AudioFile's Best Audiobooks of 2020

HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD by Robert Kolker, read by Sean Pratt

This enthralling true story unfolds like a novel with narrator Sean Pratt playing all the parts. He gives a convincing performance of all the Galvins. His timing and subtle delivery bring the listener inside the minds—normal and abnormal—of this family of 12 children, half of whom suffer from schizophrenia. He reads the 45 short chapters with careful pacing and animates the bizarre history.

HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON by Jon Meacham, John Lewis [Afterword], read by JD Jackson, Jon Meacham

This stirring audiobook offers a memorable merging of author, subject, and narrator. JD Jackson voices John Lewis with an authentic and nuanced nod to his rural Alabama roots. Famed for overcoming the beatings he received and his many arrests for sit-ins, Lewis comes across in Meacham’s crystalline prose as a man who prevailed through nonviolence and an abiding religious faith.

ODETTA by Ian Zack, read by Rosa Howard

Known as the Queen of Folk during the 1950s-60s, the mononymous singer and guitarist Odetta was also an important Civil Rights activist. Rosa Howard is outstanding in her narration of this first full-length biography of an influential but enigmatic figure. Howard is comfortable with Zack’s narrative; she makes his interviews and diligent reporting as engaging as a good conversation.

THE QUIET AMERICANS by Scott Anderson, read by Robertson Dean, Scott Anderson [Preface, Note]

Two matchless storytellers combine talents in this compelling audiobook history of the Cold War, as told through the adventures and misadventures of four key CIA agents. Robertson Dean brings the steadiness, focus, and dramatic immediacy required for a long narrative, especially one that maintains four interwoven storylines. Rich in incident, character, and historical import, this is one of the most provocative, most satisfying nonfiction audiobooks of the year.

THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE by Erik Larson, read by John Lee, Erik Larson [Note]

We all know the outcome, but listeners will still be on the edge of their seats while listening to John Lee’s superb narration of Winston Churchill’s first year as Britain’s prime minister, 1940-41. With a German invasion expected at any moment, this was the most perilous year in Britain’s history, the year of Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, and the Blitz. Lee brings the polish and expressiveness of a gifted narrator—one who performs a perfectly credible Churchill voice.

THE YOSEMITE by John Muir, read by Nick McArdle

There’s never been a better time to indulge in John Muir’s inspiring observations of California’s most iconic wilderness. Crafted over the two years that Muir lived in a tiny cabin alongside Yosemite Creek, around 1870, the work was originally intended as a guidebook to what would become Yosemite National Park. Nick McArdle’s understated narration is intoxicatingly relaxing. A Scotsman, like Muir, McArdle allows the author’s words to wash over listeners like a walk in the woods.