's carefully crafted begins to unravel. The perfect immigrant daughter, Lia has carved out a successful career as a corporate lawyer and has just started dating a man who fulfills all her mother's criteria for the ideal son-in-law. But underneath her polished life lies a secret she's never spoken of-one she fears could have destroyed her family a decade ago. Back at the bay, Lia stumbles upon memories she thought were long forgotten and, at the centre of it all, is Wesley Forest-the boy she left behind, the boy who knew her dreams better than anyone. Their friendship and young love once burned bright, woven through long sun-drenched days and whispered promises of a future together. But when family pressures and heartbreak pulled the two lovers apart, they were forced to follow separate paths. Now, Wes is back in her life, and with him, old wounds and feelings surface. As the two confront the choices and secrets that divided them as teenagers, Lia must decide if she can heal from the past and finally embrace the life and love she's always craved. Could a second chance with Wes be worth risking everything for? Told over the course of five years in the past and one summer in the present, Lia will discover that sometimes, the only way forward is through the heart's deepest scars."

Noreen Nanja (Author), Athena Karkanis (Narrator)

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The Book of Records

"The remarkable new novel from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which leaps across centuries past and future as if different eras were separated by only a door. Why did people, who lived so briefly in this universe, contain so much time? Lina and her ailing father have taken refuge at an enclave called the Sea, a staging post between migrations, with only a few possessions, among them three volumes from The Great Lives of Voyagers encyclopaedia series. In this mysterious and shape-shifting building, pasts and futures collide. Lina befriends her unusual neighbours: Bento, a Jewish scholar in seventeenth-century Amsterdam; Blucher, a philosopher in 1930s Germany fleeing Nazi persecution; and Jupiter, a poet of Tang Dynasty China, and through their stories, she comes to understand the role of fate in history and the way that ideas can shape the world, and to face up to the cost wrought on her family and others by her father's betrayals. Profound, adventurous, and with extraordinary subtlety of thought, The Book of Records explores our search for home and the place of faith and humanity in our world. A work of huge originality and heft, it shows the great novelist Madeleine Thien at her most ambitious and enriching."

Madeleine Thien (Author), Athena Karkanis, Jeff Yung, Madeleine Thien, Richard Lam, Scott Turner Schofield (Narrator)

Audiobook

Sleep While I Sing

"From the doyenne of detective novels and the inspiration for the major TV series Murder in a Small Town (starring Rossif Sutherland and Kristin Kreuk), the second Karl Alberg detective story--is he the detective or the suspect? Murder in a Small Town will air Tuesdays this Fall on FOX and Global TV. For fans of Shetland and Broadchurch, British Columbia's Sunshine Coast isn't always so sunny for Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg. Karl Alberg used to be a big-city cop solving crimes involving gangsters, drug lords, real low-lifes. He can't possibly be stumped by a murder in small town? But he is. The woman was found propped against a tree, her pretty face scrubbed clean, and her slender neck slit from one side to the other. And that is all anyone can tell Alberg. Her name? Not so much. So Alberg hires a local artist to draw her picture; maybe someone will recognize her…without, you know, the sliced-up neck. It's a brilliant idea. The answers pour in. And they all point to one potential suspect, which should make Alberg very happy. But it doesn't. This gentle paradise has more than its share of secrets."

L. R. Wright (Author), Anders Yates, Athena Karkanis, Ben Blais, Kristin Kreuk, Peter Outerbridge (Narrator)

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Gunner: Hurricane Horse

"Each book in the True Horse Stories focuses on a contemporary horse from a different part of the world, and each animal is, in his or her own way, a hero. PBJ Decks Smokin Gun (Gunner) is an American Paint Horse, one of the many of Heather Lott Goodwin's herd, and a valuable show animal that won the World Championship Paint Horse title. When Hurricane Katrina passed over the Goodwin property, it took with it the fences, the cattle, and several horses. Heather and her family lived in their horse trailer for six weeks and considered themselves lucky to have safe, comfortable shelter. After the storm, they searched for the animals and recovered many of them. But three months passed before they located Gunner, a hundred miles away. They were told he was in terrible shape and should be put down. Nevertheless, Heather drove on washed-out roads to bring him home, starving, dehydrated, and blind in one eye. With the help of a vet and her mother, she nursed him back to health. Amazingly, nine months later, he was well enough to compete again in the World Championship Paint Horse Show. Gunner's story is a testament to love and to determination."

Judy Andrekson (Author), Athena Karkanis (Narrator)

Audiobook

Under a Kabul Sky: Short Fiction by Afghan Women

"Finalist, 2022 International Book Award for Multicultural Fiction These twelve short stories dive deep into imaginary worlds where everyday life is marked and marred by war. They speak of wounded love, captured women, confinement, talismans, borders, wolves. They give expression to the voices of Afghan women who would like to change the fate of people like Nâzboo, Khorshid, Hamid and so many others. Originally published by Éditions Le Soupirail in 2019, this collection was the first volume of short stories by Afghan women to appear in France. This edition from Inanna Publications brings these stories-and their unique perspectives-to English-speaking readers for the first time. The collection includes stories by Wasima Badghisi, Batool Haidari, Alia Ataee, Sedighe Kazemi, Khaleda Khorsand, Masouma Kawsari, Mariam Mahboob, Toorpekai Qayum, Manizha Bakhtari, Homeira Qaderi, Parween Pazhwak and Homayra Rafat."

Alia Ataee, Batool Haidari, Homayra Rafat, Homeira Qaderi, Khaleda Khorsand, Manizha Bakhtari, Mariam Mahboob, Masouma Kawsari, Parween Pazhwak, Sedighe Kazemi, Toorpekai Qayum, Wasima Badghisi (Author), Athena Karkanis (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Torontonians

"The arrival, one sunny morning, of pale green wall-to-wall carpeting for the living room is the crowning jewel in Karen Whitney's long-anticipated transformation of her house into a beautiful home, renovated to the exacting standards of her own impeccable taste. The banal finality of this event triggers an introspective voyage through the events of her life and how she became who she is: wife of business executive Rick, citizen of the suburb of Rowanwood, mother to two accomplished daughters in university. Before Betty Friedan coined the term feminine mystique, The Torontonians told a classic feminist story of suburban ennui and existential self-discovery, tracing a detailed portrait of femininity in the 1950s through the eyes of its perceptive and thoughtful heroine. The book is also a unique contemporary meditation on community and social ties from a time when Canada's major cities were just beginning to spread out into suburban sprawl."

Phyllis Brett Young (Author), Athena Karkanis (Narrator)

Audiobook

Book of Wings

"In this sweeping, allusive novel, the celebrated poet, dervish, and oral storyteller Tawhida Tanya Evanson comes to terms with what it means to stand on one’s own two feet in an uncertain world. The acclaimed Antiguan-Canadian artist traces a global journey from Vancouver to the United States, Caribbean, Paris, and Morocco as a relationship with her lover and travel partner disintegrates and she finds herself on a path toward personal discovery and spiritual fulfillment that leads her deep into the North African landscape. Bespeak Audio Editions brings Canadian voices to the world with audiobook editions of some of the country’s greatest works of literature, performed by Canadian actors."

Tawhida Tanya Evanson (Author), Athena Karkanis (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Sugar Thief: A novel

"A delectable comedy about an imploding social media star, an Italian bakery, the treachery of fame, and the pink-frosted pastry at the heart of it all. YouTuber Sabine Rose is a star about to go supernova. Her baking channel attracts millions, her production team agonizingly crafts her every moment, and her agent has nearly landed her a television series. But Sabine's rise to superstardom needs a final push, and she has the perfect idea to get herself there: a well-documented visit home to her family's bakery. When Sabine and her chronically underappreciated producer, Wanda, arrive in Thunder Bay, the planned family reunion is quickly lost in chaos (and, as Wanda sees it, social media opportunity). Sabine's father, the Rose family master baker, has just died. And he's left behind a locked briefcase containing the secret pastry recipe that has made him a hometown legend. On the cusp of going viral, Sabine finds herself unlocking the dark truths of her father's past. Self-medicating one glass-and one handful of pharma-ceuticals-at a time, can she drag her fledgling celebrity into the big leagues before ever-loyal Wanda, sensing betrayal, turns the tables on her? Will the popular pastry and the family secrets it holds fall into the wrong hands? Or will it provide the salvation Sabine so badly needs? Piped full of heartache and told with razor wit, The Sugar Thief is a skewering of contemporary narcissism and an ode to families that leave (almost) everything behind in search of a brighter future."

Nancy Mauro (Author), Athena Karkanis, Martina Oritz-Luis, Salvatore Antonio (Narrator)

Audiobook

What's Left Behind

"From the "Queen of Canadian crime fiction" (Winnipeg Free Press) comes the 16th instalment of the much-loved Joanne Kilbourn series. The latest novel in the Joanne Kilbourn Shreve series opens in the month of May, a time of beginnings when all things seem possible. Joanne's husband, Zack, recently elected mayor of Regina, is optimistic that he can garner the public support necessary to make Regina a city that works - not just for the few, but for the many. Their oldest son Peter is marrying Maisie Crawford, a woman as clever and forthright as she is lovely. Their lakeside wedding is a dream come true, but when a former lover of a member of the bridal party shows up, the dream becomes a nightmare. Before the bride's bouquet has wilted, there's an act of sickening cruelty; soon afterwards, there's a murder. Devastated, Joanne and Zack search for answers. As it becomes increasingly unclear whether political agendas, shattered romance, or a secret buried deep in the past have motivated the crimes, the loyalties of the Shreve family are tested. A gripping mystery with a social conscience, this is a novel of high stakes and innocence lost. Bespeak Audio Editions brings Canadian voices to the world with audiobook editions of some of the country's greatest works of literature, performed by Canadian actors."

Gail Bowen (Author), Athena Karkanis (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Winners' Circle

"Book 17 of the nationally bestselling Joanne Kilbourn series is classic Gail Bowen: masterfully compelling storytelling that combines a modern, urban family with a gripping, satisfying mystery. As Joanne Kilbourn-Shreve, her husband, Zack, and their soon-to-be seventeen-year-old daughter, Taylor, rush through the rain from their cottage to their car, the Thanksgiving weekend they just spent at the lake with Zack's law partners is already slipping away, burnished into memory as pleasantly as the hundreds of other weekends the Falconer-Shreve families have shared at Lawyers' Bay. Thoughts of the weekend past will now focus on the future and be prefaced by the words "next time." Within weeks, a triple homicide will rip apart the lives of those related to the lawyers who, at the end of their first year in law school, only half-jokingly styled themselves "The Winners' Circle." Dazed by grief, Joanne will seek answers to an impossible question: "Why did they die?" The facts behind the suicide of Christopher Altieri, known by his law partners as "the conscience of The Winners' Circle," appear to provide insights, but for Joanne those insights raise new, unsettling questions. Knitting this powerful narrative together is Joanne's unshakeable belief that the only thing worse than knowing is not knowing. Bespeak Audio Editions brings Canadian voices to the world with audiobook editions of some of the country's greatest works of literature, performed by Canadian actors."

Gail Bowen (Author), Athena Karkanis (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Darkness of the Heart

"The 18th installment of the bestselling Joanne Kilbourn series from the "queen of Canadian crime fiction" (Winnipeg Free Press). When, at the age of sixty, Joanne learns that Douglas Ellard, the reserved general practitioner whom she had grown up believing to be her father was, in fact, the best friend of her biological father, the brilliant visual artist Desmond Love, she begins to question not just who she is but what factors play a role in shaping all of us and in making us who we really are. Joanne is offered the chance to revisit her family history, when writer Roy Brodnitz, author of The Happiest Girl, a Broadway mega-hit inspired by a Desmond Love painting, approaches her with the idea of making a mini-series about the close relationship between the Ellard and Love families. Brodnitz is in town working on the film adaptation of his Broadway hit, and he and his film company soon become a significant presence in the life of Joanne's family, with results that are both life-changing and menacing. When Joanne and Zack's eighteen-year-old daughter, Taylor Shreve, develops a close friendship with the seventeen-year-old actress starring in the movie, the Shreve family is exposed to the dark side of the film industry and they uncover disturbing truths about the handsome and talented people they have invited into their lives. A Darkness of the Heart explores the ways in which clear vision, generosity of spirit, and a willingness to love can combat the forces in our world that seek to encroach upon innocence. Once again, Gail Bowen's powerful storytelling, engaging characters, and page-turning plot reaffirm her place as one of the finest mystery writers around. Bespeak Audio Editions brings Canadian voices to the world with audiobook editions of some of the country's greatest works of literature, performed by Canadian actors."

Gail Bowen (Author), Athena Karkanis (Narrator)

Audiobook

Suture

"To make her films, Eva must take out her eyes and use them as batteries. To make her art, Finn must cut open her chest and remove her lungs and heart. To write her novels, Grace must use her blood to power the word processor. Suture shares three interweaving stories of artists tearing themselves open to make art. Each artist baffles their family, or harms their loved ones, with their necessary sacrifices. Eva's wife worries about her mental health; Finn's teenager follows in her footsteps, using forearm bones for drumsticks; Grace's network constantly worries about the prolific writer's penchant for self-harm, and the over-use of her vitals for art. The result is a hyper-real exploration of the cruelties we commit and forgive in ourselves and others. Brewer brings a unique perspective to mental illness while exploring how support systems in relationships—spousal, parental, familial—can be both helpful and damaging. This exciting debut novel is a highly original meditation on the fractures within us, and the importance of empathy as medicine and glue."

Nic Brewer (Author), Athena Karkanis (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Athena Karkanis