Audiobooks roundup

“Sourdough” by Robin Sloan, narrated by Therese Plummer, Macmillan, 6:47

Therese Plummer, veteran narrator of more than 300 audiobooks, brings a delightfully loopy creativity to the delightfully loopy novel “Sourdough,” a story built around a mysterious sourdough starter. Critical to the plot are two Mazg brothers, Beoreg and Chaiman. You know the Mazg, right? Those people who live in anonymous communities all over the world, generally on second floors? They are apt to relocate frequently, and their legends, lives and traditions involve yeast, food and music. Plummer creates deceptively familiar accents for the brothers, and the audiobook producers enhance the effect by creating dreamlike Mazg hold music that plays every time Lois Clary calls the brothers’ restaurant for takeout. Their spicy soup and sourdough quickly become Lois’ main sustenance, her one oasis of calm and comfort in a stressful life at General Dexterity, where she works as a computer coder in the area of robot proprioception (which Plummer may be forgiven for repeatedly mispronouncing). Proprioception is how we perceive what our limbs are doing and how they are oriented. Did I mention robots also have a part to play here? And an alpaca? And a food replacement called “Slurry”? And The Lois Club, which is a real thing? When Beoreg gives some of his sourdough starter to Lois, it remakes her life, robots and, for one yeasty moment, a corner of San Francisco.

“Beautiful Animals” by Lawrence Osborne, narrated by Tim Campbell, HighBridge, 7:47

American Tim Campbell’s voice conjures the languid summering of wealthy families on the Greek Island of Hydra and gently ratchets up the tension as things go awry for the two main characters, a young British woman, Naomi Codrington, and an American vacationing on the island for the first time, Samantha Haldane. Although Campbell has narrated more than 130 audiobooks, most are romance, fantasy and thrillers. On “Beautiful Animals” he masters a far subtler work, though also a thriller — Lawrence Osborne’s fourth novel in five years. Twenty-four-yearold Naomi is a familiar figure on Hydra, staying every year with her parents at a big house built high above the port. She takes an interest in Sam, a few years her junior, enduring pleasant boredom with her family. Sam is drawn to the older girl, who carries a whiff of sophistication and something else. Naomi’s father says she has a “talent for secrecy,” and Sam senses this, noting that Naomi controls her smile “the way a child manipulates a kite.” As the two women begin planning outings together, Sam senses a subtle tug, feeling “for a moment that she was the kite this time.” And kite is the role she’ll play, tugging and bouncing at the end of the string, but always, ultimately, following, as Naomi launches a plan to help a refugee they find sleeping on a rocky beach. Is there any doubt that this cannot end well?

“The Home Front,” produced by Dan Gediman, narrated by Martin Sheen, Audible, 8:12

Martin Sheen proves a smooth and skillful guide through the thought-provoking Audible Original series “The Home Front: Life in America During World War II.” But for all Sheen brings to production, the real stars of this 16-part series are the people who tell their own stories of America during this critical period. This sweeping survey — created by Dan Gediman, executive producer of the longrunning “This I Believe” series — makes adroit use of audio archives to reveal the character of a nation at war. The result is an intimate portrait that goes beyond patriotism, revealing the rapid social change war preparations demanded: families from the Dust Bowl states and the South either brought their regional prejudices with them as they traveled to new military industry jobs or learned to embrace a different world. Women entered industry and joined the military. Some women pilots died when men put sugar in fuel tanks. African-Americans answering the call to defend a nation found themselves consigned to scut work and assaulted by Southern police. No, this isn’t the America of the World War II-era films. It’s a richer, sometimes darker, always more complicated and far more interesting place, one with challenges we still struggle with today. (Series is available for free through November.)