The best audiobooks of 2017
Vivid characters need vivid voices, and this year, there are plenty.
In fact, there are 166 voices in just one audiobook alone: the stunning production of George Saunders’ novel, “Lincoln in the Bardo” (Random House Audio; 7:25). Narrators from the famous (Oscar winners Julianne Moore and Susan Sarandon) to the obscure (members of the author’s family and several Random House staffers) reveal what happens in the cemetery where 11-year-old Willie Lincoln is laid to rest. Willie’s grieving father, President Abraham Lincoln, visits his son’s tomb at night, an act that brings hope to other occupants of the cemetery, souls caught in limbo between life and whatever comes next. Humorist David Sedaris is the delightful surprise. His character, Roger Bevins III, is a young gay man disappointed in love. After slitting his wrists, he sees his mistake. “Only then (nearly out the door, so to speak) did I realize how unspeakably beautiful all this was, how precisely engineered for our pleasure.” Which sums up how I feel about this moving story and excellent drama.
“It Comes at Night”: These are the first words spoken by actor Kelvin Harrison Jr. in the audiobook version of Jesmyn Ward’s ferocious novel “Sing, Unburied, Sing” (Simon & Schuster Audio; 8:22). From the start, 13year-old Jojo emerges in bright focus, having already taken on the responsibility of raising a younger sister. But he is still a child with a child’s observing attention. As in Ward’s National Book Awardwinning novel, “Salvage the Bones,” this is a story of a poor black Mississippi family. When Leonie (voiced by Rutina Wesley) and her friend take Jojo and his sister to Parchman prison to retrieve their father, who is white, the harsh realities of race in Mississippi bring neartragedy.
Shelley Atkinson’s galloping narration plunges listeners to the heart of Cork, Ireland, and the life of hapless drug dealer Ryan Cusack in Lisa McInerney’s gutsy novel, “The Blood Miracles” (Murray; 8:18). Ryan’s girlfriend wants him out of the drug racket. His boss, a smalltime dealer, is using Ryan to forge a deal with the Camorra crime syndicate — a move that will put Ryan in the crosshairs of Cork’s crime boss. Ryan manages to double-cross nearly everyone when, during an argument with his girlfriend, he takes up with the wrong woman. Atkinson’s spirited narration and sharp portrayals add to the energy.
When Patra and 4-yearold Paul move in across the lake from 14-year-old Linda, her life takes a turn in Emily Fridlund’s debut novel, “History of Wolves” (Recorded Books; 9:12). Linda lives in an abandoned commune with her uninvolved parents. Narrator Susan Bennett gives adolescent Linda a stubborn yet vulnerable sensibility, an almost affectless awkwardness to match Fridlund’s sharp exploration of adolescence.
“The Idiot” by Elif Batuman (Penguin Audio; 13:44) may be full of Serbs and Hungarians and Bulgarians, but the authornarrator doesn’t bother with accents or character voices in this hilarious tale of the promise and embarrassment of freshman year. What Batuman does instead is affect a deadpan, world-weary freshman, and it couldn’t be more suited to Selin Karadag, an oddly naive character full of strange musings: Long underwear on sale in Filene’s basement is “a pile of souls torn from their bodies.” Selin develops a crush and travels to Hungary in an odd nonpursuit of her romantic interest. There she meets puzzling people, but puzzling is what she does best. “What was ‘Cinderella?’ ” she asks, “if not an allegory for the fundamental unhappiness of shoe shopping?”
Merriam-Webster lexicographer Kory Stamper plays ethologist to our wild language in “Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries” (Random House Audio; 9:48). Her voice is full of charming nerdy energy as she explains how dictionaries are put together and how our language consistently misbehaves. If you know a stickler for precise grammar, Stamper is the practical antidote. She makes no attempt to tame the wild creature that is English, just brings light to its contradictory proclivities.
Jenni Laidman is a freelancer who regularly reviews audiobooks for the Tribune.