Best of the year (so far)

Caro Claire Burke’s debut novel is the one everyone’s talking about this year. Rebecca Lowman’s performance echoes the biting tone of this whip-smart satire, bringing depth and nuance to unreliable (and at times loathsome) protagonist Natalie Heller Mills, a trad-wife influencer who wakes up one morning to find herself in 1855, the era she’s fetishised on social media. This irresistible hook, combined with Burke’s thriller-like pacing and unsparing prose, makes for a listen as hypnotic as any late-night doomscroll. To hear more from Caro Claire Burke, listen to our interview.

Cleopatra demands to be heard. This is no dusty historical record; it is a subversive, first-person “memoir” that reclaims a queen’s legacy from the men who sought to bury it. Saara El-Arifi’s prose is lush and sharp—which is what fans of her Faebound and Ending Fire trilogies have come to love—but Adjoa Andoh's narration breathes fire into the text due to her distinctive, resonant power (the same scene-stealing gravitas she brings to Bridgerton). Listening to her embody Cleopatra, you don’t just hear a story, you witness a pharaoh taking back her throne. To hear more from Saara El-Arifi, read our interview.

I know when I hit play on a book by Alice Feeney, I’m in for a ride into an otherworldly kind of suspense story, especially in the hands of top narrators like Bel Powley, Henry Rowley, and Richard Armitage. I mean, shouldn’t it be “My Ex-Husband’s Wife”? So, I went along for the ride into another interesting town with a cast of characters going about their lives. Except for ... nah, I’m not going to tell you. I’m still rewinding this book in my mind to find the clues I missed. When you find them, let me know. Hint: It’s not over till it’s over. To hear more from Alice Feeney, listen to our interview.

Everything from Sir Stephen Fry is a delight, and this 12-part “adventure in sound” is no different. Fry transports us back to the creation of planet Earth, explaining how its diverse landscapes and inhabitants have evolved, and even gives us a glimpse of the future. Enriched with immersive sound design reminiscent of a nature documentary, Wonderful Life celebrates the flora, fauna, and complex ecosystems that call our planet home. It’s a listening experience that just might change how you think of your place in the universe.

Jessica George's debut, My Name Is Maame, is one of my all-time favourite listens. Her equally remarkable sophomore novel follows Remy, an author adrift after her tight-knit friend group splinters, and Simone, a fiercely independent woman suddenly cut off from the only family she's ever needed. When these two very different women find each other, what unfolds is the most gorgeous, funny, and deeply moving celebration of platonic love and female friendship I've ever listened to. Narrator Isabel Adomakoh Young is a marvel, giving the novel's multiple women voices so distinct and recognisable, I felt like I knew them all personally. If this book doesn't make you want to pick up the phone and call your best friend, nothing will.

What if you could go back in time, but doing so risked everything? Matt Haig takes us on a magical and quietly devastating ride in The Midnight Train. The time-travelling love story follows Wilbur, a man whose life flashes before his eyes and is given the extraordinary chance to relive the moments that mattered most. For Wilbur, that moment was with the love of his life, Maggie, on their honeymoon in Venice, before everything changed. James Norton’s narration poetically brings out Wilbur’s vulnerability, and I found myself rooting for Wilbur and Maggie throughout the entire story. If you loved The Midnight Library, then grab yourself a ticket on The Midnight Train.

Patrick Radden Keefe delivers the ultimate antidote to a listening rut—press play on London Falling and you’ll forget what a listening rut even is, along with your entire to-do list. Come for the mystery of a teenager’s fatal fall from a luxury high-rise and a riveting story of scammers in a city glittering with wealth and corruption. Stay for the author’s impeccable instincts and sensitivity to a grieving family as he strives for the truth. No one does narrative non-fiction—or pitch-perfect author narration—like Radden Keefe, who remains at the top of his game.

Dervla McTiernan put three story ideas to her fans and asked them to choose her next book. Lucky for us, she'd already written the standout choice, Three Reasons for Revenge. This twisty thriller is the first story McTiernan has set in her adopted home, Australia, but the story is universal. I'll be honest: I'm a strictly daytime thriller listener, so no after-dark scary stories for me. But the moral grey zones in this one kept me up at night anyway! Alison McGirr's narration is flawless. Once you press play, you won't want to stop. To hear more from Dervla McTiernan, listen to our interview.

Hannah Murray may be best known for her roles in Skins and Game of Thrones, but it's this raw, deeply disturbing memoir about her real-life descent into a wellness cult that will stay with me far longer. The actress details the journey—from experiencing emotional trauma on a film set, to seeking help from an energy healer, to learning ritual magic—that triggered her eventual mania and madness. Murray's radical empathy and honesty, narrated in her own voice in audio, transform this tale into something extraordinary. It's unlike any celebrity memoir I've ever listened to.

From the very first scene of Land, I experienced it not just as a novel but as witchcraft. How else to explain Maggie O’Farrell channelling the historic tribulations of her ancestors through the image of a taciturn father and his reluctant son mapping the terrain of their country for the British as the cold rain poured around them? How else to account for the psychedelic visions of the land, whose marvellous descriptions are more thrilling than any action scene, and the mesmerising story, which weaves back and forth through time so fluidly. Credit to Irish actor Dane Whyte O’Hara for his melodious, spellbinding delivery of a story, a history, and a vision that beats forever in my heart.

Podcast host Alex Partridge (ADHD Chatter) shines a light on Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, a state of emotional dysregulation experienced by many people with ADHD. Combining his own experiences with insights from some of the world’s top experts, Partridge drills down into the rarely acknowledged challenges of living with ADHD—the people-pleasing, overworking, procrastination, perfectionism, and other behaviours that come with a profound fear of rejection. Partridge’s narration of Why Does Everybody Hate Me?, like his podcast, is vulnerable, blunt, informative, and a godsend to neurodivergent people trying to better understand themselves. To hear more from Alex Partridge, read our interview.

This tender, revelatory novel about memory, family, and the stories we tell ourselves about our past left me in awe. When Daphne encounters her long-lost stepfather at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she's confronted with childhood memories she thought she understood, only to discover how profoundly wrong she was about what happened and why. Ann Patchett narrates the audiobook herself, adding an intimate, conversational quality full of the wry humour, gentle wisdom, and emotional honesty that define her writing style. For anyone who's still untangling their own complicated family relationships, Whistler offers something quietly profound and genuinely healing.

Like her iconic words “Shame has to change sides,” Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir is revolutionary. The rape survivor and global feminist icon isn’t just unfathomably brave—she is an acute chronicler of a story no one would wish to tell. In her hands, what could be an unprocessed or vague account is both riveting procedural and incisive marital autopsy: childhood traumas, money woes, undeniable happy times, and all. Emma Thompson’s performance—elegance embodied even when simmering with rage—channels Pelicot to a T. Her husband and his wretched ilk tried to take her dignity, but like her story, it’s all her own.

Truth: There is nothing funny about alcoholism. Another truth: John Robins’s memoir about his alcoholism is a lot of things—brutal, emotional … and hilarious. It takes a particular kind of talent—nay, a particular kind of person—to take a mound of rubble, piece it back together as a wholly new and beautiful structure, and point to it and say, “This is made entirely out of things I’ve broken.” Thirst is a hard listen in some ways, but I’d say anything that can stir something up in you is worth it, especially when another laugh is just a few sentences away.

Immerse yourself in the wizarding world with this groundbreaking listening experience. The Dolby Atmos sound design transported me in ways I didn't think were possible through audio alone. More than 200 performers brought the story to life, including Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Riz Ahmed, Ruth Wilson, James McAvoy, and Matthew Macfadyen (whose Voldemort voice was perfectly menacing). But the true magic lies in rising stars Jaxon Knopf, Rhys Mulligan, and Nina Barker-Francis, who so beautifully capture the friendship at the heart of the series as Harry, Ron, and Hermione. This is a totally new way to experience the iconic story and final battle at Hogwarts. For me, it transformed a beloved classic into something that feels entirely new.

I was mesmerised by this haunting exploration of family, perspective, and how truth depends on who's telling the story. It’s a brilliantly structured debut that centres on the Sharaf family, Afghan immigrants living the American Dream in suburban Virginia. The novel unfolds through statements from community members, journalists, teachers, and attorneys, all looking back at a tragedy that’s not fully revealed until halfway through the story. But knowing what happened is just one piece of the mystery. Main characters only exist through others' observations, so they constantly shift in your mind—a puzzle made even more immersive by the 15-narrator cast.