Narrator Helen Laser joins AudioFile’s Michele Cobb to discuss her narration of YELLOWFACE, R.F. Kuang’s novel with a sharp look at the publishing world and one of AudioFile’s 2023 Best Fiction Audiobooks. Laser gives a mesmerizing performance as June Hayward, a struggling author who steals her dead friend’s manuscript, passing it off as her own, and publishing it while pretending she is Asian. It’s a riveting production of a thrilling and thought-provoking story. Laser shares the challenges of narrating YELLOWFACE, and what has stayed with her about this audiobook.

Read AudioFile’s review of the audiobook. Published by Harper Audio.

AudioFile’s 2023 Best Fiction Audiobooks are:

CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, read by Shayna Small, Aaron Goodson, Michael Crouch, Lee Osorio

THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE by James McBride, read by Dominic Hoffman

I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU by Rebecca Makkai, read by Julia Whelan, JD Jackson

THE LATE AMERICANS by Brandon Taylor, read by Kevin R. Free

TOM LAKE by Ann Patchett, read by Meryl Streep

YELLOWFACE by R.F. Kuang, read by Helen Laser

For the full list of 2023 Best Audiobooks visit our website.

Support for AudioFile's Behind the Mic comes from HarperAudio. Get up-close to artists you admire with Willie Nelson’s Energy Follows Thought, Melissa Etheridge’s Talking to My Angels, and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Worthy. Listen to samples at www.hc.com.

Photo of Helen Laser by John DeAmara.

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