Tales of the City cover art

Tales of the City

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Tales of the City

By: Armistead Maupin
Narrated by: Frances McDormand
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £3.99

Buy Now for £3.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

Introduction written and read by Rachel Maddow • Narrated by Frances McDormand

The first novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s bestselling San Francisco saga, and inspiration for the Netflix original series, Tales of the City

“A consummate entertainer who has made a generation laugh. . . . . It is Maupin’s Dickensian gift to be able to render love convincingly.”— Edmund White, Times Literary Supplement

For almost four decades Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City has blazed its own trail through popular culture—from a groundbreaking newspaper serial to a classic novel, to a television event that entranced millions around the world. The first of ten novels about the denizens of the mythic apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane, Tales is both a sparkling comedy of manners and an indelible portrait of an era that changed forever the way we live.

Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction Humorous LGBTQIA+ Creators Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Fiction Comedy San Francisco

Listeners also enjoyed...

Tales of the City cover art
I Was Better Last Night cover art
Summer Rental cover art
Tryin' To Sleep In the Bed You Made cover art
Spring Fever cover art
Maurice cover art
How I Paid for College cover art
Into the Wilderness cover art
Strings Attached cover art
Gulliver Takes Manhattan cover art
The Road Home cover art
The Magnificent Sons cover art
Serenading Stanley cover art
Blanche on the Lam cover art
14 cover art
The Time Traveler's Wife cover art

The Pride List of Queer Storytelling

To mark Pride 2023 Audible teamed up with non-profit organisation, Out on the Page, supporter and champion of LGBTQIA+ writers and writing, to release an extensive Pride List of Queer Storytelling. Featuring contributions from some of the UK’s most important and exciting voices from the LGBTQIA+ community, this audiobook is one of the many featured on the list that is available to listen to on Audible.
All stars
Most relevant
I've read the books, watched the TV mini-series, listened to the abridged audio, and now returning to the individual books on audio. Just can't get enough of Maupin's tales - even if I can recite some sections off by heart.
Life-affirming, heart-warming - I love my TOTC family!

Return to this old favourite

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Can't believe I've only just found this series. Wonderful stories and brilliantly performed :) if you're not sure what to listen to next, definitely recommend giving these a try!

Brilliant - pure entertainment

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Audio book, hardcopy, Kindle or Television adaptation. Your choice. Total winner. Audio makes difference. Enjoy.

Excellent.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I loved the performance of Frances but occasionally there were flat scenes, but she managed to recreate Barbary Lane as much as I did when I first read the novel.
I will encourage my friends to indulge in a bit of Madrigal Magic and as for me I'll carry on till the very end.
Mr M has a way of bringing characters to life in a way that are easy to visualise.
A must for anyone who likes a bit of offbeat, quirkiness and a double helping of Babycakes!!

What a Blast

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Maupin's engaging stories of Barbary Lane inhabitants looking for love in San Francisco charm and engage. Francis McDormand reads it beautifully - her wry, tolerant voice the perfect match.

San Francisco Tales

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews