Download Best Full-Length Audiobooks in Fiction, LGBTQ+

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/622364 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: How to Build a Boat: AS SEEN ON BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS

Author: Elaine Feeney

Narrator: Ciaran O'brien

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 8 hours 10 minutes

Release date: April 20, 2023

Genres: LGBTQ+

Publisher's Summary:

Brought to you by Penguin. Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023. A deeply moving novel about a boy and his dream, from the prize-winning author of As You Were Jamie O'Neill loves the colour red. He also loves tall trees, patterns, rain that comes with wind, the curvature of many objects, books with dust jackets, cats, rivers and Edgar Allan Poe. At age 13 there are two things he especially wants in life: to build a Perpetual Motion Machine, and to connect with his mother Noelle, who died when he was born. In his mind these things are intimately linked. And at his new school, where all else is disorientating and overwhelming, he finds two people who might just be able to help him. How to Build a Boat is the story of how one boy and his mission transforms the lives of his teachers, Tess and Tadhg, and brings together a community. Written with tenderness and verve, it's about love, family and connection, the power of imagination, and how our greatest adventures never happen alone. ©2023 Elaine Feeney (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/614328 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Dutch Orphan: A Novel

Author: Ellen Keith

Narrator: Nancy Peterson

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 12 hours 45 minutes

Release date: April 19, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1

Genres: LGBTQ+

Publisher's Summary:

From the author of The Dutch Wife comes a riveting novel set during World War II about two sisters, one of whom secretly adopts a Jewish baby and the other who is married to a Nazi sympathizer  Amsterdam, 1941. When the Nazis invade Amsterdam, singer Johanna Vos watches in horror as her Jewish friends are forbidden from performing with her onstage, and the vibrant music scene she loves is all but erased. Johanna helps organize the Artists’ Resistance, an underground network that arranges for Jewish musicians to perform at house concerts hosted by their allies. When Johanna is told about a Jewish orphan who is headed for deportation, she does not think twice: she takes the baby in as her own, hiding the truth from everyone, including her sister, Liesbeth.  Meanwhile, Liesbeth de Wit finds herself torn between her sister and her failing marriage. She knows Johanna is an ally of the Resistance, while her husband actively supports the Dutch Fascist Party. As the sisters navigate the ongoing Nazi occupation, they find themselves growing further and further apart. And when another charming member of the Dutch Fascist Party sets his eyes on Liesbeth, her predicament only deepens.  As the war unfolds, secrets continue to grow between the sisters, severing their once-unbreakable bond. Eventually, both women are forced to make a choice that will alter their lives forever: the choice between family and freedom.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/617683 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Greek Lessons: A Novel

Author: Han Kang

Narrator: Earl T. Kim, Greta Jung

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 4 hours 36 minutes

Release date: April 18, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 1 of Total 1

Genres: LGBTQ+

Publisher's Summary:

FROM HAN KANG, WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE   “[Han Kang’s] intense poetic prose . . . exposes the fragility of human life.”—The Nobel Committee for Literature, in the citation for the Nobel Prize   NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A dazzling novel about the saving grace of language and human connection, from the “visionary” (New York Times Book Review) author of the International Booker Prize winner The Vegetarian “Both a disquieting journey about the loss of sense and a return to the sensorium of touch and intimacy, Greek Lessons soars with sensuous and revelatory insight.”—Cathy Park Hong, author of Minor Feelings A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Time, Chicago Public Library, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal 'Now and then, language would thrust its way into her sleep like a skewer through meat, startling her awake several times a night.' In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight.  Soon the two discover a deeper pain binds them together. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it's the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages, and the fear of losing his independence. Greek Lessons tells the story of two ordinary people brought together at a moment of private anguish—the fading light of a man losing his vision meeting the silence of a woman who has lost her language. Yet these are the very things that draw them to each other. Slowly the two discover a profound sense of unity—their voices intersecting with startling beauty, as they move from darkness to light, from silence to breath and expression. Greek Lessons is the story of the unlikely bond between this pair and a tender love letter to human intimacy and connection—a novel to awaken the senses, one that vividly conjures the essence of what it means to be alive.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/617680 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Golden Doves: A Novel

Author: Martha Hall Kelly

Narrator: Jeremy Carlisle Parker, Martha Hall Kelly, Saskia Maarleveld

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 16 hours 45 minutes

Release date: April 18, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 5

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 4

Genres: LGBTQ+

Publisher's Summary:

Two female spies risk everything to hunt down an infamous Nazi in this sweeping, profound tale of bravery from the bestselling author of Lilac Girls. “A riveting story of two brave and amazing women who work in the French resistance during World War II . . . a triumph!”—Lisa Scottoline, New York Times bestselling author of Eternal American Josie Anderson and Parisian Arlette LaRue are thrilled to be working in the French resistance, stealing so many Nazi secrets that they become known as the Golden Doves, renowned across France and hunted by the Gestapo. Their courage will cost them everything. When they are finally arrested and taken to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, along with their loved ones, a reclusive Nazi doctor does unspeakable things to Josie’s mother, a celebrated Jewish singer who joined her daughter in Paris when the world seemed bright. And Arlette’s son is stolen from her, never to be seen again. A decade later the Doves fall headlong into a dangerous dual mission: Josie is working for U.S. Army Intelligence and accepts an assignment to hunt down the infamous doctor, while a mysterious man tells Arlette he may have found her son. The Golden Doves embark on a quest across Europe and ultimately to French Guiana, discovering a web of terrible secrets, and must put themselves in grave danger to finally secure justice and protect the ones they love. Martha Hall Kelly has garnered acclaim for her stunning combination of empathy and research into the stories of women throughout history and for exploring the terrors of Ravensbrück. With The Golden Doves, she has crafted an unforgettable story about the fates of Nazi fugitives in the wake of World War II—and the unsung female spies who risked it all to bring them to justice.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/617676 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Symphony of Secrets

Author: Brendan Slocumb

Narrator: Brendan Slocumb, Chanté Mccormick

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 13 hours 46 minutes

Release date: April 18, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.57 of Total 7

Genres: LGBTQ+

Publisher's Summary:

A gripping page-turner from the celebrated author of book club favorite The Violin Conspiracy: Music professor Bern Hendricks discovers a shocking secret about the most famous American composer of all time—his music may have been stolen from a Black Jazz Age prodigy named Josephine Reed. Determined to uncover the truth that a powerful organization wants to keep hidden, Bern will stop at nothing to right history's wrongs and give Josephine the recognition she deserves. “A maestro of musical mystery...Slocumb’s writing is invigorating, and the detail in his character work makes the main characters in both time periods easy to root for.... Thrilling.” —The New York Times 'At once a celebration of music and also a cautionary tale about legacy, privilege, and creative genius.' —Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid Bern Hendricks has just received the call of a lifetime. As one of the world’s preeminent experts on the famed twentieth-century composer Frederick Delaney, Bern knows everything there is to know about the man behind the music. When Mallory Roberts, a board member of the distinguished Delaney Foundation and direct descendant of the man himself, asks for Bern’s help authenticating a newly discovered piece, which may be his famous lost opera, RED, he jumps at the chance. With the help of his tech-savvy acquaintance Eboni, Bern soon discovers that the truth is far more complicated than history would have them believe. In 1920s Manhattan, Josephine Reed is living on the streets and frequenting jazz clubs when she meets the struggling musician Fred Delaney. But where young Delaney struggles, Josephine soars. She’s a natural prodigy who hears beautiful music in the sounds of the world around her. With Josephine as his silent partner, Delaney’s career takes off—but who is the real genius here? In the present day, Bern and Eboni begin to uncover more clues that indicate Delaney may have had help in composing his most successful work. Armed with more questions than answers and caught in the crosshairs of a powerful organization who will stop at nothing to keep their secret hidden, Bern and Eboni will move heaven and earth in their dogged quest to right history’s wrongs.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/617641 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Fire Rush: A Novel

Author: Jacqueline Crooks

Narrator: Leonie Elliot

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 11 hours 3 minutes

Release date: April 18, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 1 of Total 1

Genres: LGBTQ+

Publisher's Summary:

WINNER OF THE PEN/OPEN BOOK AWARD FINALIST FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2023 “[A] powerful debut.” —The Washington Post “An exceptional and stunningly original novel by a major new writer.” —Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other Set amid the Jamaican diaspora in London at the dawn of 1980s, a mesmerizing story of love, loss, and self-discovery that vibrates with the liberating power of music Yamaye lives for the weekend, when she goes raving with her friends, the “Tombstone Estate gyals,” at The Crypt, an underground dub reggae club in their industrial town on the outskirts of London. Raised by her distant father after her mother’s disappearance when she was a girl, Yamaye craves the oblivion of sound - a chance to escape into the rhythms of those smoke-filled nights, to discover who she really is in the dance-hall darkness. When Yamaye meets Moose, a soulful carpenter who shares her Jamaican heritage, a path toward a different kind of future seems to open. But then, Babylon rushes in. In a devastating cascade of violence that pits state power against her loved ones and her community, Yamaye loses everything. Friendless and adrift, she embarks on a dramatic journey of transformation that takes her to the Bristol underworld and, finally, to Jamaica, where past and present collide with explosive consequences. The unforgettable story of one young woman’s search for home, animated by a ferocity of vision, electrifying music, and the Jamaican spiritual imagination, Fire Rush is a blazing achievement from a brilliant voice in contemporary fiction.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/617431 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Mummy Darlings: A Glorious Guinness Girls Novel

Author: Emily Hourican

Narrator: Roisin Rankin

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 13 hours 20 minutes

Release date: April 18, 2023

Genres: LGBTQ+

Publisher's Summary:

This stunning novel the from author of The Glorious Guinness Girls follows the three enigmatic Guinness sisters as they take on married life and motherhood at the beginning of the 1930s.  It's the dawn of the 1930s and the three privileged Guinness sisters, Aileen, Maureen and Oonagh, settle into becoming wives and mothers: Aileen in Luttrellstown Castle outside Dublin, Maureen in Clandeboye in Northern Ireland, and Oonagh in Rutland Place in London. But while Britain becomes increasingly politically polarized, Aileen, Maureen and Oonagh discover conflict within their own marriages. Oonagh's dream of romantic love is countered by her husband's lies; the intense nature of Maureen's marriage means passion, but also rows; while Aileen begins to discover that, for her, being married offers far less than she had expected. Meanwhile, Kathleen, a housemaid from their childhood home in Glenmaroon, travels between the three sisters, helping, listening, watching--even as her own life brings her into conflict with the clash between fascism and communism. As affairs are uncovered and secrets exposed, the three women begin to realize that their guiled upbringing could not have prepared them for the realities of married life, nor for the scandals that seem to follow them around.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/614647 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Only the Beautiful

Author: Susan Meissner

Narrator: Jorjeana Marie, Xe Sands

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 12 hours 28 minutes

Release date: April 18, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.73 of Total 15

Ratings of Narrator: 4.75 of Total 4

Genres: LGBTQ+

Publisher's Summary:

A Best Historical Fiction of Spring Pick by Amazon, PopSugar, AARP, and BookBub! A heartrending story about a young mother’s fight to keep her daughter, and the terrible injustice that tears them apart, by the USA Today bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things and The Last Year of the War.   California, 1938—When she loses her parents in an accident, sixteen-year-old Rosanne is taken in by the owners of the vineyard where she has lived her whole life as the vinedresser’s daughter. She moves into Celine and Truman Calvert’s spacious house with a secret, however—Rosie sees colors when she hears sound. She promised her mother she’d never reveal her little-understood ability to anyone, but the weight of her isolation and grief prove too much for her. Driven by her loneliness she not only breaks the vow to her mother, but in a desperate moment lets down her guard and ends up pregnant. Banished by the Calverts, Rosanne believes she is bound for a home for unwed mothers. But she soon finds out she is not going to a home of any kind, but to a place that seeks to forcibly take her baby – and the chance for any future babies – from her. Austria, 1947—After witnessing firsthand Adolf Hitler’s brutal pursuit of hereditary purity—especially with regard to “different children”—Helen Calvert, Truman’s sister, is ready to return to America for good. But when she arrives at her brother’s peaceful vineyard after decades working abroad, she is shocked to learn what really happened nine years earlier to the vinedresser’s daughter, a girl whom Helen had long ago befriended. In her determination to find Rosanne, Helen discovers a shocking American eugenics program—and learns that that while the war had been won in Europe, there are still terrifying battles to be fought at home.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/612778 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Library at the Edge of the World: A Novel

Series: #1 of Finfarran Peninsula

Author: Felicity Hayes-Mccoy

Narrator: Marcella Riordan

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 10 hours 11 minutes

Release date: April 18, 2023

Genres: LGBTQ+

Publisher's Summary:

“Heart-warming . . . reminiscent of Maeve Binchy and Roisin Meaney.” —Irish Examiner In the bestselling tradition of Fannie Flagg and Jenny Colgan comes Felicity Hayes-McCoy’s U.S. debut about a local librarian who must find a way to rebuild her community and her own life in this touching, enchanting novel set on Ireland’s stunning West Coast. As she drives her mobile library van between villages of Ireland’s West Coast, Hanna Casey tries not to think about a lot of things. Like the sophisticated lifestyle she abandoned after finding her English barrister husband in bed with another woman. Or that she’s back in Lissbeg, the rural Irish town she walked away from in her teens, living in the back bedroom of her overbearing mother’s retirement bungalow. Or, worse yet, her nagging fear that, as the local librarian and a prominent figure in the community, her failed marriage and ignominious return have made her a focus of gossip. With her teenage daughter, Jazz, off traveling the world and her relationship with her own mother growing increasingly tense, Hanna is determined to reclaim her independence by restoring a derelict cottage left to her by her great-aunt. But when the threatened closure of the Lissbeg Library puts her personal plans in jeopardy, Hanna finds herself leading a battle to restore the heart and soul of the Finfarran Peninsula’s fragmented community. And she’s about to discover that the neighbors she’d always kept at a distance have come to mean more to her than she ever could have imagined. Told with heart and abundant charm, The Library at the Edge of the World is a joyous story about the meaning of home and the importance of finding a place where you truly belong.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/622362 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Go as a River

Author: Shelley Read

Narrator: Cynthia Farrell

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 58 minutes

Release date: April 13, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.4 of Total 5

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 4

Genres: LGBTQ+

Publisher's Summary:

Brought to you by Penguin. The powerful Sunday Times bestselling Richard and Judy Pick A MESMERIZING READ FOR FANS OF WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, GREAT CIRCLE AND THE PAPER PALACE I've come to understand how the exceptional lurks beneath the ordinary like the deep and mysterious world beneath the sea. On a cool autumn morning, Torie Nash heads into her village pulling a rickety wagon filled with late-season peaches. As she nears an intersection, a mysterious drifter with grimy thumbs and smudged cheeks and eyes as dark as a raven's wing stops to ask her the way. She could turn left or cross over. But she does not. 'Go as a river,' he whispers. So begins a mezmerising story that unfolds over a tumultuous lifetime as Torie begins to absorb and follow his words. Gathering all the pieces of her small and extraordinary life, spinning through the eddies of desire, heartbreak and betrayal, she will arrive at a single rocky decision that will change her life for ever. 'Completely spellbinding, vivid, and luminous' JANE GREEN 'Go As a River delivers so very much: the tenderness and curiosity of young love, the eternal pangs of loss, the brutality of racism, the sustaining power of nature and the miracle of a mother's love. Suffused with wisdom and compassion, this shattering testimony to life is to be savored, treasured, shared' MEG WAITE CLAYTON, author of The Postmistress of Paris 'Shelley Read's lyrical voice is a force of nature. Tragic, uplifting and completely unforgettable' BONNIE GARMUS, author of LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY ©2023 Shelley Read (P)2023 Penguin Audio