Download the Top 100 Audiobooks in Fiction, Historical

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Title: Manhattan Beach

Author: Jennifer Egan

Narrator: Heather Lind, Norbert Leo Butz, Vincent Piazza

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-03-17

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The long-awaited novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, Manhattan Beach opens in Brooklyn during the Great Depression.

Anna Kerrigan, nearly 12 years old, accompanies her father to the house of a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family. Anna observes the uniformed servants, the lavishing of toys on the children and some secret pact between her father and Dexter Styles.

Years later her father has disappeared, and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that had always belonged to men. She becomes the first female diver, the most dangerous and exclusive of occupations, repairing the ships that will help America win the war. She is the sole provider for her mother, a farm girl who had a brief and glamorous career as a Ziegfield folly, and her lovely, severely disabled sister.

At a nightclub she chances to meet Styles, the man she visited with her father before he vanished, and she begins to understand the complexity of her father's life, the reasons he might have been murdered.

Mesmerising, hauntingly beautiful, with the pace and atmosphere of a noir thriller and a wealth of detail about organised crime, the merchant marine and the clash of classes in New York, Egan's first historical novel is a masterpiece, a deft, startling, intimate exploration of a transformative moment in the lives of women and men, America and the world. Manhattan Beach is a magnificent novel by one of the greatest writers of our time.

Members Reviews:

The New York Novel

Great work, joins the pantheon of classic New York novels. Anna is a searing character, nuanced and interesting. Plot throws in some light twists but I read it more as literature of the period and the city than a conventional mystery. Recommended.

Mixed and varied - but interesting

Quite an unusual subject and one which has been well captured by the author. It was well narrated and a pleasure to listen to.

Entertaining, but doesn't hit the mark.

Found the narrative rolled along well and kept me listening, but the sum of the whole story was fairly weak. Enjoyed the diving detail.

Stunning.

After a slightly slow start, this book had me on the edge of my seat. The story and characters were original and fully rounded. I emphasised with them all so cared what happened next. Often I thought I knew what was about to happen. Sometimes I was right. But always there were twists and shocks that stunned and surprised me.

The narration was excellent with different actors taking over as the narration moved between the key characters. I always knew who was who.

Highly recommended.

Gripping and beautifully written

Another great novel from Jennifer Egan. Gripping and beautifully written - with a strong evocation of wartime New York and some fantastic set piece scenes. It's more linear and careful than 'A Visit From The Goon Squad' - if that novel was 'Pulp Fiction' this one is 'Jackie Brown' but highly recommended.

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Title: Raiders Wake: A Novel of Viking Age Ireland

Subtitle: The Norsemen Saga, Book 6

Author: James L. Nelson

Narrator: Shaun Grindell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-26-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 46 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

After the treachery and slaughter they met during the raid on Glendalough, Thorgrim Night Wolf and his small band of surviving Northmen have returned to Vik-lo, where Thorgrim again sits as lord of the Viking longphort. But the Northmen are a restless lot, and soon they find themselves eager to put to sea. Loading weapons and supplies aboard the four longships under Thorgrim's command, they set out in search of the rich merchant ships that now ply Irish waters. But not all cargoes are the same, nor all merchant captains easy targets for the Norse raiders. Crossing wakes with a Frisian shipmaster who could be Thorgrim's equal in seamanship and cunning, the Northmen soon find themselves seeking vengeance even as they fight to keep from a watery grave.

Members Reviews:

Ends Very Fast

No real meat to the story felt rushed and ended with nothing of substance really taking place.

Another great chapter of the Norsemen Saga.

The author's Mariner background really shines in this book. Another captivating novel. I can't wait for the next book!

Please don't keep us waiting for the next episode.

Latest in a wonderful series. Well written and narrated. Where will the Norsemen go next? Keep 'em coming James.

A great Viking story

I have read all the books in this series and enjoyed them all and look forward to the next chapter in this saga.

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Title: Munich

Author: Robert Harris

Narrator: David Rintoul

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-21-17

Publisher: Random House Audiobooks

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 24 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

From the best-selling author of Fatherland, Conclave and An Officer and a Spy.

September 1938. Hitler is determined to start a war. Chamberlain is desperate to preserve the peace. The issue is to be decided in a city that will forever afterwards be notorious for what takes place there....

Munich.

As Chamberlain's plane judders over the Channel and the Führer's train steams relentlessly south from Berlin, two young men travel with secrets of their own. Hugh Legat is one of Chamberlain's private secretaries; Paul Hartmann a German diplomat and member of the anti-Hitler resistance. Great friends at Oxford before Hitler came to power, they haven't seen one another since they were last in Munich six years earlier. Now, as the future of Europe hangs in the balance, their paths are destined to cross again.

When the stakes are this high, who are you willing to betray? Your friends, your family, your country or your conscience?

Members Reviews:

excellent, shame a key passage was missing!

Very enjoyable novel. Not Robert Harris's best but still a fascinating and gripping read. One complaint: this so-called unabridged recording is missing the crucial meeting between our German protagonist and Neville Chamberlain. I was thrown when characters were referencing a pivotal scene that I hadn't heard read; and when the German protagonist is leaving a location i never heard him arrive at. After thumbing through a hard copy of the novel, this scene occurs between Audible chapters 20 and 21: after the British explain to the Czechs the outcome of the agreement, and before Hartmann "leaves the hotel and suspects he is being followed". Sort it out, Audible! This is a crucial scene, the climax of the novel and what our protagonists are trying to do - without this scene the protagonists seem hugely ineffectual and their story arc is missing something vital!

A Piece For Our Time?

To an extent you know what you're going to get with Robert Harris's historical fiction. There's always going to be a strong feeling of time and place based on thoroughly detailed research. You're going to find characters given real depth whether they be genuine historical personalities or the the fictional ones that Harris uses to carry the story. All of that is true here in a novel that I found highly satisfying to listen to even if it didn't hit the heights of excitement.

There is a dual aspect to the story in that two old college friends find themselves on opposite sides of the conference with both playing their own high stakes games. The book provides a brief but extremely important episode in their lives and the history of Europe. To me it felt as much like a docudrama as a fictional novel as the plot stuck so closely to historical fact.

The narration by David Rintoul is steady with no attempt to give the non-British characters any kind of national accents. It feels entirely appropriate to the text with perhaps the only element of real theatre coming late on with some of Hitler's outbursts.

Harris is clearly scratching some kind of itch here. He is returning to the subject of a documentary he made almost 30 years ago and he portrays Chamberlain with considerably more sympathy than many historians. The quality of the writing is, as you would expect from this author, is extremely high.

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Title: The Vengeance of Mothers

Subtitle: The Journals of Margaret Kelly & Molly McGill: A Novel

Author: Jim Fergus

Narrator: Laura Hicks, Erik Steele

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-12-17

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 51 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

"Laura Hicks renders this imaginative work splendidly. She is vivacious and expressive as May Dodd...Her vocal characterizations, especially of the various immigrant women Dodd encounters, are lively. A work this unusual needs a performance that is versatile and out of the ordinary, both of which have been achieved." - AudioFile on One Thousand White Women.

The stunning sequel to Jim Fergus' award-winning One Thousand White Women.

9 March 1876 My name is Meggie Kelly and I take up this pencil with my twin sister, Susie. We have nothing left, less than nothing. The village of our People has been destroyed, all our possessions burned, our friends butchered by the soldiers, our baby daughters gone, frozen to death on an ungodly trek across these rocky mountains. Empty of human feeling, half-dead ourselves, all that remains of us intact are hearts turned to stone. We curse the U.S. government, we curse the Army, we curse the savagery of mankind, white and Indian alike. We curse God in his heaven. Do not underestimate the power of a mother's vengeance....

So begins the journal of Margaret Kelly, a woman who participated in the government's "Brides for Indians" program in 1873, a program whose conceit was that the way to peace between the United States and the Cheyenne Nation was for one thousand white women to be given as brides in exchange for 300 horses. These "brides" were mostly fallen women; women in prison, prostitutes, the occasional adventurer, or those incarcerated in asylums. No one expected this program to work. The brides themselves thought it was simply a chance at freedom. But many of them fell in love with the Cheyenne's spouses and had children with them...and became Cheyenne themselves.

The Vengeance of Mothers is an audiobook that explores what happens to the bonds between wives and husbands, children and mothers, when society sees them as "unspeakable". What does it mean to be white, to be Cheyenne, and how far will these women go to avenge the ones they love? As he did in One Thousand White Women, Jim Fergus brings to light a time and place in American history and fills it with unforgettable characters who live and breathe with a passion we can relate to even today.

Members Reviews:

A truer history of the USA!

This is a story you may never forget and likely to be a history closer to the truth than anything you learned from a high school curriculum. If ever I am asked why I lack any hint of patriotism towards the country in which I live, I will simply recommend this book along with 1000 White Women by the same author. Jim Fergus writes with a refreshingly realistic view of the often white-washed history of the USA. This story captures a time that many Americans wish had ended differently than it did. I for one have always been one to wish for victory to go to the underdogs and I do so in this story too. To bad history is so sad in reality!

Love! Love! Looooove this book!

Such a wonderful sequel to the first. I can't wait to dive into the 3rd book.

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Title: All She Left Behind

Author: Jane Kirkpatrick

Narrator: Tavia Gilbert

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-05-17

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 12 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Already well-versed in the natural healing properties of herbs and oils, Jennie Pickett longs to become a doctor. But the Oregon frontier of the 1870s doesn't approve of such innovations as women attending medical school. To leave grief and guilt behind, as well as support herself and her challenging young son, Jennie cares for an elderly woman using skills she's developed on her own. When her patient dies, Jennie discovers that her heart has become entangled with the woman's widowed husband, a man many years her senior. Their unlikely romance may lead her to her ultimate goal - but the road will be winding and the way forward will not always be clear. Will Jennie find shelter in life's storms? Will she discover where healing truly lives?

Through her award-winning, layered storytelling, New York Times best-selling author Jane Kirkpatrick invites listeners to leave behind their preconceived notions about love and life as they, along with Jennie, discover that dreams may be deferred - but they never really die. Based on a true story.

Members Reviews:

All she left behind

This story is depressing all the way through. Not up to her other works. Not inspiring.

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Title: Cherished Mercy

Subtitle: Heart of the Frontier, Book 3

Author: Tracie Peterson

Narrator: Stephanie Cozart

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-05-17

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 60 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

After surviving the Whitman Massacre as a child, Mercy still prays for peace between the native peoples and the white settlers of Oregon Territory. Longing for purpose, she travels to another mission to help a friend. There, she meets Adam, a handsome young minister. When tragedy strikes yet again, Mercy and Adam must rely on their faith to make it out alive.

The inspiring conclusion to Tracie Peterson's Heart of the Frontier series

Mercy Flanagan survived the Whitman Massacre as a child, and now her heart's cry is for peace between the native peoples and the white settlers inhabiting Oregon Territory. Unfortunately, most of the settlers would rather the tribes be removed from the land completely, one way or the other, and tensions are rising. Mercy has grown tired of Oregon City and feels that she has a larger purpose in life, so when she learns that family friend Eletta Browning is pregnant, she travels south to the Rogue River Valley to help.

At the Rogue River Mission, Mercy meets Eletta's brother-in-law, Adam, who has suffered a broken engagement. Mercy finds him attractive, but Adam seems determined to focus on ministering to the local tribes and keeps Mercy at arm's length. When tragedy strikes and tensions in the territory reach the boiling point, Mercy is pushed to the limit of her strength. She and Adam must rely on their firm faith in God in order to make it out alive.

Members Reviews:

wonderful Christian book!

this is a fantastic book. I was biting my fingernails all the way through. I had to call a couple friends to recommend this book. It takes place in the 1800's. It kept me on the edge of my seat all the way through. When you think there is no way their lives could get any worse it does. Lots of twists and turns that keeps you wondering how it will turn out. HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK!!!

Wonderful series!

Each one of the three books we're so well-written, drawing the reader into the the lives of the characters. These are books i couldn't stop listening to until they were completed. I almost never read books more than once, but this would be a series I would go back and read again.

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Title: The Other Alcott

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Elise Hooper

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-05-17

Publisher: Harper Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 28 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Elise Hooper's debut novel conjures the fascinating untold story of May Alcott - Louisa's youngest sister and an artist in her own right.

We all know the story of the March sisters, heroines of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. But while everyone cheers on Jo March, based on Louisa herself, Amy March is often the least favorite sister. Now it's time to learn the truth about the real Amy, Louisa's sister, May.

Stylish, outgoing, creative, May Alcott grows up longing to experience the wide world beyond Concord, Massachusetts. While her sister Louisa crafts stories, May herself is a talented and dedicated artist, taking lessons in Boston, turning down a marriage proposal from a well-off suitor, and facing scorn for entering what is very much a man's profession.

Life for the Alcott family has never been easy, so when Louisa's Little Women is published, its success eases the financial burdens they've faced for so many years. Everyone agrees the novel is charming, but May is struck to the core by the portrayal of selfish, spoiled Amy March. Is this what her beloved sister really thinks of her?

So May embarks on a quest to discover her own true identity, as an artist and a woman. From Boston to Rome, London, and Paris, this brave, talented, and determined woman forges an amazing life of her own, making her so much more than merely The Other Alcott.

Members Reviews:

Must read if you loved Little Women

This is a great novel relying on a lot of historical facts about the famous Alcott sisters. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The narrator is wonderful. You learn a lot about young women artists in 19th century America who went abroad to develop their skills.

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Title: The Uncertain Season

Author: Ann Howard Creel

Narrator: Brittany Pressley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-22-17

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 74 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

In hurricane-ravaged Galveston, a storm of betrayal is brewing.

Nineteen-year-old Grace's golden age is just beginning. She and her mother live a privileged life. Beautiful and talented, Grace is looking forward to a pleasant summer celebrating her engagement to a wealthy young gentleman.

But when her lovely, charming, and disgraced cousin Etta arrives, Grace finds her place in society - and in her mother's heart - threatened. Etta enchants everyone as she maneuvers to secure a station in Galveston's upper echelons. Grace, in a reckless moment, reveals Etta's scandalous past, and as punishment, she's sent to work in Galveston's back alleys, helping the poor. There, a silent waif known only as Miss Girl opens Grace's eyes to new love and purpose. She's determined to save this girl who lost her entire family in the hurricane and now slips along the shadows of the unfinished seawall with a mysterious resolve.

Soon, the lives of the three young women will converge as betrayal, mistaken identity, and a family secret that sweeps them toward a future that defies all expectations.

Members Reviews:

Lovely simply lovely

I loved this story! Beautifully written. The narration is phenomenal. Simply lovely. Deep sigh. That's all.

Brave women

This book brought the reality of a long ago tragedy. I was unaware of this tragic hurricane in our history until listening to this story. This book was a great source of insight of what happened that tragic day in 1900 and the effects it had on the people it effected. How I wish so many things could have been different for the young girl it follows, it shadows nothing, only her reality and the reality of another young girl.

This book has stayed with me...making me feel very thankful for what I have and whom I have in my life.

Delightful blending of socioeconomic cultures

Would have liked this story to last longer, characters well developed with still some mystery. Primary character displayed personal growth through new found humanity to become a helper.

amazing

well thought out. beautiful characters fill of life. descriptions that take the reader to the location. I love this book. all it says. every meaning. every finality. it is the best book I have read this year and will stay my favorite forever!!!!!!!!!

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Title: Tindr

Subtitle: Book Five of The Circle of Ceridwen Saga

Author: Octavia Randolph

Narrator: Nano Nagle

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-28-17

Publisher: Octavia Randolph

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 79 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Tindr: Book Five of the Circle of Ceridwen Saga: The Lady of the Forest, Freyja, the Goddess of all woodland beasts, appears here on Midgard as a white hind. So great is her love for her deer that she herself comes in their guise. None has ever seen her, but if she permitted to give man but a glance, that is what they would see..

Tindr is handsome, kind, and the best hunter in 9th century Gotland. He possesses a deep empathy with animals, which powers his reverence towards the game he takes to survive. But he is also deaf, which closes him off from the society that surrounds him - and seemingly, from finding love.

Devoted parents and friends can't protect young Tindr from the bully who taunts him, from jealousy that turns murderous, or from the threat of surrender to the allure of the Lady of the Forest, who might destroy him.

Tindr's haven is the greenwood. It is home not only to the rabbits he snares, and the stags and boars he takes with bow and arrow, but to a rare creature of unusual beauty, a source of deepening fascination and wonder in Tindr's life.

His silent world alters dramatically at the arrival of two strangers on the island - the Welsh-Saxon Ceridwen, and the Danish warrior Sidroc. He finds a new and fulfilling life with them at Tyrsborg. But will he ever find a woman to love him?

Tindr tells the story of this strange and haunting young hunter, living amidst a landscape of wild, wind-swept island beauty.

Tindr's magic woods await you.

Members Reviews:

IF YOU YEARN FOR THE SCOTS, YOU LOVE THE DANES!!!

Where does Tindr rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

For those of you who have been trying to find a story as well written as OUTLANDER, here it is!!! This series is set in the 800s and is fully described so as to put you there. Each of the characters are well-described and their personalities made known. While the books are not as long as Diana Gabaldon's OUTLANDER, they are just as historically accurate and Octavia Randolph seems to write one a year, which keeps you waiting not as long...a real plus in my opinion. There is no time travel, but gives the reader an accurate sense of how peoples of the varying nations moved from land-to-land, settling, intermingling, inter-marrying to educate the reader on where we came from... This is a high-quality, well-narrated series that, if you enjoy reading about the Danes, will keep you "in the story". It will only be a matter of time before Hollywood gets its hands on it! : )

Real Disappointment

I've slogged through about half this book hoping to get something to peak my interest. The reader bores the hell out of me.

5th book mot the best

Loved all of the first 4 books, but this last one, the first half was bad. The 2nd half got better, but never up to the first 4 books standards.

Amazing

Oh my, the story of Tindr was sooo good. Love it. Going to listen again!

Another great book

When I first started this audiobook I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. At first, to me , it didn't seem like it fit in the Saga. but as the story developed it became one of my favorite of the books so far. Octavia has done a wonderful job and telling the lives of her characters and portraying their culture and their feelings. Nano Nagle has done another great job at portraying all the many voices in the books.

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Title: The Bedlam Stacks

Author: Natasha Pulley

Narrator: David Thorpe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-13-17

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 58 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

An astonishing historical novel set in the shadowy, magical forests of South America, which draws on the captivating world of the international best seller The Watchmaker of Filigree Street.

Deep in uncharted Peru, the holy town of Bedlam stands at the edge of a forest. The shrine statues move, and anyone who crosses the border dies. But somewhere inside are cinchona trees, whose bark yields quinine: the only known treatment for malaria.

On the other side of the Pacific, it is 1859, and India is ravaged by the disease. The hunt for a reliable source of quinine is critical, and in its desperation the India Office searches out its last qualified expeditionary. Struggling with a terrible injury from his last mission and the strange occurrences at his family's ruined estate, Merrick Tremayne finds himself under orders to bring back cinchona cuttings at any cost and dispatched, against his own better judgment, to Bedlam.

There he meets Raphael, a priest around whom the villagers spin unsettlingly familiar stories of impossible disappearances and living stone. Gradually Tremayne realises that Raphael is the key to a legacy left by two generations of Tremayne explorers before him, one which will prove more dangerous and valuable than the India Office could ever have imagined.

Critic Reviews:

"Assured and absorbing...immensely pleasurable reading. Pulley's prose is strong and energetic, with a wry edge, and even the most minor characters are drawn precisely.... Intricate, charming and altogether surprising." (The New York Times book review on The Watchmaker of Filigree Street)

Members Reviews:

Just enough magic here!

This is the second book I've listened to by Natasha Pulley. I love this book. There is a fantasy element, but it is brought out slowly, almost as a mystery of its own. She's very good at world building here, with just enough reality to keep the whole story cohesive.

I'm eagerly awaiting her next book!

More please!!

I am thoroughly hooked by Ms Pulley's writing style! I'm addicted to her characters and the quirky nature they all have! I've read both of her books and can't wait to see what her future books hold! I am restarting Filigree Street now and will redo Bedlam as soon as I'm done!!

Terrific read!

Unusual storyline, engaging and occasionally funny interactions; a truly unique and magical reading experience! You won't regret using your credits on this one.

delightful book

looking forward to the third book. many delightful surprises. Natasha Pulleys story's are like nothing I've ever read before.

Wonderful story and took me back to my travels in Peru

Great story, unusual and original . I have travelled throughout south america and spent time in Peru. The description of the landscape and architecture/historic ruins are very accurate and written by someone who had travelled there, I am sure.

The story itself is a beautifully balanced cocktail of history , local spirituality and beliefs , reminders of old fashioned prejudice and our historic influence on the world , as well as being a story about human compassion , friendship and at times a look at how we could act in desperation . A story of history, friendship, judgment, magic and spiritual beliefs..... listen and you will be enthralled and sad when it ends !!!