Discover Best Audiobooks in Fiction, Literary

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Light We Lost Author: Jill Santopolo Narrator: Jill Santopolo Format: Unabridged Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins Language: English Release date: 05-09-17 Publisher: Penguin Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 403 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: He was the first person to inspire her, to move her, to truly understand her. Was he meant to be the last? Lucy is faced with a life-altering choice. But before she can make her decision, she must start her story - their story - at the very beginning. Lucy and Gabe meet as seniors at Columbia University on a day that changes both of their lives forever. Together they decide they want their lives to mean something, to matter. When they meet again a year later, it seems fated - perhaps they'll find life's meaning in each other. But then Gabe becomes a photojournalist assigned to the Middle East, and Lucy pursues a career in New York. What follows is a 13-year journey of dreams, desires, jealousies, betrayals, and ultimately love. Was it fate that brought them together? Is it choice that has kept them away? Their journey takes Lucy and Gabe continents apart but never out of each other's hearts. Me Before You meets One Day in this devastatingly romantic debut novel about the enduring power of first love, with a shocking, unforgettable ending. A Love Story for a new generation. Editorial Reviews: "Extraordinary.... An emotional roller coaster." (Delia Ephron)

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Author: Junot Díaz Narrator: Karen Olivo, Lin-Manuel Miranda Format: Unabridged Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins Language: English Release date: 12-20-16 Publisher: Penguin Audio Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 692 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: Read by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony Award-winning creator and star of the musical Hamilton, and Tony Award-winning actress, Karen Olivo. This brilliant narration adds another layer of lyricism and depth to this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic novel. Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuku: the curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim. Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience - and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay Subtitle: The Neapolitan Novels, Book 3 Author: Elena Ferrante Narrator: Hillary Huber Format: Unabridged Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins Language: English Release date: 05-15-15 Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc. Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 1775 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: The incredible story continues in book 3 of the critically acclaimed Neapolitan novels! In this third Neapolitan novel, Elena and Lila, the two girls whom were first introduced in My Brilliant Friend, have become women. Lila married at sixteen and has a young son; she has left her husband and the comforts her marriage brought and now works as a common laborer. Elena has left the neighborhood, earned her college degree, and published a successful novel, all of which has opened the doors to a world of learned interlocutors and richly furnished salons. Both women are pushing against the walls of a prison that would have seen them living a life of misery, ignorance, and submission. They are afloat on the great sea of opportunities that opened up during the 1970s. Yet they are still very much bound to each other by a strong, unbreakable bond.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Last Painting of Sara de Vos Subtitle: A Novel Author: Dominic Smith Narrator: Edoardo Ballerini Format: Unabridged Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins Language: English Release date: 04-05-16 Publisher: Macmillan Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1176 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: A masterful new story charts the circuitous course of the sole surviving work of a female Dutch painter. This is what we long for: the profound pleasure of being swept into vivid new worlds, worlds peopled by characters so intriguing and real that we can't shake them, even long after the audio's done. In his award-winning earlier novels, Dominic Smith demonstrated a gift for coaxing the past to life. Now, in The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, he deftly bridges the historical and the contemporary, tracking a collision course between a rare landscape by a female Dutch painter of the golden age, an inheritor of the work in 1950s Manhattan, and a celebrated art historian who painted a forgery of it in her youth. In 1631, Sara de Vos is admitted as a master painter to the Guild of St. Luke's in Holland, the first woman to be so recognized. Three hundred years later, only one work attributed to de Vos is known to remain - a haunting winter scene, At the Edge of a Wood, which hangs over the bed of a wealthy descendant of the original owner. An Australian grad student, Ellie Shipley, struggling to stay afloat in New York, agrees to paint a forgery of the landscape, a decision that will haunt her. Because now, half a century later, she's curating an exhibit of female Dutch painters, and both versions threaten to arrive. As the three threads intersect, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos mesmerizes while it grapples with the demands of the artistic life, showing how the deceits of the past can forge the present. This audiobook includes a reading group guide read by the author.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: My Husband's Wife Subtitle: A Novel Author: Jane Corry Narrator: Rosalyn Landor Format: Unabridged Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins Language: English Release date: 01-31-17 Publisher: Penguin Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 4741 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: "It won't be so bad when you're there," says my new husband before kissing me on the mouth. "I know," I say before he peels off. Two lies. Small white ones. Designed to make the other feel better. But that's how some lies start. Small. Well meaning. Until they get too big to handle. For fans of Big Little Lies and The Couple Next Door comes an addictive psychological thriller that's already an international sensation. When young lawyer Lily marries Ed, she's determined to make a fresh start. To leave the secrets of the past behind. But then she takes on her first murder case and meets Joe. A convicted murderer whom Lily is strangely drawn to. For whom she will soon be willing to risk almost anything. But Lily is not the only one with secrets. Her next-door neighbor Carla may be only nine, but she has already learned that secrets are powerful things. That they can get her whatever she wants. When Lily finds Carla on her doorstep 16 years later, a chain of events is set in motion that can end only one way.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Munich Subtitle: A Novel Author: Robert Harris Narrator: David Rintoul Format: Unabridged Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins Language: English Release date: 01-16-18 Publisher: Random House Audio Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 57 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: From the internationally best-selling author of Fatherland and the Cicero Trilogy - a new spy thriller about treason and conscience, loyalty and betrayal, set against the backdrop of the fateful Munich Conference of September 1938. Hugh Legat is a rising star of the British diplomatic service, serving at 10 Downing Street as a private secretary to the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. Rikard von Holz is on the staff of the German Foreign Office - and secretly a member of the anti-Hitler resistance. The two men were friends at Oxford in the 1920s, but have not been in contact since. Now, when Hugh flies with Chamberlain from London to Munich, and Rikard travels on Hitler's train overnight from Berlin, their paths are set on a disastrous collision course. And once again, Robert Harris gives us actual events of historical importance - here are Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini, Daladier-at the heart of an electrifying novel.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Red Clocks Subtitle: A Novel Author: Leni Zumas Narrator: Erin Bennett, Karissa Vacker Format: Unabridged Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins Language: English Release date: 01-16-18 Publisher: Hachette Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 18 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: A Popsugar most anticipated book of fall A Ploughshares most anticipated book of fall One of Publishers Weekly's most anticipated titles of fall 2017 Five women. One question. What is a woman for? In this ferociously imaginative novel, abortion is once again illegal in America, in vitro fertilization is banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants rights of life, liberty, and property to every embryo. In a small Oregon fishing town, five very different women navigate these new barriers alongside age-old questions surrounding motherhood, identity, and freedom. Ro, a single high-school teacher, is trying to have a baby on her own while also writing a biography of Eivr, a little-known 19th-century female polar explorer. Susan is a frustrated mother of two, trapped in a crumbling marriage. Mattie is the adopted daughter of doting parents and one of Ro's best students, who finds herself pregnant with nowhere to turn. And Gin is the gifted, forest-dwelling herbalist, or "mender", who brings all their fates together when she's arrested and put on trial in a frenzied modern-day witch hunt. Red Clocks is at once a riveting drama whose mysteries unfold with magnetic energy and a shattering novel of ideas. In the vein of Margaret Atwood and Eileen Myles, Leni Zumas fearlessly explores the contours of female experience, evoking The Handmaid's Tale for a new millennium. This is a story of resilience, transformation, and hope in tumultuous - even frightening - times.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Immortalists Author: Chloe Benjamin Narrator: Maggie Hoffman Format: Unabridged Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins Language: English Release date: 01-09-18 Publisher: Penguin Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 179 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: A dazzling family love story reminiscent of Everything I Never Told You from a novelist heralded by Lorrie Moore as a "great new talent". If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life? It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children - four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness - sneak out to hear their fortunes. Their prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11, hoping to control fate; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality. A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Winter Author: Ali Smith Narrator: Melody Grove Format: Unabridged Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins Language: English Release date: 01-09-18 Publisher: Recorded Books Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 8 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: From the Man Booker-short-listed and Baileys Women's Prize-winning author of How to be both, the highly anticipated second novel in the acclaimed Seasonal series, which both continues the arc of the series and is also an extraordinary stand-alone listen. In Winter, life force matches up to the toughest of the seasons. In this second novel in her acclaimed Seasonal cycle, the follow-up to Ali Smith's sensational Autumn, Smith's shape-shifting quartet of novels casts a merry eye over a bleak post-truth era with a story rooted in history, memory, and warmth, its taproot deep in the evergreens: art, love, laughter. It's the season that teaches us survival.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: This Could Hurt Subtitle: A Novel Author: Jillian Medoff Narrator: Sean Crisden, Nick Podehl, Madeleine Maby, Andrea Gallo, Saskia Maarleveld, George Newbern Format: Unabridged Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins Language: English Release date: 01-09-18 Publisher: Harper Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 22 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: A funny and deeply felt novel that illuminates the pivotal role of work in our lives - a riveting fusion of The Nest, Up in the Air, and Then We Came to the End that captures the emotional complexities of five HR colleagues trying to balance ambition, hope, and fear as their small company is buffeted by economic forces that threaten to upend them. Rosa Guerrero beat the odds as she rose to the top of the corporate world. An attractive woman of a certain age, the longtime chief of human resources at Ellery Consumer Research is still a formidable presence, even if her most vital days are behind her. A leader who wields power with grace and discretion, she has earned the devotion and loyalty of her staff. No one admires Rosa more than her doting lieutenant Leo Smalls, a benefits vice president whose whole world is Ellery. While Rosa is consumed with trying to address the needs of her staff within the ever-constricting limits of the company's bottom line, her associate director, Rob Hirsch, a middle-aged, happily married father of two, finds himself drawing closer to his "work wife", Lucy Bender, an enterprising single woman searching for something - a romance, a promotion - to fill the vacuum in her personal life. For Kenny Verville, a senior manager with an MBA, Ellery is a temporary stepping-stone to bigger and better places - that is, if his high-powered wife has her way. Compelling, flawed, and heartbreakingly human, these men and women scheme, fall in and out of love, and nurture dreams big and small. As their individual circumstances shift, one thing remains constant - Rosa, the sun around whom they all orbit. When her world begins to crumble, the implications for everyone are profound, and Leo, Rob, Lucy, and Kenny find themselves changed in ways beyond their reckoning. Jillian Medoff explores the inner workings of an American company in all its brilliant, insane, comforting, and terrifying glory. Authentic, razor-sharp, and achingly funny, This Could Hurt is a novel about work, loneliness, love, and loyalty; about sudden reversals and unexpected windfalls; a novel about life. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Music Shop Subtitle: A Novel Author: Rachel Joyce Narrator: Steven Hartley Format: Unabridged Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins Language: English Release date: 01-02-18 Publisher: Random House Audio Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 133 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: A love story and a journey through music, the exquisite and perfectly pitched new novel from the best-selling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. It is 1988. On a dead-end street in a run-down suburb there is a music shop that stands small and brightly lit, jam-packed with records of every kind. Like a beacon, the shop attracts the lonely, the sleepless, and the adrift; Frank, the shop's owner, has a way of connecting his customers with just the piece of music they need. Then, one day, into his shop comes a beautiful young woman, Ilse Brauchmann, who asks Frank to teach her about music. Terrified of real closeness, Frank feels compelled to turn and run, yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems, and Frank has old wounds that threaten to reopen, as well as a past it seems he will never leave behind. Can a man who is so in tune with other people's needs be so incapable of connecting with the one person who might save him? The journey that these two quirky, wonderful characters make in order to overcome their emotional baggage speaks to the healing power of music - and love - in this poignant, ultimately joyful work of fiction.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: September Author: Rosamunde Pilcher Narrator: Jilly Bond Format: Unabridged Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins Language: English Release date: 12-12-17 Publisher: Macmillan Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 31 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: Seasons change, September comes and goes, but Rosamunde Pilcher's singular narrative voice is eternal. Listeners will be transported to another time and place with this enchanting audiobook from a beloved British author. A place you will never forget Rosamunde Pilcher's Scotland...where the fields flourish with greenery, the bills bloom with purple, and the lochs glitter with the bright blue of the sky. A time you will never forget September...when the heather is in full flower, the first chill of autumn cools the air, and the countryside stirs with the hunt, balls, dinner parties, and dance. An audiobook you will never forget Rosamunde Pilcher's September...a story of homecomings and heartbreaks, friendships, betrayals, forgiveness, and love. From the author of the classic multimillion-copy best seller The Shell Seekers. A main selection of the Literary Guild and the Doubleday Book Club

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Wake Up Author: Catherine Ryan Hyde Narrator: Nick Podehl Format: Unabridged Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins Language: English Release date: 12-05-17 Publisher: Brilliance Audio Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 120 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: From New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde comes a hauntingly emotional novel of how one man's life changes forever when he rediscovers his ability to feel the pain of others. Something has been asleep in forty-year-old cattle rancher Aiden Delacorte for a long time. It all comes back in a rush during a hunting trip, when he's suddenly attuned to the animals around him, feeling their pain and fear as if it were his own. But the newfound sensitivity of Aiden's "wake up" has its price. He can no longer sleepwalk through life, holding everyone at arm's length. As he struggles to cope with a trait he's buried since childhood, Aiden falls in love with Gwen, a single mother whose young son bears a burden of his own. Sullen and broken from his experiences with an abusive father, Milo has turned to acting out in violent and rebellious ways. Aiden can feel the boy's pain, as well as that of his victims. Now he and Milo must sift through their pasts to find empathy with the innocent as well as the guilty, to come to terms with their deepest fears, and to finally discover the compassionate heart of a family.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Ruined House Subtitle: A Novel Author: Ruby Namdar Narrator: Paul Boehmer Format: Unabridged Length: 21 hrs and 4 mins Language: English Release date: 11-07-17 Publisher: Harper Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 4 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: Winner of the Sapir Prize, Israel's highest literary award Picking up the mantle of legendary authors such as Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, an exquisite literary talent makes his debut with a nuanced and provocative tale of materialism, tradition, faith, and the search for meaning in contemporary American life. Andrew P. Cohen, a professor of comparative culture at New York University, is at the zenith of his life. Adored by his classes and published in prestigious literary magazines, he is about to receive a coveted promotion - the crowning achievement of an enviable career. He is on excellent terms with Linda, his ex-wife, and his two grown children admire and adore him. His girlfriend, Ann Lee, a former student half his age, offers lively companionship. A man of elevated taste, education, and culture, he is a model of urbanity and success. But the manicured surface of his world begins to crack when he is visited by a series of strange and inexplicable visions involving an ancient religious ritual that will upend his comfortable life. Beautiful, mesmerizing, and unsettling, The Ruined House unfolds over the course of one year, as Andrew's world unravels and he is forced to question all his beliefs. Ruby Namdar's brilliant novel embraces the themes of the American Jewish literary canon as it captures the privilege and pedantry of New York intellectual life in the opening years of the 21st century. Critic Reviews: "In The Ruined House a 'small harmless modicum of vanity' turns into an apocalyptic bonfire. Shot through with humor and mystery and insight, Ruby Namdar's wonderful first novel examines how the real and the unreal merge. It's a daring study of madness, masculinity, myth-making, and the human fragility that emerges in the mix." (Colum McCann, National Book Award-winning author of Let the Great World Spin)

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Power Author: Naomi Alderman Narrator: Adjoa Andoh Format: Unabridged Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins Language: English Release date: 10-10-17 Publisher: Hachette Audio Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 691 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: Winner of the 2017 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction What would happen if women suddenly possessed a fierce new power? In The Power, the world is a recognizable place: There's a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power - they can cause agonizing pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets. From award-winning author Naomi Alderman, The Power is speculative fiction at its most ambitious and provocative, at once taking us on a thrilling journey to an alternate reality and exposing our own world in bold and surprising ways.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Hate U Give (Danish Edition) Author: Angie Thomas Narrator: Laura Drasbk Format: Unabridged Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins Language: English Release date: 10-10-17 Publisher: Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag A/S Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 9 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: 16-rige, Starr, er eneste vidne til, at hendes ubevbnede ven, Khalil, bliver skudt og drbt af en hvid politimand. Indtil nu har Starr balanceret mellem det sorte lokalmilj, hvor hun bor, og den finere privatskole i forstaden, som hun gr p. Men da nedskydningen af Khalil bliver forsidestof over hele landet, er hun ndt til at beslutte, om og hvordan hun vil rbe op, srligt da nogle af hendes venner p skolen antyder, at Khalil selv var ude om det. ©2017 Gyldendal. Translated by Betty Frank Simonsen (P)2017 Gyldendal

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Snow Falling on Cedars Author: David Guterson Narrator: George Guidall Format: Unabridged Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins Language: English Release date: 09-18-17 Publisher: Recorded Books Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 38 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: As a Japanese-American fisherman stands trial for murder on an island in Puget Sound, snow blankets the countryside. The whiteness covers the courthouse, but it cannot conceal the memories at work inside: the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, an unrequited love, and the ghosts of racism that still haunt the islanders. First novels rarely attract as much attention as Snow Falling on Cedars. Remaining on best seller lists for months, it has cast a spell on listeners across the country.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: My Absolute Darling Subtitle: A Novel Author: Gabriel Tallent Narrator: Alex McKenna Format: Unabridged Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins Language: English Release date: 08-29-17 Publisher: Penguin Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 793 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: A brilliant and immersive, all-consuming audiobook about one 14-year-old girl's heart-stopping fight for her own soul. Turtle Alveston is a survivor. At 14, she roams the woods along the Northern California coast. The creeks, tide pools, and rocky islands are her haunts and her hiding grounds, and she is known to wander for miles. But while her physical world is expansive, her personal one is small and treacherous. Turtle has grown up isolated since the death of her mother, in the thrall of her tortured and charismatic father, Martin. Her social existence is confined to the middle school (where she fends off the interest of anyone, student or teacher, who might penetrate her shell) and to her life with her father. Then Turtle meets Jacob, a high-school boy who tells jokes, lives in a big clean house, and looks at Turtle as if she is the sunrise. And for the first time, the larger world begins to come into focus: Her life with Martin is neither safe nor sustainable. Motivated by her first experience with real friendship and a teenage crush, Turtle starts to imagine escape, using the very survival skills her father devoted himself to teaching her. The listener tracks Turtle's escalating acts of physical and emotional courage and watches, heart in throat, as she struggles to become her own hero - and, in the process, becomes ours as well. Shot through with striking language in a fierce natural setting, My Absolute Darling is an urgently told, profoundly moving book that marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer. Critic Reviews: "The word 'masterpiece' has been cheapened by too many blurbs, but My Absolute Darling absolutely is one." (Stephen King)

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Home Fire Subtitle: A Novel Author: Kamila Shamsie Narrator: Tania Rodrigues Format: Unabridged Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins Language: English Release date: 08-15-17 Publisher: Penguin Audio Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 178 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: From an internationally acclaimed novelist, the suspenseful and heartbreaking story of a family ripped apart by secrets and driven to pit love against loyalty, with devastating consequences. Isma is free. After years of watching out for her younger siblings in the wake of their mother's death, she's accepted an invitation from a mentor in America that allows her to resume a dream long deferred. But she can't stop worrying about Aneeka, her beautiful, headstrong sister back in London, or their brother, Parvaiz, who's disappeared in pursuit of his own dream, to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew. When he resurfaces half a globe away, Isma's worst fears are confirmed. Then Eamonn enters the sisters' lives. Son of a powerful political figure, he has his own birthright to live up to - or defy. Is he to be a chance at love? The means of Parvaiz's salvation? Suddenly two families' fates are inextricably, devastatingly entwined in this searing novel that asks: What sacrifices will we make in the name of love?

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Conversations with Friends Subtitle: A Novel Author: Sally Rooney Narrator: Aoife McMahon Format: Unabridged Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins Language: English Release date: 07-11-17 Publisher: Random House Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 69 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: A sharply intelligent novel about friendship, lust, jealousy, and the unexpected complications of adulthood in the 21st century Frances is a cool-headed and darkly observant young woman vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. Her best friend and comrade-in-arms is the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi. At a local poetry performance one night, Frances and Bobbi catch the eye of Melissa, a well-known photographer, and as the girls are then gradually drawn into Melissa's world, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband, Nick. However amusing and ironic Frances and Nick's flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy, and Frances' friendship with Bobbi begins to fracture. As Frances tries to keep her life in check, her relationships increasingly resist her control: with Nick, with her difficult and unhappy father, and finally, terribly, with Bobbi. Desperate to reconcile her inner life to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances' intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new: a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment. Written with gemlike precision and marked by a sly sense of humor, Conversations with Friends is wonderfully alive to the pleasures and dangers of youth and the messy edges of female friendship. Critic Reviews: "Readers who enjoyed Belinda McKeon's Tender and Caitriona Lally's Eggshells will enjoy this exceptional debut." (Library Journal ) "[Sally] Rooney captures the mood and voice of contemporary women and their interpersonal connections and concerns without being remotely predictable.... A clever and current book about a complicated woman and her romantic relationships." (Kirkus)

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Almost Sisters Subtitle: A Novel Author: Joshilyn Jackson Narrator: Joshilyn Jackson Format: Unabridged Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins Language: English Release date: 07-11-17 Publisher: Harper Audio Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 750 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: With empathy, grace, humor, and piercing insight, the author of Gods in Alabama presents a powerful, emotionally resonant novel of the South that confronts the truth about privilege, family, and the distinctions between perception and reality - the stories we tell ourselves about our origins and who we really are. Superheroes have always been Leia Birch Briggs' weakness. One tequila-soaked night at a comics convention, the usually level-headed graphic novelist is swept off her barstool by a handsome and anonymous Batman. It turns out the caped crusader has left her with more than just a nice, fuzzy memory. She's having a baby boy - an unexpected but not unhappy development in the 38-year-old's life. But before Leia can break the news of her impending single-motherhood (including the fact that her baby is biracial) to her conventional Southern family, her stepsister Rachel's marriage implodes. Worse, she learns her beloved 90-year-old grandmother, Birchie, is losing her mind, and she's been hiding her dementia with the help of Wattie, her best friend since girlhood. Leia returns to Alabama to put her grandmother's affairs in order, clean out the big Victorian that has been in the Birch family for generations, and tell her family that she's pregnant. Yet just when Leia thinks she's got it all under control, she learns that illness is not the only thing Birchie's been hiding. Tucked in the attic is a dangerous secret with roots that reach all the way back to the Civil War. Its exposure threatens the family's freedom and future, and it will change everything about how Leia sees herself and her sister, her son and his missing father, and the world she thinks she knows.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Golden Hill Subtitle: A Novel of Old New York Author: Francis Spufford Narrator: Sarah Borges Format: Unabridged Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins Language: English Release date: 07-04-17 Publisher: Simon and Schuster Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 193 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan island, 1746. One rainy evening in November, a handsome young stranger fresh off the boat arrives at a countinghouse door on Golden Hill Street: This is Mr. Smith, amiable, charming, yet strangely determined to keep suspicion shimmering. For in his pocket, he has what seems to be an order for a thousand pounds, a huge sum, and he won't explain why, or where he comes from, or what he is planning to do in the colonies that requires so much money. Should the New York merchants trust him? Should they risk their credit and refuse to pay? Should they befriend him, seduce him, arrest him...maybe even kill him? Rich in language and historical perception yet compulsively listenable, Golden Hill is a story "taut with twists and turns" that "keeps you gripped until its tour-de-force conclusion" (The Times, London). Spufford paints an irresistible picture of a New York provokingly different from its later metropolitan self but already entirely a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love - and find a world of trouble. Critic Reviews: Nothing short of a masterpiece. (The Guardian)

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Party Subtitle: A Novel Author: Robyn Harding Narrator: Cassandra Campbell Format: Unabridged Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins Language: English Release date: 06-06-17 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 273 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: In this stunning and provocative domestic drama about a sweet 16 birthday party that goes horribly awry, a wealthy family in San Francisco finds their picture-perfect life unraveling, their darkest secrets revealed, and their friends turned to enemies. One invitation. A lifetime of regrets. Sweet 16. It's an exciting coming of age, a milestone, and a rite of passage. Jeff and Kim Sanders plan on throwing a party for their daughter, Hannah - a sweet girl with good grades and nice friends. Rather than an extravagant, indulgent affair, they invite four girls over for pizza, cake, movies, and a sleepover. What could possibly go wrong? But things do go wrong, horrifically so. After a tragic accident occurs, Jeff and Kim's flawless life in a wealthy San Francisco suburb suddenly begins to come apart. In the ugly aftermath, friends become enemies, dark secrets are revealed in the Sanders' marriage, and the truth about their perfect daughter, Hannah, is exposed. Harkening to Herman Koch's The Dinner, Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap, and Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies, The Party takes us behind the façade of the picture-perfect family, exposing the lies, betrayals, and moral lapses that neighbors don't see - and the secrets that children and parents keep from themselves and each other.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness Subtitle: A Novel Author: Arundhati Roy Narrator: Arundhati Roy Format: Unabridged Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins Language: English Release date: 06-06-17 Publisher: Random House Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 307 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: A richly moving new novel - the first since the author's Booker Prize-winning, internationally celebrated debut, The God of Small Things, went on to become a beloved best seller and an enduring classic. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness transports us across a subcontinent on a journey of many years. It takes us deep into the lives of its gloriously rendered characters, each of them in search of a place of safety - in search of meaning and of love. In a graveyard outside the walls of Old Delhi, a resident unrolls a threadbare Persian carpet. On a concrete sidewalk, a baby suddenly appears just after midnight. In a snowy valley, a bereaved father writes a letter to his five-year-old daughter about the people who came to her funeral. In a second-floor apartment, a lone woman chain-smokes as she reads through her old notebooks. At the Jannat Guest House, two people who have known each other all their lives sleep with their arms wrapped around each other, as though they have just met. A braided narrative of astonishing force and originality, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is at once a love story and a provocation - a novel as inventive as it is emotionally engaging. It is told with a whisper, in a shout, through joyous tears, and sometimes with a bitter laugh. Its heroes, both present and departed, have been broken by the world we live in - and then mended by love. For this reason they will never surrender. How to tell a shattered story? By slowly becoming everybody. No. By slowly becoming everything. Humane and sensuous, beautifully told, this extraordinary novel demonstrates the miracle of Arundhati Roy's storytelling gifts. Critic Reviews: "If Arundhati Roy's lyrical prose, melodic voice, and lilting accents aren't enough, the stories of Anjum, Tilottama, and a cast of society's misbegotten - interwoven with India's social and political growing pains - will keep listeners captivated.... Roy's impeccable diction makes this dense and challenging saga accessible and unforgettable." ( AudioFile)

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The God of Small Things Author: Arundhati Roy Narrator: Sneha Mathan Format: Unabridged Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins Language: English Release date: 06-06-17 Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc. Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 273 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: Likened to the works of Faulkner and Dickens when it was first published 20 years ago, this extraordinarily accomplished debut novel is a brilliantly plotted story of forbidden love and piercing political drama, centered on the tragic decline of an Indian family in the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India. Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, the twins Rahel and Esthappen fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family - their lonely, lovely mother Ammu (who loves by night the man her children love by day), their blind grandmother Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), their enemy Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt), and the ghost of an imperial entomologist's moth (with unusually dense dorsal tufts). When their English cousin and her mother arrive on a Christmas visit, the twins learn that things can change in a day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever. The brilliantly plotted story uncoils with an agonizing sense of foreboding and inevitability. Yet nothing prepares you for what lies at the heart of it.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Essex Serpent Subtitle: A Novel Author: Sarah Perry Narrator: Juanita McMahon Format: Unabridged Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins Language: English Release date: 06-06-17 Publisher: Harper Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 310 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: Costa Book Award Finalist and the Waterstones (UK) Book of the Year 2016 An exquisitely talented young British author makes her American debut with this rapturously acclaimed historical novel, set in late 19th-century England, about an intellectually minded young widow, a pious vicar, and a rumored mythical serpent that explores questions about science and religion, skepticism, and faith, independence and love. When Cora Seaborne's brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was not a happy one. Wed at 19, this woman of exceptional intelligence and curiosity was ill-suited for the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space in the wake of the funeral, Cora leaves London for a visit to coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive 11-year old son, Francis, and the boy's nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend. While admiring the sites, Cora learns of an intriguing rumor that has arisen further up the estuary, of a fearsome creature said to roam the marshes claiming human lives. After nearly 300 years, the mythical Essex Serpent is said to have returned, taking the life of a young man on New Year's Eve. A keen amateur naturalist with no patience for religion or superstition, Cora is immediately enthralled, and certain that what the local people think is a magical sea beast may be a previously undiscovered species. Eager to investigate, she is introduced to local vicar William Ransome. Will, too, is suspicious of the rumors. But unlike Cora, this man of faith is convinced the rumors are caused by moral panic, a flight from true belief. These seeming opposites who agree on nothing soon find themselves inexorably drawn together and torn apart - an intense relationship that will change both of their lives in ways entirely unexpected. Hailed by Sarah Waters as "a work of great intelligence and charm, by a hugely talented author," The Essex Serpent is "irresistible...you can feel the influences of Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, and Hilary Mantel channeled by Perry in some sort of Victorian séance. This is the best new novel I've read in years." (Daily Telegraph, London). Critic Reviews: "I loved this book. At once numinous, intimate and wise, The Essex Serpent is a marvelous novel about the workings of life, love and belief, about science and religion, secrets, mysteries, and the complicated and unexpected shifts of the human heart - and it contains some of the most beautiful evocations of place and landscape I've ever read. It is so good its pages seem lit from within. As soon as I'd finished it I started reading it again." (Helen MacDonald, author of H is for Hawk) "An array of adjectives comes to mind at the opening words of this audiobook: alluring, poetic, with an air of exactness and aged wisdom.... Narrator Juanita McMahon expertly inhabits its sharp-tongued, sweet-spirited, stoic, wondrous characters. Her vocal characterizations are gothically charming.... A superb narration!" ( AudioFile)

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Allie and Bea Author: Catherine Ryan Hyde Narrator: Lauren Ezzo, Janet Metzger Format: Unabridged Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins Language: English Release date: 05-23-17 Publisher: Brilliance Audio Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2216 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: Bea has barely been scraping by since her husband died. After falling for a telephone scam, she loses everything and is forced to abandon her trailer. With only two-thirds of a tank in her old van, she heads toward the Pacific Ocean with her cat - on a mission to reclaim what's rightfully hers, even if it means making others pay for what she lost. When fifteen-year-old Allie's parents are jailed for tax fraud, she's sent to a group home. But when her life is threatened by another resident, she knows she has to get out. She escapes only to find she has nowhere to go - until fate throws Allie in Bea's path. Reluctant to trust each other, much less become friends, the two warily make their way up the Pacific Coast. Yet as their hearts open to friendship and love from the strangers they meet on their journey, they find the courage to forge their own unique family - and begin to see an imperfect world with new eyes.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine Author: Gail Honeyman Narrator: Cathleen McCarron Format: Unabridged Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins Language: English Release date: 05-18-17 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 115 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: Costa First Novel Book Award winner 2017 - The Sunday Times best seller - AudioFile Magazine Earphones Award Winner Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon. Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive - but not how to live. Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted - while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she's avoided all her life. Change can be good. Change can be bad. But surely any change is better than...fine? Critic Reviews: "A truly original literary creation: funny, touching and unpredictable. Her journey out of the shadows is expertly woven and absolutely gripping." (Jojo Moyes) "Deft, compassionate and moving." (Paula McLain) "I adored it. Skilled, perceptive, Eleanor's world will feel familiar to you from the very first page. An outstanding debut!" (Joanna Cannon)

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Kristin Lavransdatter Author: Sigrid Undset, Tiina Nunnally - translator Narrator: Erin Bennett Format: Unabridged Length: 44 hrs and 59 mins Language: English Release date: 05-16-17 Publisher: Audible Studios Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 597 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: The Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy by Sigrid Undset, who won of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928 ("principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages") is now available unabridged at Audible for the first time! As a young girl in 14th-century Norway, Kristin is deeply devoted to her father, Lavrans, a kind and courageous man. But when as a student in a convent school she meets the charming and impetuous Erlend Nikulaussn, she defies her parents in pursuit of her own desires. Her saga continues through her marriage to Erlend, their tumultuous life together raising seven sons as Erlend seeks to strengthen his political influence, and finally their estrangement as the world around them tumbles into uncertainty. For the first time, all three Kristin Lavransdatter novels, The Wreath, The Wife, and The Cross, are available in an accessible, modern, single-volume performance. Audible recorded the prize-winning translation by Tiina Nunnally, performed by Erin Bennett. Bennett does more than demystify the Norwegian names; more importantly she becomes Kristin's timeless voice, which the listener follows from cradle to grave. Despite - or perhaps because of - the rich detail about medieval Scandinavian morality and customs, there's no piece of Kristin's fictional life in the 14th century - her struggle to be her best self at every age - that doesn't resonate with contemporary women's struggles to "have it all". If you are a nerdy stickler for historical accuracy, or if you are looking for a totally absorbing performance dominated by a single character's point of view, or if you enjoy the work of empyrean women authors - especially Hilary Mantel, Charlotte Brontë, and Elena Ferrante - here's your next great listen! Critic Reviews: "[Sigrid Undset] should be the next Elena Ferrante...whose huge commercial success suggests there is a market for series in translation about fierce, complicated women navigating their culturally conservative European milieu.... If HBO is looking for its next miniseries, it should give Kristin Lavransdatter the proper adaptation it deserves. Rereading the trilogy this fall, I kept thinking of Olive Kitteridge, another powerful novel about a prickly mother turned into a worthy HBO miniseries. This trilogy includes illicit sex, affairs, a church fire, an attempted rape, ocean voyages, rebellious virgins cooped up in a convent, predatory priests, an attempted human sacrifice, floods, fights, murders, violent suicide, a gay king, drunken revelry, the Bubonic Plague, deathbed confessions, and sex that makes its heroine ache 'with astonishment - that this was the iniquity that all the songs were about.' " (Ruth Graham, Slate) "[My favorite fictional hero or heroine is] probably Sigrid Undset's strong-willed, sensual, self-destructive and ultimately rock-solid Kristin Lavransdatter.... Kristin's eponymous trilogy bears many rereadings. Right away one somehow identifies with this daughter of medieval Norway; soon one compassionates her in her sufferings.... For all her faults [she] inspires love in many around her, including this reader. Her faith and loyalty make her quite beautiful to me. Like Murasaki and Dos Passos, Undset tells the story of a whole life." (William T.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Saints for All Occasions Subtitle: A Novel Author: J. Courtney Sullivan Narrator: Susan Denaker Format: Unabridged Length: 17 hrs Language: English Release date: 05-09-17 Publisher: Random House Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 343 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: A sweeping, unforgettable novel from the New York Times best-selling author of Maine, about the hope, sacrifice, and love between two sisters and the secret that drives them apart. Nora and Theresa Flynn are 21 and 17 when they leave their small village in Ireland and journey to America. Nora is the responsible sister; she's shy and serious and engaged to a man she isn't sure that she loves. Theresa is gregarious; she is thrilled by their new life in Boston and besotted with the fashionable dresses and dance halls on Dudley Street. But when Theresa ends up pregnant, Nora is forced to come up with a plan - a decision with repercussions they are both far too young to understand. Fifty years later Nora is the matriarch of a big Catholic family, with four grown children: John, a successful if opportunistic political consultant; Bridget, quietly preparing to have a baby with her girlfriend; Brian, at loose ends after a failed baseball career; and Patrick, Nora's favorite, the beautiful boy who gives her no end of heartache. Estranged from her sister, Theresa is a cloistered nun, living in an abbey in rural Vermont. Until, after decades of silence, a sudden death forces Nora and Theresa to confront the choices they made so long ago. A graceful, supremely moving novel from one of our most beloved writers, Saints for All Occasions explores the fascinating, funny, and sometimes achingly sad ways a secret at the heart of one family both breaks them and binds them together. Critic Reviews: "I hope to read another novel as strong and wise and beautiful and heartbreaking as J. Courtney Sullivan's Saints for All Occasions, but I'm not sure I will." (Richard Russo)

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Since We Fell Subtitle: A Novel Author: Dennis Lehane Narrator: Julia Whelan Format: Unabridged Length: 12 hrs and 1 min Language: English Release date: 05-09-17 Publisher: HarperAudio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1201 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: Since We Fell follows Rachel Childs, a former journalist who, after an on-air mental breakdown, now lives as a virtual shut-in. In all other respects, however, she enjoys an ideal life with an ideal husband. Until a chance encounter on a rainy afternoon causes that ideal life to fray. As does Rachel's marriage. As does Rachel herself. Sucked into a conspiracy thick with deception, violence, and possibly madness, Rachel must find the strength within herself to conquer unimaginable fears and mind-altering truths. By turns heartbreaking, suspenseful, romantic, and sophisticated, Since We Fell is a novel of profound psychological insight and tension. It is Dennis Lehane at his very best.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Salt Houses Author: Hala Alyan Narrator: Leila Buck Format: Unabridged Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins Language: English Release date: 05-02-17 Publisher: Recorded Books Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 67 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: From a dazzling new literary voice, a debut novel about a Palestinian family caught between present and past, between displacement and home. On the eve of her daughter Alia's wedding, Salma reads the girl's future in a cup of coffee dregs. She sees an unsettled life for Alia and her children; she also sees travel, and luck. While she chooses to keep her predictions to herself that day, they will all soon come to pass when the family is uprooted in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967. Salma is forced to leave her home in Nablus; Alia's brother gets pulled into a politically militarized world he can't escape; and Alia and her gentle-spirited husband move to Kuwait City, where they reluctantly build a life with their three children. When Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait in 1990, Alia and her family once again lose their home, their land, and their story as they know it, scattering to Beirut, Paris, Boston, and beyond. Soon Alia's children begin families of their own, once again navigating the burdens (and blessings) of assimilation in foreign cities. Lyrical and heartbreaking, Salt Houses is a remarkable debut novel that challenges and humanizes an age-old conflict we might think we understand - one that asks us to confront that most devastating of all truths: you can't go home again.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Night the Lights Went Out Author: Karen White Narrator: Carolyn Cook, Susan Larkin, Tiffany Morgan Format: Unabridged Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins Language: English Release date: 04-11-17 Publisher: Penguin Audio Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 857 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: From the New York Times best-selling author of Flight Patterns comes a stunning new novel about a young single mother who discovers that the nature of friendship is never what it seems.... Recently divorced, Merilee Talbot Dunlap moves with her two children to the Atlanta suburb of Sweet Apple, Georgia. It's not her first time starting over, but her efforts at a new beginning aren't helped by an anonymous local blog that dishes about the scandalous events that caused her marriage to fail. Merilee finds some measure of peace in the cottage she is renting from town matriarch Sugar Prescott. Though stubborn and irascible, Sugar sees something of herself in Merilee - something that allows her to open up about her own colorful past. Sugar's stories give Merilee a different perspective on the town and its wealthy school moms in their tennis whites and shiny SUVs and even on her new friendship with Heather Blackford. Merilee is charmed by the glamorous young mother's seemingly perfect life and finds herself drawn into Heather's world. In a town like Sweet Apple, where sins and secrets are as likely to be found behind the walls of gated mansions as in the dark woods surrounding Merilee's house, appearance is everything. But just how dangerous that deception can be will shock all three women.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: American War Subtitle: A Novel Author: Omar El Akkad Narrator: Dion Graham Format: Unabridged Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins Language: English Release date: 04-04-17 Publisher: Random House Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1049 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: An audacious and powerful debut novel: a second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle - a story that asks what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons upon itself. Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, that unmanned drones fill the sky. And when her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she quickly begins to be shaped by her particular time and place until, finally, through the influence of a mysterious functionary, she is turned into a deadly instrument of war. Telling her story is her nephew, Benjamin Chestnut, born during the war - part of the Miraculous Generation - and now an old man confronting the dark secret of his past, his family's role in the conflict and, in particular, that of his aunt, a woman who saved his life while destroying untold others. Editorial Reviews: Editors Select, April 2017 - Omar El Akkad's ambitious debut novel is set in a dystopian future America amid a second Civil War, following the Chestnut family - particularly young Sarat - as they seek refuge from the encroaching violence near their home in Louisiana. The country is torn apart at first by the divide over climate change and fossil fuels and then by assassination, violence, and plague. With cinematic description and imagery, El Akkad paints a bleak vision, made all the more horrifying by how palpable and timely it all seems. I was initially concerned this book would feel too close to home to be enjoyable - and yet I was utterly transfixed from the very start. I can easily see this novel becoming an important entry into the dystopian canon. Dion Graham's performance is masterful as always. His smooth, measured delivery is welcome guide through this chaotic, dark story. Sam, Audible Editor

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Handmaid's Tale: Special Edition Author: Valerie Martin - essay, Margaret Atwood Narrator: Claire Danes, full cast, Margaret Atwood Format: Unabridged Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins Language: English Release date: 04-04-17 Publisher: Audible Studios Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 15203 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: "Are there any questions?" The final line in Margaret Atwood's modern classic, The Handmaid's Tale, has teased and perplexed fans since the book's original release more than 30 years ago. Now, in this Audible Original production, listeners get some of the answers they've waited so long to hear. Featuring an all-new interview with Professor Piexoto, written by Atwood and performed by a full cast, The Handmaid's Tale: Special Edition is a must-listen for both fans and newcomers alike. Emmy Award winner Claire Danes (Homeland, Temple Grandin) gives a stirring performance of this classic in speculative fiction, where the message (and the warning) is now more timely than ever. In addition to rich sound design that honors the audio origins of Atwood's classic, the special edition also includes a brand-new afterword from the author and an essay written by author Valerie Martin (Mary Reilly, Property). After a violent coup in the United States overthrows the Constitution and ushers in a new government regime, the Republic of Gilead imposes subservient roles on all women. Offred, now a Handmaid tasked with the singular role of procreation in the childless household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife, can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost everything, even her own name. Despite the danger, Offred learns to navigate the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life for mere glimpses of her former freedom, and records her story for future listeners. Whether you're a fan of the original novel or someone who has recently discovered it, The Handmaid's Tale: Special Edition will shock, impress, and satisfy all those who listen. The Handmaid's Tale: Special Edition features performances by Claire Danes, Margaret Atwood, Emily Bauer, Allyson Johnson, Gabra Zackman, Suzanne Toren, Tim Gerard Reynolds, Jennifer Van Dyck, Ray Porter, Emily Cox, Lauren Fortgang, Dan Reiss, Prentice Onayemi, Therese Plummer, and Mark Boyett. Critic Reviews: "Thanks to Audible, you can now pick up a new Special Edition of The Handmaid's Tale to get caught up to speed on the story of Offred, brought to life in this audiobook version by none other than Claire Danes. (Suddenly our heads are spinning with crossover potential.) Aside from the impressive voice acting alone, this audio update also contains new scenes that actually extend the story beyond the original last line of the novel." ( Nerdist) "This highly pertinent, ingeniously conceived production deepens the original work and even surpasses it." ( The Washington Post) "Danes has a calm, still voice that perfectly suits the protagonist.... So what is 'special' and new about this edition? Most of it has to do with material at the end of the book. Previous readers of the book will know that there is an afterword set centuries after the events told in the rest of the novel; it takes the form of an academic lecture that describes finding Offred's story. She never wrote it down; rather, she recorded it over a bunch of music cassette tapes. This edition actually begins each section of the novel with the sound of a 'record' button being pressed and a snatch of music referred to in the epilogue.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley Author: Hannah Tinti Narrator: Elizabeth Wiley Format: Unabridged Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins Language: English Release date: 03-28-17 Publisher: Brilliance Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 236 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: A father protects his daughter from the legacy of his past - and the truth about her mother's death - in this thrilling new novel from the prize-winning author of The Good Thief. After years spent living on the run, Samuel Hawley moves with his teenage daughter, Loo, to Olympus, Massachusetts. There, in his late wife's hometown, Hawley finds work as a fisherman, while Loo struggles to fit in at school and grows curious about her mother's mysterious death. Haunting them both are twelve scars Hawley carries on his body, from twelve bullets in his criminal past - a past that eventually spills over into his daughter's present, until together they must face a reckoning yet to come. This father-daughter epic weaves back and forth through time and across America, from Alaska to the Adirondacks. Both a coming-of-age novel and a literary thriller, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley explores what it means to be a hero, and the cost we pay to protect the people we love most.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane Author: Lisa See Narrator: Jeremy Bobb, Emily Walton, Ruthie Ann Miles, Gabra Zackman, Kimiko Glenn, Alexandra Allwine, Erin Wilhelmi, Joy Osmanski Format: Unabridged Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins Language: English Release date: 03-21-17 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 5024 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: The thrilling new novel from number-one New York Times best-selling author Lisa See explores the lives of a Chinese mother and her daughter who has been abandoned and adopted by an American couple. Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. There is ritual and routine, and it has been ever thus for generations. Then one day a jeep appears at the village gate - the first automobile any of them have seen - and a stranger arrives. In this remote Yunnan village, the stranger finds the rare tea he has been seeking and a reticent Akha people. In her biggest seller, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, See introduced the Yao people to her audience. Here she shares the customs of another Chinese ethnic minority, the Akha, whose world will soon change. Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, translates for the stranger and is among the first to reject the rules that have shaped her existence. When she has a baby outside of wedlock rather than stand by tradition, she wraps her daughter in a blanket, with a tea cake hidden in her swaddling, and abandons her in the nearest city. After mother and daughter have gone their separate ways, Li-yan slowly emerges from the security and insularity of her village to encounter modern life while Haley grows up a privileged and well-loved California girl. Despite Haley's happy home life, she wonders about her origins, and Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. They both search for and find answers in the tea that has shaped their family's destiny for generations. A powerful story about a family separated by circumstances, culture, and distance, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane paints an unforgettable portrait of a little known region and its people and celebrates the bond that connects mothers and daughters. Critic Reviews: "Through Ruthie Ann Miles's earnest narration, listeners are quickly drawn into a culturally complex and historically rich story...See's writing is evocative, with vivid imagery and a strong sense of place, and the cast serves to enhance her storytelling through spirited characterizations and a keen understanding of each person's relation to the overall work. Ideal for fans of historical fiction, coming-of-age tales, and tea." ( AudioFile)

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Exit West Subtitle: A Novel Author: Mohsin Hamid Narrator: Mohsin Hamid Format: Unabridged Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins Language: English Release date: 03-07-17 Publisher: Penguin Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 944 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: From the internationally best-selling author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a love story that unfolds across the rapidly changing face of a volatile world. In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet - sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. They embark on a furtive love affair and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city. When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors - doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through.... Exit West follows these remarkable characters as they emerge into an alien and uncertain future, struggling to hold on to each other, to their past, to the very sense of who they are. Profoundly intimate and powerfully inventive, it tells an unforgettable story of love, loyalty, and courage that is both completely of our time and for all time. Editorial Reviews: Editors Select, March 2017 - Set in a world being irrevocably transformed by migration, Exit West follows Saeed and Nadia, a young middle-class couple in an unnamed country. As their city collapses around them, they are forced to join a wave of migrants fleeing for their lives. But their journey is not what you'd expect. To escape, they decide to seek out one of the doors they've been hearing about, portals to another, safer part of the planet. Using these doorways to exit conflict zones, people emerge in Western societies. While magical and almost fairy-tale like, this novel is sharply modern - where social media is a prime source of information and drones fill the sky. There is also no fluff in the language - the story is told by a detached observer, which is perfectly captured in author/narrator Mohsin Hamid's beautifully measured performance. Spare yet rich, fanciful yet scarily realistic, Exit West brings home the very personal and human struggles people face as refugees. Tricia, Audible Editor Critic Reviews: "The narrator's style is purposeful, measured, and dramatic. Each chapter leaves the listener waiting to hear what will happen next." ( AudioFile)

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Keeper of Lost Things Subtitle: A Novel Author: Ruth Hogan Narrator: Jane Collingwood, Sandra Duncan Format: Unabridged Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins Language: English Release date: 02-21-17 Publisher: HarperAudio Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 256 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: A charming, clever, and quietly moving debut novel of endless possibilities and joyful discoveries that explores the promises we make and break, losing and finding ourselves, the objects that hold magic and meaning for our lives, and the surprising connections that bind us. Lime green plastic flower-shaped hair bobbles - found on the playing field, Derrywood Park, 2nd September. Bone china cup and saucer - found on a bench in Riveria Public Gardens, 31st October. Anthony Peardew is the keeper of lost things. Forty years ago he carelessly lost a keepsake from his beloved fiancée, Therese. That very same day, she died unexpectedly. Brokenhearted, Anthony sought consolation in rescuing lost objects - the things others have dropped, misplaced, or accidently left behind - and writing stories about them. Now, in the twilight of his life, Anthony worries that he has not fully discharged his duty to reconcile all the lost things with their owners. As the end nears, he bequeaths his secret life's mission to his unsuspecting assistant, Laura, leaving her his house and all its lost treasures, including an irritable ghost. Recovering from a bad divorce, Laura, in some ways, is one of Anthony's lost things. But when the lonely woman moves into his mansion, her life begins to change. She finds a new friend in the neighbor's quirky daughter, Sunshine, and a welcome distraction in Freddy, the rugged gardener. As the dark cloud engulfing her lifts, Laura, accompanied by her new companions, sets out to realize Anthony's last wish: reuniting his cherished lost objects with their owners. Long ago, Eunice found a trinket on the London pavement and kept it through the years. Now, with her own end drawing near, she has lost something precious - a tragic twist of fate that forces her to break a promise she once made. As the keeper of lost things, Laura holds the key to Anthony's and Eunice's redemption. But can she unlock the past and make the connections that will lay their spirits to rest? Full of character, wit, and wisdom, The Keeper of Lost Things is a heartwarming tale that will enchant fans of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Garden Spells, Mrs. Queen Takes the Train, and The Silver Linings Playbook.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Refugees Author: Viet Thanh Nguyen Narrator: Viet Thanh Nguyen Format: Unabridged Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins Language: English Release date: 02-07-17 Publisher: Audible Studios Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 437 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer was one of the most widely and highly praised novels of 2015, the winner not only of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but also the Center for Fiction Debut Novel Prize, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, the ALA Carnegie Medal for Fiction, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the California Book Award for First Fiction. Nguyen's next fiction book, The Refugees, is a collection of perfectly formed stories written over a period of 20 years, exploring questions of immigration, identity, love, and family. With the coruscating gaze that informed The Sympathizer, in The Refugees Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to lives led between two worlds, the adopted homeland and the country of birth. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia and starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will, the stories are a captivating testament to the dreams and hardships of immigration. The second piece of fiction by a major new voice in American letters, The Refugees is a beautifully written and sharply observed book about the aspirations of those who leave one country for another and the relationships and desires for self-fulfillment that define our lives. Critic Reviews: Nguyen's gentle and expressive voice contains an authenticity of emotion along with impeccable timing and perfect pronunciation. (AudioFile)

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Turn Subtitle: The Hollows Begins with Death Author: Kim Harrison Narrator: Marguerite Gavin Format: Unabridged Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins Language: English Release date: 02-07-17 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 1008 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: Number-one New York Times best-selling author Kim Harrison returns to her beloved Hollows series with The Turn, the official prequel to the series that will introduce fans and listeners to a whole new side of Rachel Morgan's world as they've never seen it before! Can science save us when all else fails? Trisk and her hated rival, Kal, have the same goal: save their species from extinction. But death comes in the guise of hope when a genetically modified tomato created to feed the world combines with the government's new tactical virus, giving it an unexpected host and a mode of transport. Plague rises, giving the paranormal species the choice to stay hidden and allow humanity to die or to show themselves in a bid to save them. Under accusations of scientific misconduct, Trisk and Kal flee across a plague-torn United States to convince leaders of the major paranormal species to save their supposedly weaker kin, but not everyone thinks humanity should be saved, and Trisk fights the prejudices of two societies to prove not only that humanity does have something to offer but that long-accepted beliefs against women, dark magic, and humanity itself can turn to understanding; that when people are at their worst, the best show their true strength, and that love can hold the world together as a new balance is found.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Autumn Author: Ali Smith Narrator: Melody Grove Format: Unabridged Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins Language: English Release date: 02-07-17 Publisher: Recorded Books Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 160 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: From the Man Booker-shortlisted and Baileys Prize-winning author of How to Be Both, a breathtakingly inventive new novel - about aging, time, love, and stories themselves - that launches an extraordinary quartet of books called Seasonal. Listeners love Ali Smith's novels for their peerless innovation and their joyful celebration of language and life. Her newest, Autumn, has all of these qualities in spades, and - good news for fans! - is the first installment in a quartet. Seasonal, comprised of four standalone books, separate yet interconnected and cyclical (as are the seasons), explores what time is, how we experience it, and the recurring markers in the shapes our lives take and in our ways with narrative. Fusing Keatsian mists and mellow fruitfulness with the vitality, the immediacy, and the color hit of Pop Art, Autumn is a witty excavation of the present by the past. The novel is a stripped-branches take on popular culture and a meditation, in a world growing ever more bordered and exclusive, on what richness and worth are, what harvest means. Critic Reviews: "Ali Smith's moving, dreamlike novel, the first in a planned quartet, is made even lovelier by narrator Melody Grove's consummate narration.... Grove never loses the plot's twisting thread, confidently guiding the listener as the story moves from the present day to 1960s London to WWII France. She imbues her performance with warmth and humor that help ground the story, and her slight variations in tone and accent make the characters easily discernable." ( AudioFile)

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Great Utopian and Dystopian Works of Literature Author: The Great Courses Narrator: Professor Pamela Bedore Format: Original Recording Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins Language: English Release date: 02-03-17 Publisher: The Great Courses Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 445 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: Can literature change our real world society? At its foundation, utopian and dystopian fiction asks a few seemingly simple questions aimed at doing just that. Who are we as a society? Who do we want to be? Who are we afraid we might become? When these questions are framed in the speculative versions of Heaven and Hell on earth, you won't find easy answers, but you will find tremendously insightful and often entertaining perspectives. Utopian and dystopian writing sits at the crossroads of literature and other important academic disciplines such as philosophy, history, psychology, politics, and sociology. It serves as a useful tool to discuss our present condition and future prospects - to imagine a better tomorrow and warn of dangerous possibilities. To examine the future of mankind through detailed and fascinating stories that highlight and exploit our anxieties in adventurous, thought-provoking, and engaging ways. From Thomas More's foundational text Utopia published in 1516 to the 21st-century phenomenon of The Hunger Games, dive into stories that seek to find the best - and the worst - in humanity, with the hope of better understanding ourselves and the world. Great Utopian and Dystopian Works of Literature delivers 24 illuminating lectures, led by Pamela Bedore, Associate Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, which plunge you into the history and development of utopian ideas and their dystopian counterparts. You'll encounter some of the most powerful and influential texts in this genre as you travel centuries into the past and thousands of years into the future, through worlds that are beautiful, laughable, terrifying, and always thought-provoking. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: 4 3 2 1 Subtitle: A Novel Author: Paul Auster Narrator: Paul Auster Format: Unabridged Length: 37 hrs Language: English Release date: 01-31-17 Publisher: Macmillan Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 350 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: This program is narrated byand includes a bonus interview withthe author. Paul Auster's greatest, most heartbreaking and satisfying novela sweeping and surprising story of birthright and possibility, of love and of life itself: a masterpiece. Nearly two weeks early, on March 3, 1947, in the maternity ward of Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the one and only child of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, is born. From that single beginning, Ferguson's life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths. Four identical Fergusons made of the same DNA, four boys who are the same boy, go on to lead four parallel and entirely different lives. Family fortunes diverge. Athletic skills and sex lives and friendships and intellectual passions contrast. Each Ferguson falls under the spell of the magnificent Amy Schneiderman, yet each Amy and each Ferguson have a relationship like no other. Meanwhile, listeners will take in each Ferguson's pleasures and ache from each Ferguson's pains, as the mortal plot of each Ferguson's life rushes on. As inventive and dexterously constructed as anything Paul Auster has ever written, yet with a passion for realism and a great tenderness and fierce attachment to history and to life itself that listeners have never heard from Auster before. 4 3 2 1 is a marvelous and unforgettably affecting tour de force. Editorial Reviews: Editors Select, February 2017 - Archibald Isaac Ferguson is the central character of 4 3 2 1. He's known as Archie by some and as Ferguson by others, and you get to know him from the time he is born through the multiple life outcomes explored by author Paul Auster. Through each nuanced version of his life, I became equally attached to every Archie and every Ferguson revealed to me. Living in and having grown up in Essex County, NJ, I know the towns and landmarks that Auster has set this novel in (my parents also brought me to the now-departed Grunnings Ice Cream parlor). So as I drive through these neighborhoods, I can imagine Archie walking down the street or playing baseball in a local school field. Listening to Paul Auster narrate is like having him in the seat next to me, with the open book on his lap as he calmly reads aloud. This is a book to be savored and allowed to unfold at its own beautiful pace. Tricia, Audible Editor

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: History of Wolves Subtitle: A Novel Author: Emily Fridlund Narrator: Susan Bennett Format: Unabridged Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins Language: English Release date: 01-03-17 Publisher: Recorded Books Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 220 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: Fourteen-year-old Linda lives with her parents in the beautiful, austere woods of Northern Minnesota, where their nearly abandoned commune stands as a last vestige of a lost counterculture world. Isolated at home and an outlander at school, Linda is drawn to the enigmatic, attractive Lily and new history teacher Mr. Grierson. When Mr. Grierson is charged with possessing child pornography, the implications of his arrest deeply affect Linda as she wrestles with her own fledgling desires and craving to belong. And then the young Gardner family moves in across the lake, and Linda finds herself welcomed into their home as a babysitter for their little boy, Paul. It seems that her life finally has purpose, but with this new sense of belonging she is also drawn into secrets she doesn't understand. Over the course of a few days, Linda makes a set of choices that reverberate throughout her life. As she struggles to find a way out of the sequestered world into which she was born, Linda confronts the life-and-death consequences of the things people do - and fail to do - for the people they love. Winner of the McGinnis-Ritchie award for its first chapter, Emily Fridlund's propulsive and gorgeously written History of Wolves introduces a new writer of enormous range and talent. Critic Reviews: "So delicately calibrated and precisely beautiful that one might not immediately sense the sledgehammer of pain building inside this book. And I mean that in the best way. What powerful tension and depth this provides!" (Aimee Bender)

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Romeo and Juliet: A Novel Author: David Hewson Narrator: Richard Armitage Format: Unabridged Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins Language: English Release date: 12-06-16 Publisher: Audible Studios Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 737 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: Exclusively written for Audible, only available in audio "I think Romeo and Juliet is the greatest, most tragic love story ever told. What David Hewson did with this script is so exciting to me. I really love the fact that he followed avenues that Shakespeare suggested but didn't necessarily detail in depth. If you want to immerse yourself in a warm bath of Garganega and the heat of Verona and hear a brilliant story about a young woman who is challenging the restraints of her time, listen to this audiobook, which has romance, poetry, politics, and humor to spare." (Narrator Richard Armitage) It's a story you think you know: the age-old tale of "star-cross'd lovers"; two families at war; a romance, so pure and absolute, fated for a tragic end. It's a story so thoroughly embedded in our culture, and so frequently retold. Yet, nothing captures the spark, the possibility, and the surprise of Shakespeare's work quite like this.... In Romeo and Juliet: A Novel, author David Hewson reworks and expands on the classic story so that it becomes something richer, something new and entirely its own. Much more than a simple love story, it is a brilliant examination of young versus old, hope against despair, and, for Juliet, the search for individual identity at a time when women were regarded as little more than chattel. An original production commissioned by Audible, Romeo and Juliet: A Novel marks the second pairing of David Hewson and actor Richard Armitage, whose previous partnership resulted in Audible's 2014 Audiobook of the Year, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Novel. Hewson's talent for writing for audio is undeniable, and he finds his perfect vocal foil in Armitage, an actor of immense range and absorbing intensity. Together, they bring you a familiar story told in a surprising way - with an ending you might not expect. Bonus: Audiobook includes an afterword written and narrated by David Hewson. About the author: David Hewson is a British author of more than 20 works of fiction, including the Nic Costa detective series, set in contemporary Italy, and three novels based on the hit TV series, The Killing. For Audible, Hewson contributed to the serial novel The Chopin Manuscript, winner of the Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year. And, with A.J. Hartley, Hewson has adapted Shakespeare twice before: Macbeth: A Novel, narrated by Alan Cumming, and Audible's 2014 Audiobook of the Year Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Novel, performed by Richard Armitage. About the narrator: Richard Armitage is a British film, television, theater, and voice actor. A graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Armitage landed his first leading role in the British television show North & South. Peter Jackson cast Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the company of dwarves in The Hobbit films, bringing him international recognition.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer Subtitle: A Novella Author: Fredrik Backman Narrator: David Morse Format: Unabridged Length: 1 hr and 9 mins Language: English Release date: 11-01-16 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 911 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: The New York Times best-selling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, and Britt-Marie Was Here offers an exquisitely moving portrait of an elderly man's struggle to hold on to his most precious memories and his family's efforts to care for him - even as they must find a way to let go. "Isn't that the best of all life's ages, an old man thinks as he looks at his grandchild, when a boy is just big enough to know how the world works but still young enough to refuse to accept it?" Grandpa and Noah are sitting on a bench in a square that keeps getting smaller every day. The square is strange but also familiar, full of the odds and ends that have made up their lives: Grandpa's work desk, the stuffed dragon that Grandpa once gave to Noah, the sweet-smelling hyacinths that Grandma loved to grow in her garden. As they wait together on the bench, they tell jokes and discuss their shared love of mathematics. Grandpa recalls what it was like to fall in love with his wife, what it was like to lose her. She's as real to him now as the first day he met her, but he dreads the day when he won't remember her. Sometimes Grandpa sits on the bench next to Ted, Noah's father - Ted who never liked math, prefers writing and playing guitar, and has waited his entire life for his father to have time for him, to accept him. But in their love of Noah, they have found a common bond. Grandpa, Grandma, Ted, and Noah all meet here, in this peculiar space that is growing dimmer and more confusing all the time. And here is where they will learn to say good-bye, the scent of hyacinths in the air, nothing to fear. This little book with a big message is certain to be treasured for generations to come.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Marriage Games Subtitle: The Games Duet Author: CD Reiss Narrator: Elena Wolfe, Sebastian York Format: Unabridged Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins Language: English Release date: 10-25-16 Publisher: Flip City Media Inc. Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 1201 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: Winner, 2017 APA Audie Awards - Erotica Winner of the AudioFile Earphones AwardNew York Times best seller Thirty days. That's all Adam Steinbeck demands of his wife. Thirty days in a remote cottage, doing everything he demands. After that, he'll sign her divorce papers and give her their company. That's how long he has to rediscover the man he once was. The dominant master he hid when he fell in love with her five years before. She wants their production company badly enough to go to the cottage for a month. Cut off ties to the world and do his bidding. She can submit to him with her body, but her heart will never yield. She thinks this is his pathetic attempt to repair their marriage. She's wrong.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Author: Mark Twain Narrator: Nick Offerman Format: Unabridged Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins Language: English Release date: 09-20-16 Publisher: Audible Studios Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2356 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: "Being paid to perform such a gratifying activity as reading Mark Twain aloud felt powerfully akin to Tom Sawyer hoodwinking other boys into paying him for the privilege of whitewashing a fence. Let's keep that between us." (Narrator Nick Offerman) With The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, not even Twain could have known that when he introduced readers to the inhabitants of the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, he would also be introducing two characters - one a clever and mischievous scamp, and the other a carefree, innocent ragamuffin - whose stories would ultimately shape the course of American literature. But whereas its sequel and companion piece, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, would harken an end to childhood, the story of Tom Sawyer is one that depicts the excitement and adventure of boyhood along the Mississippi. Revisit this enduring classic and you will be struck not only by Twain's skill at capturing a time and place so vividly but also by his uncanny ability to crystallize those oftentimes tumultuous and conflicting emotions that a child experiences at the precipice of adulthood: a longing to be free from the rules and obligations of adults while enjoying the laxity inherent in childhood; a love of all things macabre, like blood oaths, cemetery cures, and haunted houses, that reveal a true innocence - an unawareness of real-life consequences and one's own mortality; and the pangs of guilt when knowing the right thing to do and doing the right thing appear to be at odds. A natural storyteller and raconteur in his own right - just listen to Paddle Your Own Canoe and Gumption - actor, comedian, carpenter, and all-around manly man Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) brings his distinctive baritone and a fine-tuned comic versatility to Twain's writing. In a knockout performance, he doesn't so much as read Twain's words as he does rejoice in them, delighting in the hijinks of Tom - whom he lovingly refers to as a "great scam artist" and "true American hero" - while deftly delivering the tenderness and care Twain gave to his own characters. Editorial Reviews: Editors Select, September 2016 - I am not exaggerating when I say that this is one of the best things I have ever listened to. Nor would it be dishonest to say that this recording made me fall in love with Twain's classic ode to adolescence all over again. But perhaps the strangest thing, as I keep telling all my friends, is that I completely forgot how truly laugh-out-loud funny this book is. I have the narration to thank for that. Parks and Recreation's Nick Offerman is known for playing the quintessential gruff male, but he thoroughly astonishes here, bending his baritone effortlessly to give Twain's characters life. My favorites: the uptight, exhaustive wailing of Aunt Polly; the cracked pleading of drunkard Muff Potter; and, of course, the winking, boyish charm of Tom himself, which Offerman gracefully transforms into tenderness during moments of adolescent melancholy. Which is to say, you can hear Offerman enjoying the reading and loving Twain's characters. It's a book he was meant to read.

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Island Author: Aldous Huxley Narrator: Simon Vance Format: Unabridged Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins Language: English Release date: 09-13-16 Publisher: Tantor Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 330 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: In his final novel - which he considered his most important - Aldous Huxley transports us to the remote Pacific island of Pala, where an ideal society has flourished for 120 years. Inevitably, this island of bliss attracts the envy and enmity of the surrounding world. A conspiracy is underway to take over Pala, and events are set in motion when an agent of the conspirators, a newspaperman named Faranby, is shipwrecked there. What Faranby doesn't expect is how his time with the people of Pala will revolutionize all his values and - to his amazement - give him hope. Critic Reviews: " Island...holds the charm of Huxley's cultured prose and fertile mind." ( The Guardian)