Sound on! Sample this month’s best audiobooks.
1. ‘Three Fires,’ by Denise Mina
Known chiefly as a writer of Tartan noir, Mina is also the author of short, punchy novellas on historical personages. The first, “Rizzio” (2021), chronicled the life and murder of David Rizzio, the presumed lover of Mary Queen of Scots. The second, “Three Fires,” looks at the life of Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498), scourge of the worldly, both lay and clerical, in 15th-century Florence. He railed powerfully against usury, gluttony, fornication, simony and luxury, and, more specifically, against women and homosexuality. The story of this committed killjoy ends on the scaffold and — be warned — includes scenes of massacre, torture and execution. The book proceeds at a fast clip, narrated by Rachael Beresford, whose precise English voice resembles that of a well-brought-up young woman, her elocutionary style possessing the cadence of a recitation. It is an approach that accords perfectly with Mina’s staccato prose and air of indictment. Tantor, Unabridged, 4 hours
2. ‘A Disappearance in Fiji,’ by Nilima Rao
Rao, a Fijian Indian Australian, sets the events of her debut in a wretched chapter of Britain’s colonial history. It is 1914 and Akal Singh, an Indian policeman, has been sent in disgrace by British authorities from his posting in Hong Kong to Fiji, considered an unappealing backwater. Thousands of destitute indentured Indians work grueling hours in the sugar cane fields providing the colony’s major export. One such person, Kunti, has gone missing. Some say she has run away, but Akal doesn’t buy it, as Kunti left her young daughter behind. Despite being warned off the investigation and raising the ire of the plantation owners, Akal persists, thereby providing a striking picture of the victims and beneficiaries of the colonial plantation system in Fiji. Alive with well-drawn characters and deftly plotted with a number of twists, the novel is further enhanced by Sid Sagar’s narration. He delivers the general narrative in a clear, mild, compassionate voice, but changes over wonderfully to tones of arrogant bluster for the plantation owner and his snippy wife, a consummate virago.
Recorded Books, Unabridged, 7 1/3 hours
3. ‘North Woods,’ by Daniel Mason
Mason’s ingenious fourth novel is set in western Massachusetts from the 17th century to the present day. Nature, its romance and drama, is its central focus, while historical events are only vaguely detectable. Instead, we experience the germination of a seed in a human corpse; the sexual passion of a bark beetle, bearer of Dutch elm disease; and the frenzy of the hurricane of 1938. Gesturing subtly at the biblical story of Eden and making occasional excursions into the paranormal, the novel also tells the story of a house and its successive inhabitants, each adding to its layered history. While the audiobook lacks the images of the printed version, there is compensation in the voices of 10 gifted narrators who amplify the novel’s emotional dimension. Mark Bramhall’s sandy, urgent voice carries the overarching narrative, while others deliver individual sections. Among them, Billie Fulford-Brown brings desperation to an account of an Indian raid on a European settlement, Mark Deakins infuses yearning into the letters of a wilderness painter, and Jason Culp delivers infectious gusto to a sensationalist true-crime reporter. Random House, Unabridged,
11 hours