Audiobooks narrated by Julia Emelin

The Favourites: Prepare to be obsessed with this addictive summer read for fans of Heated Rivalry

"Brought to you by Penguin. BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick. Everyone thinks Heath Rocha was my first love. He wasn't. My first love was figure skating. Katarina Shaw has always known she’s destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating – and each other – to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating fans with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style and rollercoaster relationship. Until, at the Olympic Games, as the world holds its breath, a shocking incident instantly destroys their partnership. Ten years later, an unauthorised tell-all documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha. If Kat wants to own her story, she must break her silence. As Kat’s account of her dramatic rise and fall alternates with scandalous interviews from the film, The Favourites spins into a dance between passion, ambition and what it truly means to win. Sensational rumours have haunted Kat and Heath’s every step for years, but the truth may be even more outrageous than the headlines. ‘Part Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones and the Six . . . As brilliantly choreographed as a gold-medal performance’ JODI PICOULT © Layne Fargo 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025"

Layne Fargo (Author), Amy Landon, Brandon Perea, Christine Lakin, Elena Rey, Eric Yang, Graham Halstead, Johnny Weir, Julia Emelin, Layne Fargo, Louisa Zhu, Suzanne Toren, Valerie Lohman (Narrator)

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The Soldier's Child

"Ukraine, 1941. War has ripped Katya’s country and heart in two. When two soldiers knock down her door and force her into a truck, she knows deep down that this might be the last time she ever sees home. As she is driven away to a labor camp, she looks out the tiny window at the barren winter landscape and thinks only of her son, Alexander, who she was forced to leave behind and may never see again… Decades later, Katya has tried to rebuild her life after the horrors of war, but she still clings onto the hope of being reunited with her precious son. But little does she know that her son moved his family to America years ago in search of a better life. Can she find peace without knowing what happened to him? Will Katya ever be able to reunite with Alexander and tell the truth about who she is? Or will they be defeated by the war that has already taken so much from them? Based on incredible true events faced by the author’s family, this emotional and gripping story of family, struggle, and the unwavering strength of hope is perfect for fans of The Four Winds, Beneath a Scarlet Sky, and All the Light We Cannot See."

Tetyana Denford (Author), Julia Emelin (Narrator)

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The Hunger Between Us

"The black market is Liza’s lifeline, where she barters family heirlooms and steals whatever she can get her hands on just for enough food to survive. Morality, after all, has become a fluid thing since the Nazi siege has cut off her city from the rest of the world. Hope for a quick liberation is obliterated as the Soviet government focuses on sustaining the Red Army and not the city, subjecting its people to unimaginable cruelties at the hands of the secret police. When Liza’s best friend Aka proposes that they go to the same bullying officials, rumored to give young women food in exchange for “entertainment,” Liza thinks there surely must be some other way. Then Aka disappears and Liza resolves to rescue her no matter the cost, entangling herself in an increasingly dangerous web with two former classmates, one a policeman, the other forced to live underground. The Hunger Between Us is an absorbing novel about being trapped with impossible choices and the bonds of love that are tested along dangerous paths."

Marina Scott (Author), Julia Emelin (Narrator)

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Last Witnesses: Unchildlike Stories

"Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Last Witnesses by Svetlana Alexievich, read by Julia Emelin, Yelena Shmulenson and Allen Lewis Rickman. What did it mean to grow up in the Soviet Union during the Second World War? In the late 1970s, Svetlana Alexievich started interviewing people who had experienced war as children, the generation that survived and had to live with the trauma that would forever change the course of the Russian nation. With remarkable care and empathy, Alexievich gives voice to those whose stories are lost in the official narratives, uncovering a powerful, hidden history of one of the most important events of the twentieth century. Published to great acclaim in the Soviet Union in 1985 and now available in English for the first time, this masterpiece offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of the human consequences of the war - and an extraordinary chronicle of the Russian soul."

Svetlana Alexievich (Author), Allen Lewis Rickman, Julia Emelin, Yelena Shmulenson (Narrator)

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The Unwomanly Face of War

"Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexeivich, read by Julia Emelin and Yelena Shmulenson. Bringing together dozens of voices in her distinctive style, The Unwomanly Face of War is Svetlana Alexievich's collection of stories from Soviet women who lived through the Second World War: on the front lines, on the home front and in occupied territories. As Alexievich gives voice to women who are absent from official narratives - captains, sergeants, nurses, snipers and pilots - she shows us a new version of the war we're so familiar with, creating an extraordinary alternative history from their private stories. Published in 1985 in Russia and now available in English for the first time, The Unwomanly Face of War was Alexievich's first book and a huge bestseller in the Soviet Union, establishing her as a brilliantly revolutionary writer."

Svetlana Alexievich (Author), Julia Emelin, Yelena Shmulenson (Narrator)

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The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia

"In this "superb history" (The Wall Street Journal), award-winning author Candace Fleming tells the extraordinary true story of Russia's last royal family-and transports readers back to a time when both a bloodline and an empire came tumbling down. "Has all the elements of a fictional thriller . . . woven into a fascinating work of history."- The Washington Post WINNER: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature and Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction • A Robert F. Sibert Honor Book • A YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist • A Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of the Century He was Tsar Nicholas II of Russia: the wealthiest monarch in the world, who ruled over 130 million people and one-sixth of the earth's land surface, yet turned a blind eye to the abject poverty of his subjects. She was Empress Alexandra: stern, reclusive, and painfully shy, a deeply religious woman obsessed with the corrupt mystic Rasputin. Their daughters were the Grand Duchess Olga, Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia: completely isolated and immature girls who wore identical white dresses and often signed joint letters as OTMA, the initials of their first names. Their only son was Tsarevich Alexei: youngest of the Romanovs, heir to the throne, a hemophiliac whose debilitating illness was kept secret from the rest of the world. Candace Fleming deftly maneuvers between the plight of Russia's poor masses and the extravagant lives of the Romanovs, from their opulent upbringings to the crumbling of their massive empire, and finally to their tragic murders. Using captivating photos and compelling first-person accounts throughout, The Family Romanov is history at its most absorbing."

Candace Fleming (Author), Eugene Alper, Gleb Kaminer, Julia Emelin, Kimberly Farr, Mark Deakins, Paul Michael, Rustam Kasymov, Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator)

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Enchantments: A novel of Rasputin's daughter and the Romanovs

"A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK From Kathryn Harrison, one of America's most admired literary voices, comes a gorgeously written, enthralling novel set in the final days of Russia's Romanov Empire. St. Petersburg, 1917. After Rasputin's body is pulled from the icy waters of the Neva River, his eighteen-year-old daughter, Masha, is sent to live at the imperial palace with Tsar Nikolay and his family-including the headstrong Prince Alyosha. Desperately hoping that Masha has inherited Rasputin's miraculous healing powers, Tsarina Alexandra asks her to tend to Aloysha, who suffers from hemophilia, a blood disease that keeps the boy confined to his sickbed, lest a simple scrape or bump prove fatal. Two months after Masha arrives at the palace, the tsar is forced to abdicate, and Bolsheviks place the royal family under house arrest. As Russia descends into civil war, Masha and Alyosha grieve the loss of their former lives, finding solace in each other's company. To escape the confinement of the palace, they tell stories-some embellished and some entirely imagined-about Nikolay and Alexandra's courtship, Rasputin's many exploits, and the wild and wonderful country on the brink of an irrevocable transformation. In the worlds of their imagination, the weak become strong, legend becomes fact, and a future that will never come to pass feels close at hand. Mesmerizing, haunting, and told in Kathryn Harrison's signature crystalline prose, Enchantments is a love story about two people who come together as everything around them is falling apart."

Kathryn Harrison (Author), Julia Emelin, Rustam Kasymov (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Julia Emelin

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