Big Indie Books of Fall 2021

Until I Am Free

Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America

By: Keisha N. Blain
Narrated by: Tyra Kennedy
Length: 7 hours 1 minute

Explores the Black activist’s ideas and political strategies, highlighting their relevance for tackling modern social issues including voter suppression, police violence, and economic inequality.

“We have a long fight and this fight is not mine alone, but you are not free whether you are white or black, until I am free.”—Fannie Lou Hamer

A... Read more

Between Tides

By: Angel Khoury
Narrated by: Hillary Huber
Length: 7 hours 27 minutes

A captivating historical novel set on Cape Cod and North Carolina's Outer Banks, perfect for fans of Where the Crawdads Sing and Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping

1890s, Cape Cod: Between tides, a man deserts his wife and his post as keeper of the Chatham Beach Lifesaving Station to start a new family far to the south, at Cape Hatteras.

1940s:... Read more

On Freedom

Four Songs of Care and Constraint

By: Maggie Nelson
Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
Length: 10 hours 5 minutes

An expansive, exhilarating work of criticism by one of the most significant writers of our day.

So often deployed as a jingoistic, even menacing rallying cry, or limited by a focus on passing moments of liberation, the rhetoric of freedom both rouses and repels. Does it remain key to our autonomy, justice, and well-being, or is freedom's long... Read more

Moon and the Mars

By: Kia Corthron
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 22 hours 14 minutes

The highly anticipated new novel from the winner of the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize examines NYC and America in the burgeoning moments before the start of the Civil War through the eyes of a young biracial girl.
In Moon and the Mars, set in the impoverished Five Points district of New York City in the years 1857–1863, we experience... Read more

The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics

By: Stephen Breyer
Narrated by: Jim Seybert
Length: 1 hour 52 minutes

A growing chorus of officials and commentators argues that the Supreme Court has become too political. On this view, the confirmation process is just an exercise in partisan agenda-setting, and the jurists are no more than “politicians in robes”?their ostensibly neutral judicial philosophies mere camouflage for conservative or liberal... Read more

Toufah

The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement

Truth to Power

By: Toufah Jallow & Kim Pittaway
Narrated by: Toufah Jallow
Length: 10 hours 39 minutes

"Riveting . . .  harrowing and propulsive." —The New York Times Book Review

*One of The Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2021 (Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly)*
 
"This powerful story shouldn’t be missed." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
"With subject matter like this, you’d expect the book to be worthy, important, but hard-going. You’d be... Read more

A Snake Falls to Earth

By: Darcie Little Badger
Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett & Kinsale Hueston
Length: 10 hours 35 minutes

“This book truly transported me to another world. I was swept away by world building and so charmed by each of the characters. Nina and Oli both having their own talents and struggles with translation was such a wonderful way to tie these characters together until they met. A Snake Falls to Earth was a breath of fresh air, wholly original, and a... Read more

Sankofa

A Novel

By: Chibundu Onuzo
Narrated by: Sara Powell
Length: 9 hours 2 minutes

“After her mother’s death, Anna finds a diary among her possessions. The diary of Anna’s father, a man she has never known and her mother has told her little about. As Anna reads the diary of the young man who fell in love with her mother, she begins to feel that she knows him and is understandably curious to learn what happened to him. At a... Read more

When We Cease to Understand the World

By: Benjamin Labatut
Narrated by: Adam Barr
Length: 5 hours 40 minutes

When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger—these are some of the luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the listener, showing us how they... Read more

Blue-Skinned Gods

By: SJ Sindu
Narrated by: Varun Sathi
Length: 11 hours 13 minutes

From the award-winning author of Marriage of a Thousand Lies comes a brilliantly written, globe-spanning novel about identity, faith, family, and sexuality. In Tamil Nadu, India, a boy is born with blue skin. His father sets up an ashram, and the family makes a living off of the pilgrims who seek the child’s blessings and miracles, believing... Read more