Literature to Listen To
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Talking books Literature to listen to In association with the 28.06.08 | the guardian | The 40 best audiobooks selected by our expert panel Book Marketing Society 40 audiobooks: fiction BIRDSONG, SEBASTIAN FAULKS, READ BY SAMUEL WEST (RANDOM HOUSE) Tell me a story I somehow never got round to reading Birdsong when it was first published, and for that I am now grateful because I would have missed Samuel West’s wonderfully moving performance of this classic tale Listening to someone read is a captivating experience, which can illuminate set during the first world war. LH the most opaque books. It might just change your world, says Sue Arnold hy do people buy audio THE BROKER, JOHN GRISHAM, READ BY books? For DENNIS BOUTSIKARIS (RANDOM HOUSE) t h e s a m e I always prefer to listen to John Grisham’s novels reason they rather than read them as there is something about his watch colour fast-paced, multi-character, plot-twist narratives that Wrather than black and white televi- just work so perfectly as an audiobook. This latest sion perhaps. A great voice reading non-legal thriller is impeccably read by award-winning a good book really does achieve audiobook performer Boutsikaris. LH what those supermarket promo- tions for breakfast promise: “30% more flavour, 40% more fruit”. Of course, you don’t believe a THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE word of it, it’s a marketing gim- NIGHT-TIME, MARK HADDON, READ BY BEN mick and, anyway, unless you are TIBBER (RANDOM HOUSE) the sort of saddo who actually Christopher Boone is a 15-year-old mathematical counts the strawberries in a muesli genius, but also suffers a form of autism. He hates packet, how could you prove it? But yellow, can’t relate to other kids and really misses his when you see on the back of one of mum. Then one morning he finds his dog dead and his Michelle Paver’s bestselling Chron- entire world changes. Beautifully written, stunningly icles of Ancient Darkness that it’s read, a story to wring the hardest heart. SA read by Ian McKellen, you know exactly what you are going to get: more colour, more flavour and Gan- DEATH MessAGE , MARK BILLINGHAM, READ BY dalf’s inimitable voice bringing to ROBERT GLENISTER (HACHETTE) life the richly atmospheric descrip- Robert Glenister’s Tom has accompanied me through tions of the rites, rituals and mys- my 30s; he’s tired, pissed off and the only thing teries of an ancient civilisation. keeping him going is the desire to keep kicking against It’s often a bit of a struggle con- the pricks. The energy of this recording just zings out vincing the uninitiated that certain of the speakers. It’s gritty, dirty and absolutely human, books are more easily understood and I can’t wait for the next one. Addiction is a filthy through your ears than your eyes. habit, but entirely justified with this series. JF Take Proust, and before you come back with a heartfelt “no thanks, I’d sooner submit to bowel surgery in DIssOLUTION, CJ SANSOM, READ BY ANTON the woods with a stick”, let me say LesseR (MACMILLAN) that I used to feel the same. I proba- Matthew Shardlake, the crooked-back lawyer, bly made as many attempts to read experiences at first hand the viciousness and tragedy À la recherche du temps perdu as that accompany Henry VIII’s reshaping of religion in Mark Twain made to give up smok- England. A commissioner overseeing the closure of a ing, but page after page of those monastery is brutally murdered and Shardlake is sent interminable sentences always to investigate. A mix of serious history and its political brought me to my knees. Was lit- context, together with first-rate murder mystery. KN erature meant to be this difficult? Was it worth hacking through acres of Marcel’s impenetrable jungle to EXIT MUSIC , IAN RANKIN, READ BY JAMES find those legendary madeleines? MACPHERSON (ORION) Then I heard the audio version The king of maverick cops thrashes the old-school of Swann’s Way read by John Rowe competition. With no let-up in the pressure inside and everything changed. It made Rebus’s head, MacPherson gives us the best sense, in fact it was wonderful, the performance yet and proves that one reader does not more wonderful because someone mean one monologue — each character is given their else was doing the hacking, the hard own voice which makes this dramatic. It’s a rollicking work. Listening to rather than read- good listen. JF ing Proust is like paying someone to chop the firewood. All you have to do is sit back in your chair and THE FELLOwsHIP OF THE RING, JRR TOLKIEN, warm your feet in the glow. Sur- READ BY FULL CAST (BBC) prise yourself, amaze your family, The Fellowship of the Ring has never been bettered impress your friends. Plug in and than in this superb BBC adaptation, recorded in 1981, switch on Finnegan’s Wake, A Brief with Ian Holm playing a magnificently valiant Frodo History of Time, Paradise Lost and and Bill Nighy a marvellous Samwise Gamgee. Michael all those other impossible books Above: John Rowe’s recorded for hours by signal failure in Dagen- crackling sound as if Andrew Sachs Horden is brilliant as Gandalf — and it’s impossible to you’ve tried but failed to finish. version of Swann’s Way by Marcel ham East. Instead of listening to or Sean Barratt or whoever was write about this without using superlatives. A feast for Print ties you down; when you’re Proust (top) transports the reader people complaining, weeping, reading it, had choked on a fish the ears! KN reading a book you can’t do any- to the very heart of this notoriously hyperventilating, I could have been bone, then silence broken only by thing else. An audiobook allows impenetrable masterpiece quietly listening to Ian Rankin’s curses as you tried vainly to untan- you to multitask. You could be Top photo: Getty. Above: Sarah Lee last Rebus story Exit Music, Ben gle the twisted strands of magnetic FLASHMAN ON THE MARCH, GEORGE listening to Anthony Beevor’s bril- Macintyre’s brilliant Agent Zigzag tape from your machine. The move MACDONALD FRASER, READ BY TOBY STEPHENS liant The Battle for Spain or The or, best of all, Richard Burton and to CDs made a big difference except (HARPERCOLLINS) Ghost by Robert Harris as you’re cast reading Under Milk Wood. for those tiresome, brittle boxes The reluctant Flashman undertakes a perilous mission painting the spare room, cooking, To paraphrase Norman Stone — they come in which crack under a into deepest Abyssinia in the late 1860s, where his clearing out the garage, fishing, “in four years the world went from hard stare or the weight of a care- mastery of lechery, treachery and amazing good slogging along the West Highland 1870 to 1940” from his latest book lessly dropped biscuit. And then luck will be put to the ultimate test. Toby Stephens Way or driving to Cornwall. World War One: A Short History — suddenly my world changed. I went manages to capture perfectly the range of characters Ever since I introduced a non- in the 20 or so years that I have been to an audiobook conference and that populate this extraordinary adventure. JHe believer to the virtues of audio- listening to them, the technology heard the magic word “download”. books she actually looks forward of audiobooks has evolved from the Now, instead of my usual mountain to going to the gym every morn- wheel to the space shuttle. In the of holiday books — histories, biog- GREAT EXPECTATIONS, CHARLES DICKENS, ing. Thanks to the hours she now bad old days, you needed a back- raphies, classics, memoirs, novels READ BY ANTON LesseR (NAXOS) spends working out while simulta- pack to bring three audio Aga sagas (unabridged wherever possible — I A cleverly abridged version of the tale in which an neously engrossed in the romantic home from the library. That was prefer my authors uncut), I take just unknown benefactor’s bequest allows young Philip and military strategies of War and when they were on old-fashioned one small player no bigger than a Pirrip to escape his humble background, though his Peace (67 and a half hours una- Then I heard John cassettes in plastic boxes that could packet of 10 Silk Cut. It holds eight newfound great expectations only manage to bring bridged) she has lost five kilos and Rowe’s audio version double as cabin trunks. books (total running time around him sorrow. A classic novel of self-discovery, brilliantly her muscle definition, she claims, is Portability aside, cassettes had 110 hours) downloaded from the read by Lesser. JHo as good as Jason Statham’s. I never of Swann’s Way and other snags. Invariably, just as the internet. Downloading takes a bit leave home without my Discman. it made sense. In fact plot was nicely thickening on side of practice, but it’s the way forward. I’ve been caught short before on 22 of, say, Val McDermid’s new Space-wise it works out at about lightless tube trains, immobilised it was wonderful thriller there would be a strange 2cm a book. How clever is that? THE LIFE OF PI, YANN MARTEL, READ BY KERRY SHALE (HARPERCOLLINS) Listeners have clearly responded to this recording by Editor Pas Paschali Subeditor Dale Berning Picture editor Tracey Tomlin Production Steve Coady Judging panel for the 40 best audiobooks (priced £15rrp or less), based on the Canadian actor Shale and to the spiritual themes content, reading and production values: Sue Arnold, audio literary editor, the Guardian; Ruth Atkins, fiction buyer, Borders; Jo Forshaw, chair, Audiobook Publishers Association; of this Booker prize-winner as it has been a consistent Jo Henry, managing director, Publishing News; Jo Howard, chair, Book Marketing Society; Laurence Howell, senior book manager, Amazon.co.uk; Kati Nicholl, audio abridger and bestseller since publication.