Access Top-Rated Full Audiobooks in Literature, Literary Fiction

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/715821 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Material: A Novel

Author: Camille Bordas

Narrator: Megan Tusing

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 31 minutes

Release date: June 11, 2024

Genres: Literary Fiction

Publisher's Summary:

A single momentous day transforms the lives of students and professors at a school for stand-up comedy in a novel that “[brims] with insecure characters, clever repartee, dark jokes and funny riffs” (The Wall Street Journal) “Insightful, compassionate, biting and honest.”—The Washington Post “Brilliance is on display here.”—Percival Everett, author of James and The Trees ONE OF SLATE’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • Longlisted for the New American Voices Award Can comedy be taught? Someone, at some point, seemed to think so. The Chicago Stand-Up MFA program has enrolled young comedians for nearly a decade. Its teachers and students all know how bits work—in theory, at least. They know that there’s a line between sharp and cruel, that sad becomes funny at the right angle, that the worst is the best, the truth is the worst, and any moment of your life that isn’t a punch line will either get you to a punch line or force you to be one. They’re all afraid to be one. Artie may be too handsome for standup, Olivia too reluctant to examine her own life, and Phil too afraid to cause harm. Kruger may be too vanilla to command his students’ respect, Ashbee too detached. And then we have Dorothy—the only woman on the program’s faculty—who though preparing to launch a comeback tour can’t tell if she’s too abiding, too ambitious, or too ambivalent. Whether a visiting professor—the high-profile, controversy-steeped comedian Manny Reinhardt—will do more to help or harm their cause remains to be seen. But he’s on his way. He’ll be arriving sooner than anyone thinks. Riffing keenly across a diverse array of precision-cut perspectives, The Material examines life through the eyes of a reluctantly assembled ensemble, a band of outsiders bound together by the need to laugh and the longing to make others laugh even harder.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/715819 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Ask Me Again: A novel

Author: Clare Sestanovich

Narrator: Julia Knippen

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 10 hours 24 minutes

Release date: June 11, 2024

Genres: Literary Fiction

Publisher's Summary:

THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE SHORTLIST • From the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize finalist, whose short stories received instant acclaim (“Sparingly told, evoked with lacerating intimacy . . . Extraordinary”—Esquire), a debut novel about a young woman’s coming of age, and the singular friendship that challenges her values, her beliefs, and the course of her life At sixteen, Eva meets Jamie by chance. She lives in middle-class south Brooklyn; he comes from the super rich of upper Manhattan. She’s observant, cautious, often insecure; he’s curious, bold, full of mysteries. These two questers are drawn together in a strange and profound friendship, tested by forces larger than themselves. As Eva follows a path of conventional achievement—a prestigious degree, a formative romance, the start of an ambitious career—Jamie seeks out more radical experiments in finding himself: renouncing his family, joining a political movement, and eventually even talking to God. Carried forcefully along by Clare Sestanovich’s exquisite prose, these two characters are pulled into separate spheres but circle the same questions: how to define their values and find their purpose, how to create a sense of self while discovering what they owe to society and to the cause of justice. These reckonings propel a surprising story of intimacy across time, exploring the alchemy of identity, the mystery of destiny, and the difficult journey of finding faith—in yourself, and in the world.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/715811 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Knockout Artist

Author: Harry Crews

Narrator: Matt Godfrey

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 8 hours 44 minutes

Release date: June 11, 2024

Genres: Literary Fiction

Publisher's Summary:

Crews’s novel about a boxer with the gift of knocking himself unconscious, with a new foreword by New York Times-bestselling author S. A. Cosby A Penguin Classic A favorite of longtime Harry Crews fans, The Knockout Artist (1988) portrays Eugene Talmadge Biggs, a young boxer from rural Georgia whose champion rise is diverted by a vulnerability, or gift, for knocking himself unconscious. As he begins to exploit his talents, the notorious Knockout Artist journeys a hero’s descent into the New Orleans underworld and meets characters who have long since checked their morals at the door.  The unforgettable climax shows Crews at his virtuoso best, when Eugene confronts his truth, and sets out to claim his freedom and win his own self-respect.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/715791 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Beautiful Days: Stories

Author: Zach Williams

Narrator: Dan Bittner

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 6 hours 6 minutes

Release date: June 11, 2024

Genres: Literary Fiction

Publisher's Summary:

One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2024 • From New Yorker and Paris Review contributor Zach Williams comes a striking and savage debut story collection that confronts parenthood, mortality, and life’s broken promises. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Lit Hub, Electric Lit A couple awakens in a home in the woods to find themselves rapidly aging as their toddler remains unchanged. A work-worn employee navigates conspiracy theories and the threat of violence in an abandoned office. A tour guide leads a troublesome group to an ancient structure, apparently nonhuman in origin, discovering along the way that the most mysterious creatures of all are right beside him. These ten stories show the fallibility of time and how reality reveals itself behind the gauze of a dream—or a nightmare. Throughout, Williams illustrates how quickly we come to the edges of our patience and endurance, the hidden damages lurking in the shadows of the everyday, the distances we must travel to protect our families, and the tenuousness of even our deepest relationships. Williams sees the perversity in the mundane and dares readers to confront the power—and beauty—of time’s relentless movement. With exquisite prose and a lacerating wit, Beautiful Days holds a mirror to the many absurdities of being human and refuses to let us look away.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/715200 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Private Rites

Author: Julia Armfield

Narrator: Hannah Van Der Westhuysen

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 7 hours 56 minutes

Release date: June 11, 2024

Genres: Literary Fiction

Publisher's Summary:

'Brilliantly audacious' GUARDIAN 'Stunning' DAZED 'Her prose sparkles' ELIZA CLARK ‘Hauntingly good’ iNEWS ’A must read’ GLAMOUR 'One of my favourite novels' JEFF VANDERMEER From the bestselling author of Our Wives Under the Sea, a haunting, heart wrenching novel of three sisters navigating queer love and faith at the end of the world. There’s no way to bury a body in earth which is flooded It’s been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves. Old places have been lost. Arcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. They find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway. As the sisters come together to clear the grand glass house that is the pinnacle of his legacy, they begin to sense that the magnetic influence of their father lives on through it. Something sinister seems to be unfolding, something related to their mother’s long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always been unusually interested in their lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperilled world. ‘Armfield writes so gracefully’ THE TIMES ‘Evocative yet grounded’ OBSERVER ‘A chilling vision of a future capital that I’ve found impossible to shake’ INEWS ‘Ballard-ian in apocalyptic scope … Deeply, passionately, messily human’ PAUL TREMBLAY ‘A signature cocktail of deadpan wit and staggering beauty’ ALICE SLATER ‘Brilliant, original … an era-defining writer’ KALIANE BRADLEY ‘Every page guillotines you with its wisdom’ TOM BENN

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/718962 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Midnight Feast

Author: Lucy Foley

Narrator: Sarah Slimani, Roly Botha, Joe Eyre, Laurence Dobiesz, Tuppence Middleton

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 10 hours 21 minutes

Release date: June 6, 2024

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 3.85 of Total 13

Ratings of Narrator: 4.5 of Total 6

Genres: Literary Fiction

Publisher's Summary:

For starters, everyone here is lying… ‘Delicious and darkly glamorous’ Lisa Jewell ‘This is crime writing at its finest’ Janice Hallett ‘Lucy Foley is queen of the locked room mystery’ Guardian **FROM THE NO.1 BESTSELLER – TAKE YOUR PLACE AT THE TABLE FOR THE THRILLER OF THE YEAR** In the shadow of an ancient wood, guests gather for the opening weekend of The Manor hotel – and a sumptuous feast. But as the candles are lit, tensions spark. Old animosities reignite. This isn’t a celebration, but a reunion. And time someone got their just deserts… Laced with atmosphere and a chilling edge of folklore, The Midnight Feast is the delicious new murder mystery from Lucy Foley 'Her best work so far' ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 'A book that is asking to be binge read' ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 'Dark, twisty, eerie' ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 'This is the type of party you will be scared to miss!' ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 'A spectacular read!' ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 'Laced with a gothic edge and with a sultry, slow burn plot' ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 'Fiendish, sharp, wicked' ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Midnight Feast was a Sunday Times bestseller for w/c 03/06/2024 & w/c 10/06/2024

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/719107 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Borrowed Hills: A Novel

Author: Scott Preston

Narrator: David Crellin

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 8 hours 37 minutes

Release date: June 4, 2024

Genres: Literary Fiction

Publisher's Summary:

“Viscerally vivid…half Tarantino and half pitch-black northern realism.” —The Guardian, Named a Best Book of 2024 * “Unfolds with a pleasurable, slow-burn assurance.” —The New York Times Book Review A stunning and “spiky debut” (The Times, London) novel set in the rugged, rural landscape of northwest England, where two sheep farmers lose their flocks and decide to reverse their fortunes by stealing sheep from a rich farm in the south—for fans of Annie Proulx and Cormac McCarthy. In early 2001, a lethal disease breaks out on the hill farms of northwest England, emptying the valleys of sheep and filling the skies with smoke as they burn the carcasses. Two neighboring shepherds lose everything and set their sights on a wealthy farm in the south with its flock of prizewinning animals. So begins the dark tale of Steve Elliman and William Herne. As their sheep rustling leads to more and more difficult decisions, the struggles of the land are never far away. Steve’s only distraction is his growing fascination with William’s enigmatic and independent wife, Helen. When their mountain home comes under the sway of a lawless outsider, Colin Tinley, Steve must save himself and Helen in a savage conflict that threatens the ancient ways of the Lakeland fells. Told in the hardscrabble voice of a forgotten England, Scott Preston creates an uncompromising vision of farmers lost in brutal devotion to their flocks, the aching love affairs that men and women use to sustain themselves, and the painful consequences of a breathtaking heist gone bad. The Borrowed Hills “strides confidently across its pages, like the seasoned work of a veteran” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), a thrilling and gritty adventure that reimagines the American Western for Britain’s moors and mountains where survival is in the blood.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/719080 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Soldier Sailor: A Novel

Author: Claire Kilroy

Narrator: Simone Collins

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 6 hours 15 minutes

Release date: June 4, 2024

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 1 of Total 1

Genres: Literary Fiction

Publisher's Summary:

FINALIST for the WOMEN’S PRIZE for FICTION * One of Vogue’s Best Books of the Year Award-winning author Claire Kilroy’s “lyrical and incisive” (The New York Times Book Review) novel that reads with the pace of a thriller and is filled with astute and witty observations of life with a young child. Soldier Sailor takes readers deep inside the early days of motherhood. Exploring the clash of fierce love with a seismic shift in identity, Claire Kilroy conjures the raw, tumultuous emotions of a new mother, as her marriage strains and she struggles with questions of equality, autonomy, and creativity. Soldier Sailor is a tale of boundless love and relentless battle, a bedtime story to a son, Sailor, recounting their early years together. Spending her days in baby groups, playgrounds, and supermarkets, Soldier doesn’t know who she is anymore. She hardly sees her husband, who has taken to working late most nights. A chance encounter with a former colleague feels like a lifeline to the person she used to be but can hardly remember. Tender and harrowing, Kilroy’s modern masterpiece “hums with poetry, insight, and humor...full of truths so sharp and beautiful readers will need to take a breath” (Booklist, starred review).

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/719068 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Swift River: A Read with Jenna Pick

Author: Essie Chambers

Narrator: Janina Edwards, Shayna Small, Robin Miles

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 10 hours 30 minutes

Release date: June 4, 2024

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.13 of Total 8

Ratings of Narrator: 4.83 of Total 6

Genres: Literary Fiction

Publisher's Summary:

2024 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize Winner Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction Longlisted for The Center for Fiction 2024 First Novel Prize A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK | A National Bestseller | One of The Washington Post's Best Books of 2024 | An NPR Best Book of 2024 | An Elle Best Book of 2024 | A Boston Globe Best Book of 2024 “The book we all need to revive our souls” (Nicole Dennis-Benn): A sweeping family saga about the complicated bond between mothers and daughters, the disappearance of a father, and the long-hidden history of a declining New England mill town. “A powerful novel about how our family history shapes us. Swift River broke my heart, and then offered me hope.” —Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful It’s the summer of 1987 in Swift River, and Diamond Newberry is learning how to drive. Ever since her Pop disappeared seven years ago, she and her mother hitchhike everywhere they go. But that’s not the only reason Diamond stands out: she’s teased relentlessly about her weight, and since Pop’s been gone, she is the only Black person in all of Swift River. This summer, Ma is determined to declare Pop legally dead so that they can collect his life insurance money, get their house back from the bank, and finally move on. But when Diamond receives a letter from a relative she’s never met, key elements of Pop’s life are uncovered, and she is introduced to two generations of African American Newberry women, whose lives span the 20th century and reveal a much larger picture of prejudice and abandonment, of love and devotion. As pieces of their shared past become clearer, Diamond gains a sense of her place in the world and in her family. But how will what she’s learned of the past change her future? A story of first friendships, family secrets, and finding the courage to let go, Swift River is a sensational debut about how history shapes us and heralds the arrival of a major new literary talent.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/715880 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Shelterwood: A Novel

Author: Lisa Wingate

Narrator: Christine Lakin, Dan Bittner, Jenna Lamia

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 14 hours 2 minutes

Release date: June 4, 2024

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4 of Total 7

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 4

Genres: Literary Fiction

Publisher's Summary:

USA TODAY AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER • “Wingate’s stellar latest explores a centuries-long legacy of missing child cases. . . . Her portrayal of the region’s history, culture, and landscape enthralls. Wingate is at the top of her game.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours comes “a sweeping tale about little known history” (People): the women pioneers who fought to protect children caught in the storm of land barons hungry for power and oil wealth. Oklahoma, 1909. Eleven-year-old Olive Augusta Radley knows that her stepfather doesn’t have good intentions toward the two Choctaw girls boarded in their home as wards. When the older girl disappears, Ollie flees to the woods, taking six-year-old Nessa with her. Together they begin a perilous journey to the remote Winding Stair Mountains, the notorious territory of outlaws, treasure hunters, and desperate men. Along the way, Ollie and Nessa form an unlikely band with others like themselves, struggling to stay one step ahead of those who seek to exploit them . . . or worse. Oklahoma, 1990. Law enforcement ranger Valerie Boren-Odell arrives at newly minted Horsethief Trail National Park seeking a quiet place to balance a career and single parenthood. But no sooner has Valerie reported for duty than she’s faced with local controversy over the park’s opening, a teenage hiker gone missing from one of the trails, and the long-hidden burial site of three children unearthed in a cave. Val’s quest for the truth wins an ally among the neighboring Choctaw Tribal Police but soon collides with old secrets and the tragic and deadly history of the land itself. In this emotional and enveloping novel, Lisa Wingate traces the story of children abandoned by the law and the battle to see justice done. Amid times of deep conflict over who owns the land and its riches, Ollie and Val traverse the rugged and beautiful terrain, each leaving behind one life in search of another. *Includes a downloadable PDF with a listing of primary resources and recommendations from the book, for further reading