AudioFile's 2023 Best Audiobooks

Only This Beautiful Moment

By: Abdi Nazemian
Narrated by: Vikas Adam, Fajer Al-Kaisi & Iman Nazemzadeh
Length: 11 hours 30 minutes

Stonewall Book Award Winner * A Best Book of the Year from the Guardian, ALA Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and BookPage From the award–winning author of Like a Love Story comes a sweeping story of three generations of boys in the same Iranian family. Perfect for fans of Last Night at the Telegraph Club and Darius the Great Is Not Okay. 2019. Moud is... Read more

Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy

By: Angie Thomas
Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
Length: 9 hours 36 minutes

“Superstar author of THE HATE YOU GIVE wrote a funny, imaginative fantasy inspired by African American folklore. Read more

Yellowface

A Novel

By: R. F. Kuang
Narrated by: Helen Laser
Length: 8 hours 39 minutes

“Equal parts modern satire, indictment of the publishing industry, and twisted ghost story, R. F. Kuang’s first foray into literary fiction pulls no punches and will have you reading late into the night. Read more

Misbelief

What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things

By: Dan Ariely
Narrated by: Simon Jones
Length: 9 hours 57 minutes

The renowned social scientist, professor, and bestselling author of Predictably Irrational delivers his most urgent and compelling book—an eye-opening exploration of the human side of the misinformation crisis—examining what drives otherwise rational people to adopt deeply irrational beliefs.Misinformation affects all of us on a daily basis—from... Read more

Tom Lake

A Novel

By: Ann Patchett
Narrated by: Meryl Streep
Length: 11 hours 22 minutes

“This is a story of love for family, of past passions and people once loved, and their continuing influence on the present. With Ann Patchett’s wit and wryness finely tuned, Tom Lake is the perfect book for a summer weekend read. Read more

Godkiller

By: Hannah Kaner
Narrated by: Kit Griffiths
Length: 12 hours 54 minutes

“Imaginative and rich with worldbuilding, Godkiller follows a small group of unlikely allies on a quest to unearth the truth behind the relationship of a little girl and a tiny god. This first instalment is jam-packed with action and questions about power, and what is right and wrong in a world forged by gods. A fantastic start to an exciting new... Read more

The Wager

A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

By: David Grann
Narrated by: Dion Graham & David Grann
Length: 8 hours 28 minutes

“Few authors are able to write nonfiction history that reads like a page turning adventure novel, but David Grann is one of them. The gripping story of The Wager’s shipwreck and the survivors’ divergent tales of the events that followed kept me on the edge of my seat as I devoured this book. Martin Scorsese has already acquired the film rights. Read more

Silver Nitrate

By: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Narrated by: Gisela Chípe
Length: 13 hours 3 minutes

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic comes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost film—and awakens one woman’s hidden powers.

“No one punctures the skin of reality to reveal the lurking, sinister magic beneath... Read more

Free Radicals

By: Lila Riesen
Narrated by: Gilli Messer
Length: 9 hours 36 minutes

Afghan-American Mafi’s sophomore year gets a whole lot more complicated when she accidentally exposes family secrets, putting her family back in Afghanistan in danger in this smartly written YA debut.

Sixteen-year-old Mafi Shahin is well-aware that life is not always fair. If it was fair, her parents might allow her to hang out with a member of... Read more

Poverty, by America

By: Matthew Desmond
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 5 hours 40 minutes

“This is an incredibly well written book that I think anyone who is living comfortably in America should read. It is heavy and sad, but even though hearing hard things is hard, it can be necessary. Some sections have a lot of stats, but it doesn’t get too bogged down with numbers. The final few chapters are more inspiring with a call-to-action... Read more

Chain Gang All Stars: A Read with Jenna Pick

National Book Award Finalist

By: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Narrated by: Shayna Small, Aaron Goodson, Michael Crouch & Lee Osorio
Length: 13 hours 38 minutes

“This book rocked me to my core. Adjei-Brenyah's writing is soul-shifting. He gives us a devastatingly unvarnished look at the US carceral system and a warning for what may to be come. The deep, multidimensional characters evoke empathy, empowerment, and sometimes disgust. I have never read a more evocative work of fiction. The audiobook is worth... Read more

I Have Some Questions for You

A Novel

By: Rebecca Makkai
Narrated by: Julia Whelan & JD Jackson
Length: 14 hours 3 minutes

“Rebecca Makkai’s latest novel explores the true crime genre with an awareness of its troubling use of murder as profitable entertainment. At the same time, however, her main character partly makes her living from a podcast about Hollywood’s abuse of actresses during the Golden Age, using her influential platform to help solve a decades-old... Read more

The Late Americans

A Novel

By: Brandon Taylor
Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
Length: 9 hours 16 minutes

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY VOGUE, ELLE, OPRAH DAILY, THE WASHINGTON POST, BUZZFEED AND VULTURE

“Erudite, intimate, hilarious, poignant . . . A gorgeously written novel of youth’s promise, of the quest to find one’s tribe and one’s calling.” —Leigh Haber, Oprah Daily

The Booker Prize finalist and... Read more

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

A Vera Wong Novel: Book #1

By: Jesse Q. Sutanto
Narrated by: Eunice Wong
Length: 10 hours 41 minutes

“So funny! Narrator, Eunice Wong nailed the main character. Both the narrator and author, Jessie Q. Sutanto, are of Chinese descent, and Wong portrayed Auntie Vera in a funny and loving way. This was our bookshop reading group pick in July 2023 and everyone loved it! Read more

The Grimoire of Grave Fates

By: author
Narrated by: January LaVoy & Mx. Nicky Endres
Length: 12 hours 26 minutes

Crack open your spell book and enter the world of the illustrious Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary. There's been a murder on campus, and it's up to the students of Galileo to solve it. Follow 18 authors and 18 students as they puzzle out the clues and find the guilty party.

Professor of Magical History Septimius Dropwort has just been... Read more

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

A Novel

By: James McBride
Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
Length: 12 hours 21 minutes

“This is a humorous, compassionate and insightful novel, and my favorite of 2023 so far! A skeleton found at the bottom of a well, clutching a mezuzah. This is the mystery that McBride puts at the outset of his fabulous new novel, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. From this opening, McBride populates the world of 1930s Pottstown,... Read more

Love, Theoretically

By: Ali Hazelwood
Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer
Length: 12 hours 33 minutes

“Since I'm still recovering from how much I loved The Love Hypothesis, having an Adam and Olive cameo in this book was EVERYTHING! Thank you Ali! Ali has done it again - Love, Theoretically is a great, addictive, hard to put down read. I loved the characters and how fully formed and human her characters always feel. I'm also a sucker for an... Read more

Rogue Justice

A Thriller

Avery Keene: Book #2

By: Stacey Abrams
Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
Length: 12 hours 32 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The #1 bestselling author of While Justice Sleeps returns with another riveting and intricately plotted thriller, in which a blackmailed federal judge, a secret court and a brazen murder may lead to an unprecedented national crisis.

"Abrams delivers another smart, zippy thriller." —Washington Post

"A thoroughly... Read more

The Art Thief

A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession

By: Michael Finkel
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini & Michael Finkel
Length: 5 hours 39 minutes

“I have not been able to stop talking about this book since I finished listening to it. It’s the story about the world’s most prolific (yet astoundingly unremarkable) art thief. While it’s a short listen, it’s fascinating beginning to end, full of twists and immersive details. Read more

Differ We Must

How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America

By: Steve Inskeep
Narrated by: Steve Inskeep
Length: 8 hours 57 minutes

An instant New York Times bestseller

A compelling and nuanced exploration of Abraham Lincoln’s political acumen, illuminating a great politician’s strategy in a country divided—and lessons for our own disorderly present

In 1855, with the United States at odds over slavery, the lawyer Abraham Lincoln wrote a note to his best friend, the son of a... Read more