Audiobooks: Fiction, Poetry, & Drama
I am a believer in the beauty and utility of audiobooks. (It helps that I drive about an hour a day.) Humans spoke and told stories before they wrote. Homer sang or chanted. Your experience of a story may be enhanced or transformed by listening to a skilled artist bring to life. I cannot imagine reading Alexander McCall Smith's wonderful No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels, because the amazing Lisette Lecat, a South African actress, has given them life inside my head with her singular readings. If you love the experience of being read to, here are some of our carefully chosen titles. If you want books to be delivered in an old and an always new way, try an audiobook soon. (Success and technological parameters have driven me to divide our audiobooks into two pages. Be sure to browse our audiobook-nonfiction as well.)
Ratlines
Ratlines
Dublin, 1963: When a German national is murdered just before President John F. Kennedy’s scheduled trip to Ireland, Lieutenant Albert Ryan, Directorate of Intelligence, is assigned the case. The German is the third foreigner to die within a few days, and Minister for Justice Charles Haughey wants the killing to end lest a shameful secret be exposed: The dead men were all Nazis granted asylum by the Irish government in the years following World War II. A note from the killers is found on the dead German’s corpse, addressed to Colonel Otto Skorzeny, Hitler’s favorite commando, once called the most dangerous man in Europe. The note simply says: “We are coming for you.” As Albert Ryan digs deeper into the case he discovers a network of former Nazis and collaborators. But as Ryan closes in on the killers, his loyalty is torn between country and conscience as he is forced to protect the very people he fought against twenty years before. Soon Ryan learns that while Skorzeny might be a dangerous ally, he is a deadly enemy. “Ratlines is thrilling and historically informed....Albert Ryan is a formidable yet damaged hero.” - Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Read by Alan Smyth. 9 cds, 10.5 hours, unabridged.