Listen up: Here are critics’ favourite audio books
A good audiobook can ease the pain of holiday travel, a bad commute or a boring workout, but a great one is worth listening to purely for its own sake. Here are some recent favourites.
The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell
Adrian’s third wife, Maya, has just been hit by a bus, possibly an act of suicide. Thus Adrian’s self-justifying view of his life begins to disintegrate. Wives, past and present, and their children have spent vacations together, but was it all really sweetness and light? Adrian finds ugly emails on Maya’s laptop, clearly the work of someone with intimate knowledge of the family. Jewell slowly excavates the true state of affairs, and the result is a masterful exposure of the undercurrents of a supposedly happy family. Read by Joe Jameson. (Dreamscape Media, nine hours and 22 minutes) — Katherine A. Powers
There There by Tommy Orange
This debut novel set in Oakland, California, is told through the perspectives of 12 different native characters, all heading toward the Big Oakland Powwow. One is an aspiring documentary filmmaker. One is a boy who has taught himself traditional dance by watching YouTube. Two young men are planning to rob the powwow to pay off their debt to a drug dealer. Several characters are searching for lost parents, children or grandchildren. The growing sense that something terrible is going to happen at the powwow will keep you glued your audioplayer. Read by Darrell Dennis, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Alma Cuervo and Kyla Garcia. (Random House Audio, eight hours) — Marion Winik
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
In 1985, Yale Tischman and his boyfriend, Charlie, are the centre of a circle of gay friends in Chicago, both flying high in their careers. But they have just buried their first friend to die of AIDS and now are eyeing one another, wondering who will be next. A second narrative, set in 2015, focuses on the younger sister of that first lost friend. She is in Paris, searching for her estranged daughter, staying with one of the few survivors of the Chicago group. Makkai gets the AIDS material right down to the smallest detail, and brings her intertwined stories to a devastating, painfully beautiful end. Read by Michael Crouch. (Penguin Audio, 18 hours and 17 minutes) — Marion Winik
Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
There are at least five unabridged audio versions of Dickens’ exuberantly comic tale of selfishness, greed and exploitation, but this one stands out for its brilliant narration by Derek Jacobi. Novelist William Boyd reads his own introduction, noting that although the book has its faults, it is still “the most sheerly funny of all Dickens’s novels.” Not the least of its joys are two of Dickens’ most inspired scoundrels, the self-styled friend to mankind, Seth Pecksniff, and the ghoulish, bibulous Mrs. Gamp (“Leave the bottle on the chimley piece, and . . . let me put my lips to it when I am so dispoged.”) (Audible Studios, 41 hours, and 33 minutes) — Katherine A. Powers
A Well-Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler
Set in New York’s Gilded Age, this is a fictional account of the life of Alva Smith, daughter of old but impoverished Southern gentry. It is Alva’s duty to repair the family’s fortunes through marriage to money; thus she nabs William Vanderbilt, grandson of the commodore. Shunned as war profiteers by the Knickerbocker elite, the Vanderbilts hope the alliance will redeem them. Much hard-nosed social intrigue follows, after which the novel turns its attention to Alva’s unfulfilling marriage to her playboy husband, her scandalous insistence on a divorce, a subsequent love affair and her eventual campaign for women’s rights. Read by Barrie Kreinik. (Macmillan Audio, 14 hours and 20 minutes) — Katherine A. Powers
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
This true story follows a boy named Joe Rantz from a miserable Depression-era childhood to the rowing team at University of Washington, where he and his teammates — all working-class kids from around the state — fought their way to the national championship, then went on to Berlin to compete in the Olympics against the team rowing for Hitler. In Brown’s stirring account, the boys, their coach and the British boat builder who fashioned their shells are unforgettable characters and true heroes. The sport of rowing is evoked in all its physical and metaphysical elegance, the embodiment of all for one and one for all. Read by Edward Herrmann. (Penguin Audio, 14 hours and 24 minutes) — Marion Winik
The Woman in the Water by Charles Finch
Although this is the 11th instalment in the adventures of Victorian sleuth Charles Lenox, it is a “prequel” to the series and a fine place to begin. English actor James Langdon narrates the tale in a calm, elegantly tailored voice. It is 1850, and Lenox, 23, has set up house with his valet and assisting investigator, Graham. The two live in the thrall of a formidable housekeeper who is a source of excellent comedy — as is the whole Deuteronomy of what befits a gentleman. The crime to be solved involves dead women found by the River Thames. Members of Scotland Yard — some of the resentful dunderhead class — are on the scene. The investigation involves several twists, and the solution is agreeably diabolic. (Read by James Langton. Tantor Audio, eight hours and 48 minutes) — Katherine A. Powers
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
A memoir is the ultimate type of book to hear read by the author because, of course, it is the writer’s own true story. Of Sleater-Kinney and Portlandia fame, Brownstein is a guitarist and songwriter who grew up as a fan and fiercely co-opted rock’s all-male “archetypes, stage moves and representations of rebellion and debauchery.” She has insightful things to say not just about rock but about growing up with a closeted gay father and an anorexic mother, about how the creative process works, about the “performance” of the audience at a concert, about the punk esthetic, even about the value of Christmas ornaments. (Read by the author. Penguin Audio, seven hours and four minutes) — Marion Winik
True Grit by Charles Portis
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Portis’ most famous novel. Set in the 1870s, it tells the action-filled story of iron-willed, hard-bargaining Mattie Ross of Yell County, Arkansas, who, at 14, sets off to avenge her father’s murder. With her are Marshall Rooster Cogburn, “an old one-eyed jasper,” and LaBoeuf, a foppish Texas Ranger. Mattie describes events from a distance of some 50 years on, and her manner is that of the strict Presbyterian spinster she has become. Tartt’s solemn voice and Portis’ genius combine to deliver an impeccably deadpan style, one filled with as much inadvertent humor as high adventure. (Read by Donna Tartt. Recorded Books, six hours and 19 minutes) — Katherine A. Powers
This Could Hurt by Jillian Medoff
This savvy slice of corporate life finds heart and humor in a human resources bureaucracy. When HR chief Rosalita Guerrero has a stroke, the co-workers she has mentored rally around to protect her health benefits and retirement. While some at the company jockey for advancement, others find themselves out on the street. Readers of This Could Hurt in print raved about the humorous org charts that precede each section; these are supplied in PDF format to audio listeners because they don’t work when read aloud. On the plus side, the round robin of narrators makes Medoff’s expertly developed characters even more real. (Read by the author and others. Harper Audio, 12 hours and 52 minutes) — Marion Winik
Happiness by Animatta Forna
Actor Robin Miles rises to the challenge of rendering the accents and cadences of several nationalities in this moving, abundantly peopled story. Jean is an American scientist come to London to track the population of urban foxes; Attila is a Ghanaian psychiatrist in London to present a paper on the mental disorders of victims of war. Theirs is the main story, but it comes to involve the lives of many others, including immigrants working menial jobs, each with a history, all banding together to find a missing child. The doings of migrant foxes, parakeets and coyotes create a tale of intersections — not always friendly — between immigrants and natives, humans and nature. (Recorded Books, 13 hours and nine minutes) — Katherine A. Powers
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and other concerns) by Mindy Kaling
Kaling’s big showbiz break — which came when she and her roommate turned their parlor-trick imitation of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon into an avant-garde Off-Broadway show — might be one of the greatest examples of the “follow your bliss” school of career advice you’ll ever encounter. Though serious topics such as bullying and body image make an appearance in this fluffy memoir, this is largely a silly, lighthearted collection of stories, lists and shticks that goes in one ear and out the other, providing giggles along the way. Perfect for road trips with offspring who love The Office: B.J. Novak and Michael Schur make cameo appearances. (Read by the author. Random House Audio, four hours and 37 minutes.) — Marion Winik
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
The first audiobook in Kevin Kwan’s trilogy, a hit in print and at the movies, is a whirling lazy Susan buffet of delights. Kwan’s hilariously detailed studies of the lifestyles and peccadilloes of Singapore billionaires are even better in audio, with gifted narrator Lynn Chen doing all the different American, English and Chinese accents. Kwan is Jane Austen meets Bret Easton Ellis meets Ruth Reichl — he knows his love and money, he knows his designers, and Alamak! (something like “Damn!” in Malay), can he write about food. You end up desperate to fly to Singapore and hit an open-air food market, then move on to Shanghai for six courses in a private dining room. All the brand names finally became a distraction, but for less fancy readers, there’s an addictive plot development every minute. The series continues with
China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems, both available in audiobooks read by Lydia Look. (Random House Audio, 13 hours and 53 minutes) — Marion Winik
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Press play on the audio edition of Saunders’ acclaimed first novel, and you’ll enter a teeming netherworld of voices from the other side. They are the voices of ghosts inhabiting the Washington, D.C., graveyard where Abraham Lincoln comes to visit his cherished, newly dead son, Willie. They are voices you’ll recognize: Susan Sarandon, Bill Hader and Megan Mullally (as a foul-mouthed couple), David Sedaris, Julianne Moore, Nick Offerman and Don Cheadle, along with the author and 158 others. They are still alive, sort of, with all their grudges, hopes and feeling for the president as he movingly expresses his unimaginable loss (Read by the author, Nick Offerman, David Sedaris and a full cast. Random House Audio, seven hours and 25 minutes.) — Estelle Lander
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
Three fine narrators deliver this account of the coldblooded killings of the members of an Osage Indian family in the 1920s, crimes whose investigations were nonexistent or tainted by deep-seated racism. The Osage became millionaires with the discovery of oil under their Oklahoma reservation, making them targets of murderous operators. A sweet-voiced Ann Marie Lee reads the section concerned chiefly with Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman who miraculously survived attempts on her life; countrygrowler Will Patton covers the section on the FBI agent who broke the case; and Danny Campbell finishes as the voice of the author who uncovered further murders. (Read by Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee and Danny Campbell. Random House Audio, nine hours.) — Katherine A. Powers
4321 by Paul Auster
Eight hundred fifty pages in print means 37 hours of audio — but listening to 4 3 2 1 in audio is worth the commitment, thanks to the author’s easyon-the-ears baritone. Auster takes one character, Archie Ferguson, born in Jewish Newark in the 1940s, and tells his story four ways, each with certain differences in his childhood that lead to four totally different outcomes. In one, his father’s family business is robbed, in another it burns down, in another it’s a wild success. In one of the stories, Archie dies young. (Read by the author. Macmillan Audio, 37 hours) — Marion Winik