Astoria Bookshop Staff Picks - Fiction

Speak No Evil

A Novel

By: Uzodinma Iweala
Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi & Julia Whelan
Length: 6 hours 21 minutes

“'This is who I am.' 'This is what happened to me.' These are the simplest of expressions, yet the ability to speak them fully is a privilege not shared by the teenaged protagonists of this novel. Nigerian immigrant and Harvard-accepted aspiring doctor Niru is not able to tell his conservative religious parents that he is gay. The daughter of... Read more

Alice Isn't Dead

A Novel

By: Joseph Fink
Narrated by: Jasika Nicole
Length: 8 hours 43 minutes

“Joseph Fink is my hero for making extreme anxiety a superpower and something from which a person can draw strength. Like the Welcome to Night Vale novels, Alice Isn’t Dead evinces a gentleness throughout the story, but as with Keisha, the protagonist, don’t mistake that for weakness. This novel is a road trip into the depths of human love even... Read more

The Immortalists

By: Chloe Benjamin
Narrated by: Maggie Hoffman
Length: 11 hours 29 minutes

“In 1969, four siblings visit a fortune teller, who tells each child the date of their death. We follow the Gold siblings both separately and together over the next four decades and see how these revelations affect their choices, their behavior, and their relationships with one another. Apart from raising the obvious question (would you want to... Read more

Killing Commendatore

A novel

By: Haruki Murakami
Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
Length: 28 hours 24 minutes

“Part ghost story, part fairy tale, wholly human, Haruki Murakami’s new novel is a quiet burn of redemption and rebirth and the stories that cannot be told. An unnamed artist is asked by a faceless man to paint his portrait, a culmination of 9 months lost in art and music, loss and sex, the memories of love and empathy of men. Once you accept the... Read more

Fruit of the Drunken Tree

A Novel

By: Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Narrated by: Marisol Ramirez, Almarie Guerra & Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Length: 12 hours 25 minutes

“Fruit of the Drunken Tree made me cry at the airport. I was impressed by the small kingdom of women Contreras builds, with violence always threatening to creep in, all seen through the eyes of Chula, the youngest daughter. Contreras made her perspective believably cloistered while masterfully writing all the people around Chula in ways that made... Read more

There There

A novel

By: Tommy Orange
Narrated by: Darrell Dennis, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Alma Cuervo & Kyla Garcia
Length: 7 hours 59 minutes

“A stunning debut novel by an original voice. Twelve characters of Native American descent, interrelated by birth or chance, struggle with the competing forces of cultural history and modern urban existence. Their stories build separately before colliding powerfully in the book’s final pages at The Big Oakland Powwow. I was riveted. Read more

Give Me Your Hand

By: Megan Abbott
Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
Length: 11 hours 2 minutes

“This was an oddly addicting and hypnotizing listen. It's so character driven about female friendships and competition (bc sometimes, competition pushes us to be better). The narrator was fantastic. She hooked me in with her telling and I just wanted Kit to succeed. This is my first Megan Abbott book but I suspect it won't be my last. Read more

Circe

By: Madeline Miller
Narrated by: Perdita Weeks
Length: 12 hours 8 minutes

“A bold retelling of the Circe episode from Homer's Odyssey that not only captures the interlocking pieces of Greek mythology, but also gives each god, titan, and Grecian a pulsing complexity. Both Circe the book and the character are quiet, sensual and--at times--freewheeling, adventurous, and devastating. Perdita Week's performance here is... Read more

The Death of Mrs. Westaway

By: Ruth Ware
Narrated by: Imogen Church
Length: 14 hours 14 minutes

“The perfect atmospheric thriller to curl up and listen to while the rain lashes the window and your tarot spread suggests you stay inside. Cold mansion, creepy maid, a surprise will, and long buried secrets clawing their way out of the grave will keep you glued to the seat, cup of tea trembling in your hand until the last word. Read more

An American Marriage

A Novel

By: Tayari Jones
Narrated by: Sean Crisden & Eisa Davis
Length: 8 hours 59 minutes

“Tayari Jones comes in fierce with An American Marriage. Delving into the lives of the newly married Roy and Celestial, this is a novel that pulls no punches from beginning to end. I won't ruin the surprise, but they're hit with a harrowing event that will define not only their relationship, but each of their lives, forever. Writing with an... Read more

Space Opera

By: Catherynne M. Valente
Narrated by: Heath Miller
Length: 9 hours 45 minutes

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets Eurovision in an over-the-top galactic science fiction spectacle from bestselling author Catherynne Valente where sentient races compete for glory in a universe-wide musical contest—where the stakes are as high as the fate of planet Earth.

A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and... Read more

Freshwater

By: Akwaeke Emezi
Narrated by: Akwaeke Emezi
Length: 6 hours 42 minutes

An extraordinary debut novel, Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side." Unsettling, heartwrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater is a sharp evocation of a rare way of... Read more

She Would Be King

A Novel

By: Wayétu Moore
Narrated by: Wayétu Moore
Length: 9 hours 38 minutes

“The beauty, pain, and personality of Wayétu Moore’s epic trans-Atlantic story could only be expressed with magic. Moore follows her protagonists from before their births through their lives in the early days of Liberia. Combining folklore, African religions, history, and family narratives, Moore’s beautiful writing brings to life the struggles... Read more

Friday Black

By: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Narrated by: Corey Allen & Carra Patterson
Length: 7 hours 8 minutes

“What a breathtaking collection. These stories are so artfully crafted and imaginatively constructed that at first blush they carry the same satisfaction as the best social satire out there and all the respect that goes along with the label; this collection, however, commands that and more. It is wrenching in its acute, precise indictment of... Read more

The Witch Elm

A Novel

By: Tana French
Narrated by: Paul Nugent
Length: 22 hours 6 minutes

“Reading Tana French means disappearing into another life for a while. Her stories aren’t meant to be slick or flashy, but deliberate, intricate studies of characters and their motivations. The Witch Elm is no different, as it follows the unraveling of Toby starting the night he surprises two burglars in his apartment. As you learn the secrets... Read more