New Reviews: Fiction

Narrators Jason Culp, Greta Jung, and Erin Ruth Walker present three distinct portraits in this literary story set on a cruise ship in the week after 9/11. Culp channels regret and loneliness through Doug Clayton, an aging actor who has spent a lifetime behind a mask. Jung infuses resentment and tension into Korean American Franny as she navigates a celebration for her mother's... Read More

Narrator Kristin Atherton leads a full cast of performers in this vivid and irreverent retelling of the story of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. Despite having been born in utter darkness, Aphrodite has become one of the most connected goddesses on Mount Olympus. Now she finds herself perpetually having to reassert her power while... Read More

This audiobook takes the listener to Provence, Alsace, and Corsica. Narrator Adam Barr portrays the characters convincingly and is quite facile with French accents, but maddeningly, he continually mispronounces Barolo. Lynch, the famed wine importer, shares his knowledge and tastes. The novel's protagonist, Kendrick Thomas, a wine merchant like the author, resides in Provence.... Read More

This full-cast audiobook imagines Margaret Dashwood--the younger half sister of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY'S protagonists--as an adult. Longing for more than marriage and motherhood, Margaret visits London at the invitation of Mrs. Jennings. After finding herself lost and tipsy in a less-than-desirable area, Margaret joins a group of independent women, including the beautiful... Read More

Barrie Kreinik narrates the story of Cricket Campbell, a woman in her mid-20s who abandons her job to care for her elderly father in their family's rustic Adirondack home. Initially, Kreinik portrays Cricket's vague dissatisfaction with her life choices and reluctance to re-experience family discord. But as Cricket immerses herself in caring for her father, who has dementia,... Read More

Gail Shalan gives an energetic and appealing narration of Mitchard's latest novel. Fashion writer Reenie's old friend, Felicity, has been charged with the murder of two of her clients. Felicity, a birdwatcher and biologist, was also a professional escort. Reenie hasn't seen Felicity in years but knows in her heart that she's innocent of the charges. Reenie is determined to find... Read More

Kamali Minter's performance here is consistently stellar. Identifying both as Black and Native American, Ophelia Blue Rivers grows up learning how her mixed heritage uniquely informs her life experience. When pollution in her local river makes life unlivable, Ophelia is sent to live with her aunt. This new life includes a fraught relationship with the son of a politically... Read More

British actress Lucy Rayner chose an artful, breathy delivery for this debut historical novel set in 13th-century Bruges. The dreamy tone isn't for an impatient listener, but it suits the telling of this carefully-researched and affecting story. Aleys, an unusual young woman in that era's strict patriarchal society, is drawn to pursue academic knowledge and a personal... Read More

Emma Fenney performs this character-driven Swedish novel about a small group of people who are living apart from society. Burned-out Emelie leaves her big-city job to explore the countryside. In the hills she meets a colony of seven people living on their own, rarely interacting with anyone in the town nearby. As Emilie learns more about each member of the group, the... Read More

Listeners will be pulled into this layered story with its interwoven timelines and well-developed characters. Narrator Carrie Coello creates believable distinctions between generations of Cole women and palpable emotions as the story of their curse unfolds. In the 1600s, Goody Cole was accused of witchcraft and thrown into the sea off the coast of New Hampshire. Thus began the... Read More

Narrator Greg Hernandez amps up suspense and fear in this captivating story. As people are leaving Cape Cod after July 4th, a group of terrorists blows up all the bridges, airports, and ferries, effectively stranding everyone on the island to face both a Category 4 hurricane and their announced dispersal of anthrax. A private investigator and an ex-homicide detective must work... Read More

With his vocal control and emotional awareness, Shane Ghostkeeper brilliantly performs this meta, often surrealist novel. Milton Muleborn and Matthew Echota met while locked up in a juvenile detention center. Milton burns with jealousy over Matthew's artistic talent, and he tells the reader an unreliable account of his childhood and early adulthood. The story is framed as a... Read More

A full cast and exceptional sound effects depict gang life in this semiautobiographical love letter to Chicago. In 1979 Indigenous Teddy, flawlessly introduced by D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, leads a gang across enemy territory to meet other groups, hoping to form a less violent "nation." Diverse narrators with various accents portray the gang members as they ride the El. Evocative... Read More

Deepa Samuel's narration brings steadiness and emotional clarity to this story of the longstanding friendship between Ruchi and Deepa, who are shaped by class, migration, and unspoken longing. Samuel softly portrays the girls' intimate friendship during their Indian school days. Samuel's voice gradually deepens as the narrative moves into adulthood and the pressures of... Read More

An outstanding full cast narrates this thriller about secrets, lingering guilt, and terrible friends. Five years after the death of the obscenely wealthy Claire Monroe, each of her friends is called back to the estate on Lake Como where she died. Expecting a memorial, the friends soon discover that crimes they thought were long forgotten haunt the estate as much as the memory... Read More

Four narrators offer perspectives on the fall, then rise, of The Future Saints, a musical group. Ali Andre Ali dramatizes the point of view of Theo, a record company representative who rescues the failing band after he glimpses their promise. He's certain they can make a hit album, and he falls in love with lead singer Hannah. Hannah's performance of a dark new song leads the... Read More

Samuel Barnett delivers a fresh interpretation of the St. George and the Dragon legend. George, whom Barnett portrays in a snide, harried tone that makes him bitingly funny, becomes increasingly hysterical as his contemporary London life falls apart. After he inexplicably time travels to the medieval era, his neuroses are subsumed into the immediacy of survival and the... Read More

This audiobook, the third of the Dalton novels, recounts the hardscrabble lives of people in a rural town in northern Maine. The friendly, gossipy voice of narrator Patricia Shade ensures that listeners become familiar with some of the citizens in this close-knit community--their dreams, secrets, and vulnerabilities. The most compelling character is Rose, a single mother who is... Read More

In this allegorical novel, Adenrele Ojo's rich narration introduces a shopkeeper who longs for connection while burdened with a condition that renders her unable to be touched or to touch others. While preparing to fulfill her dream of opening a bookstore, The Shopkeeper participates in her writing group and meets ME, a mysterious customer who is familiar with her... Read More

Helen Laser tells the story of protagonist Catharine West with emotional restraint through her tempo and pacing. West's mysterious past on a commune in central Florida run by her unstable dad unspools in alternating chapters entitled "Then" and "Now." West's pathological father created and ran a utopian farm community--a misbegotten cult--that he controlled totally and... Read More

The snowy Pyrenees provide a stark setting for this spare audiobook. Following a confrontation, Miquel's mother goes missing. The novella examines the effects of this life-altering event, as well as the family's complex bonds. Gerard Doyle's performance is direct, clear, and well suited to the simplicity of Tóibín's prose. Sometimes his pace falters, especially in the... Read More

British actor Lucy Rayner narrates Shapiro's novel with reverence for the subject and empathy for protagonist Tamara, a young woman thrust into an international scandal involving the Nazi theft of douard Manet's painting "The Luncheon Party." The action switches between the present and the lush world of the 19th-century French art world, featuring luminaries such as Manet,... Read More

In a somber performance, Sue Jean Kim delivers this collection of 10 dystopian short stories that explore climate disaster in the near future. Her quiet delivery captures a deep human longing for connection, love, and meaning. Standout stories include "Biodome," in which New Seoul is enclosed under a protective dome to shield residents from toxic air pollution, and "Older... Read More

Together, six narrators create a captivating audiobook production, instilling humanity into a story where listeners might believe there is none left. Silber's novel, focusing on a cast of characters whose lives were all touched by one man's overdose in 1970s New York City, paints a sweeping picture of the social and political circumstances that influenced his drug use. From the... Read More

This festive audiobook reminds listeners that Christmas can be a time of peace and joy--or a time of distraction and family strife. Caroline Hewitt portrays Merry, a 55-year-old woman who is navigating a tumultuous Christmas season when she learns she has a nodule on her lung. As Merry searches for her Christmas spirit--both figuratively and literally--listeners will find... Read More

Aysha Kala crafts a delicate performance surrounding a surprisingly complex story about a carousel. The carousel, originally built in 1900s Paris, is shrouded in a mystery and linked to a history of missing children. Kala narrates as Maisie, an immigrant just arriving in Chicago in 1920, uncovers the dark secret of said carousel alongside Det. Laurent. Kala's elegant narration... Read More

Listeners will appreciate the family dynamics and the festive descriptions of Europe during the holidays in this audiobook, narrated by Dominique Salvacion and Daniel Henning. Audrey and Ian haven't spoken in years, not since Audrey divorced her husband, Beau, only to watch Ian then marry Beau. When Audrey's daughter, who is also Ian's stepdaughter, plans a Christmas wedding in... Read More

This audiobook blends manifesto, memoir, and myth. It alternates between first-person reflections from English author Winterson and performances of the stories of One Thousand and One Nights in English Iranian narrator Dana Haqjoo's deep, rich voice. They are linked by the conceit that clever bride Shahrazad spins each tale to her royal husband, who promised to kill her when... Read More

Caroline Ford immerses listeners in a journey through grief and self-examination in Buckley's latest novel. Mourning the passing of her father, Teresa returns to the small Greek village she visited when her mother died nine years earlier. Ford's British accent is smooth and consistent as she weaves the past and the present with journal entries in this stream-of-consciousness... Read More

The rich Midwestern soil once only gave life; now it brings death. All-Star narrators Scott Brick and George Newbern bring compassion and rage in dual timelines featuring Jake, a sick, drug-addicted, and suicidal farmer whose modern farming techniques in the Oklahoma panhandle are killing him. Brick passionately describes the horror and grief following the death of Jake's... Read More

Stephanie MacGaraidh brings out the grit in this disturbing novel about an amnesiac young woman that explores themes of identity, memory, and morality. Mary Lamb has no knowledge of who she is and finds herself at the mercy of one unsavory character after another. MacGaraidh shifts with ease between Mary's fragile perspective and that of an unnamed, observing narrator, whose... Read More

Latronico's novel is more social commentary than a work of fiction. Narrator Sophie Roberts describes the vacuous existence of a millennial couple who spend most of their lives online as graphic designers for websites. The narration is crisp, and the tone, pitch, and pacing are adapted to the documentary style of this exposé on the habits, interests, and values of an... Read More

Earphones Award winner Rachel L. Jacobs narrates this character-driven story, an evocative coming-of-age chronicle of a suburban Chicago teenager who is graduating from high school in 1974. Listeners will hear the recollections of 70-year-old Phoebe as she looks back on a critical period and her vivid, youthful reactions to those life-changing events. The story delves into... Read More

Narrator Sudha Bhuchar unfolds this sweeping epic, which depicts the struggles of Charu, a woman whose family has been sustained by India's railway system over the generations following the nation's independence in 1950. Now she too works for the railway and navigates the complexities of the twentieth century. Bhuchar portrays Charu and those who cycle in and out of her life... Read More

Stacy Gonzalez, Jasmin Walker, and Kim Ramirez breathe life into Straight's poignant account of the lives of Larette, Cherrise, and Marisol, ICU nurses who are working during the Covid-19 pandemic. Shaun Taylor-Corbett offers a glimpse of a man on the outside. Early in 2020, isolated in small trailers in San Bernardino, Calif., the three exhausted women deal with their fears of... Read More

Bahni Turpin shines in this richly layered, multigenerational story of family secrets and the history that shapes all of us. In a story told from multiple perspectives over multiple timelines, Turpin creates believable distinctions between a wide range of characters and time periods. Set in Chicago in 1995, the main storyline focuses on Tali, a 14-year-old trying to find out... Read More

Narrator Ben Cura wades through this hypnotic, surreal novel with gravity. This suits the opening, as Nicholas, a young Brit fleeing London, departs for sun-dappled Italy and the maelstrom of Fellini and Pasolini's film sets. Cura's seriousness persists throughout Nicholas' love affair with a costumer, the revelations of his dark past, and Laing's dreamy vignettes of Rome's... Read More

This audiobook is a unique combination of women's fiction and Southern gothic, and narrator Jenn Lee's voice perfectly matches the creepy ambiance of this story. Green's novel relates the loosely connected life stories of several women with ties to a small town in eastern Louisiana. Lee's impassioned voice follows the women at different stages of their lives as she expresses... Read More

Narrated by an ensemble cast, this audiobook explores the lives, successes, failures, and frailties of a half-dozen friends from the early 2000s to 2024. The novel's narrators are all talented and capture the millennial characters' struggles well. Jill Paice performs Mia, a writer who is the only single person in the group, with fine tempo and pacing while conveying her angsty... Read More

Sarah Agha captures Meryem's restless inner life as the 25-year-old supermarket intern navigates long shifts, open hostility with her boss, and uncomfortable dates. As Meryem retreats into writing fan fiction about her coworkers, Agha distinguishes neatly between the monotony of Meryem's work life and the heightened tone of her imagined romances and rivalries. Agha lets the... Read More

Rebecca Lowman and Paul Michael provide the main narration of this audiobook, set in contemporary Los Angeles. With a deep timbre and the mannered cadence of a Golden Age Hollywood actor, Michael portrays Verity, an aging A-list movie star. Dismayed by the endless opportunities his fame affords him, Verity sets up a lottery of his film salary to be awarded to one moviegoer.... Read More

Cobie Smulders delivers an authentic and captivating performance that anchors this audiobook. The story follows a family whose lives are upended when their memoir about raising a child with Down syndrome is optioned for a Hollywood film. Sharp, genuine writing draws listeners into this exploration of identity, family bonds, and the tension between truth and adaptation. Josh... Read More

Daniel K. Isaac's performance reminds listeners that there's always more than meets the eye in seemingly charming small towns. In Griffin, New York, the unseen has started bubbling to the surface. Listeners become immersed in the town's conflicts over a congressional race, struggles with addiction, history of ignorance and prejudice, and present-day gentrification. The complex... Read More

This autobiographical novel, originally published to little fanfare in 2001 and long out of print, has been championed by influential queer poet Eileen Myles and reissued with their introduction. A coming-of-age story and picaresque novel set in the 1970s and '80s, Tramps is narrated by Joe, who flees a tyrannical and abusive father in Kansas City to explore the bars,... Read More

The tag team of Sarah Skaer and Arthur Keng narrates the interconnected episodes in this novel featuring different characters spread throughout thousands of years. Some of the protagonists are children, others are adults; some are humans, others are mutants or clones. They live in isolated communities, each with a different culture and history. AI mothers raise the children,... Read More

Jaunty, crisp, and irreverent, Genevieve Gaunt's performance of this audiobook suits the content well. Emma is a 19th-century British heroine whose fictitious journal captures a wide array of characters and period-appropriate shenanigans. Gaunt provides a distinctive accent, attitude, and voice for every character, and the result is engaging. The pace is consistent and... Read More

This atmospheric, otherworldly, splendidly performed novel has a serious premise: the cost of greed. K.J. Boone, a rapacious oilman at the end of his life, is visited by ghosts. The three main narrators are splendid. Judy Greer, as the youthful Jill "Doll" Blaine, the wraith tasked with Boone's exit, plays the role with empathy, remarkable pace, and just the right tone. MacLeod... Read More

Satirizing the upper classes has long been popular in literature, and this audiobook takes the genre to the next level, thanks to a dizzying performance by Nico Evers-Swindell. Set between the World Wars in the era of "bright young things," the story has an on-again, off-again romance (of sorts) at its heart. A wide array of characters orbits the silly couple, and... Read More

On the outskirts of Lahore, violence shatters Lalloo's family when his brother is murdered outside their home. Narrator Jassa Ahluwalia brings empathetic intensity to this novel as Lalloo leaves his family in order to earn enough to free his parents and sisters from generations of debt bondage forcing them to work as brickmakers. Giving space to both memories and present... Read More

Rishøi's book includes three short stories. In the first, about a struggling mother and her daughter, narrator Jesse Vilinsky provides different voices for the characters, but these tend toward exaggeration. In the second story, a man is released from prison. Ulf Bjorklund's narration has a slight accent, with a touch of softness and rasp as the protagonist converses with a... Read More