Prize WinnersTalking Books
The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the RNIB National Library Talking Book Service.
Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan. When you return a title, you will then receive another one.
If you would like to read any of these titles then please contact the Customer Services Team on 0303 123 9999 or
If you would like further information, or help in selecting titles to read, then please contact the Reader Services Team on 01733 37 53 33 or email .
You can write to us at RNIB NLS, PO Box 173, PeterboroughPE2 6WS
Man Booker Prize (formerly the Booker Prize)
Adiga, Aravind
The white tiger. 2008. Read by David Thorpe, 9 hours 32 minutes. TB 16055.
Balram gets his break when a rich man hires him as a chauffeur, and takeshim to live in Delhi. As he drives his master to shopping malls and callcentres, Balram becomes increasingly aware of immense wealth andopportunity all around him, while knowing that he will never be able togain access to that world. As Balram broods over his situation, herealizes that there is only one way he can become part of this glamorousnew India - by murdering his master.(Winner 2008). Contains strong language. TB 16055.
Ali, Monica
Brick Lane. 2003. Read by Tania Rodriguez, 18hours 21minutes. TB 13604.
Keeping house and rearing children, Nazneen does what is expected of her.Into that fragile peace walks Karim, raising questions of longing andbelonging that open her eyes to surprising truths. While Nazneen strugglesin Tower Hamlets, her sister Hasina has her own dreams back home inBangladesh. (Shortlisted 2003). TB 13604.
Atwood, Margaret
Oryx and Crake. 2004. Read by John Chancer, 12hours 25minutes. TB 13347.
Snowman may be the only survivor of an unnamed apocalypse. Once he wasJimmy, a member of a scientific elite; now he lives in isolation andloneliness, trawling through the past - the disappearance of his motherand the arrival of his mysterious childhood companions Oryx and Crake. (Shortlisted 2003). Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 13347.
Atwood, Margaret
The blind assassin. 2000. Read by Liza Ross, 19hours 46minutes. TB 12317.
Even now, at the age of 82, Iris lives in the shadow cast by her youngersister Laura. Now poor and trying to cope with a failing body, Irisreflects on her far from exemplary life, in particular the eventssurrounding her sister's tragic death and the novel which earned her suchnotoriety. (Winner 2000). Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 12317.
Banville, John
The sea. 2005. Read by Stephen Hogan, 6hours 40minutes. TB 14351.
When Max Morden returns to the coastal town where he spent a holiday inhis youth he is both escaping from a recent loss and confronting a distanttrauma. The Grace family appear that long ago summer as if from anotherworld. Drawn to the Grace twins, Chloe and Myles, Max soon finds himselfentangled in their lives, which are as seductive as they are unsettling.What ensues will haunt him for the rest of his years and shape everythingthat is to follow. (Winner 2005). Contains strong language. TB 14351.
Barker, Nicola
Darkmans. 2007. Read by Mark Elstob, 27hours15minutes. TB 15826.
'Darkmans' is a very modern book, set in Ashford (a ridiculously moderntown), about two very old-fashioned subjects: love and jealousy. It's alsoa book about invasion, obsession, displacement and possession, aboutcomedy, art, prescription drugs and chiropody. And the main character? Thepast, which creeps up on the present and whispers something quite dark -quite unspeakable - into its ear. (Shortlisted 2007). Contains strong language and passages of a sexual nature. TB 15826.
Barnes, Julian
Arthur & George. 2005. Read by Steve Hodson, 19hours 52minutes. TB 14302.
Arthur and George grow up worlds apart in late nineteenth century Britain:Arthur in shabby-genteel Edinburgh, George in the vicarage of a smallStaffordshire village. Arthur becomes a doctor, then a writer; George asolicitor in Birmingham. Arthur is to become one of the most famous men ofhis age, while George remains in hard-working obscurity. However as thenew century begins, they are brought together by a sequence of eventswhich made sensational headlines at the time as The Great Wyrley Outrages. (Shortlisted 2005). Contains violence. TB 14302.
Barry, Sebastian
The secret scripture. 2008. Read by Stephen Hogan,10 hours 43 minutes. TB 16056.
Roseanne McNulty faces an uncertain future, as the RoscommonRegionalMental hospital where she's spent the best part of her adult life preparesfor closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks oftenwith her psychiatrist Dr Grene, and their relationship intensifies andcomplicates. Refracted through the haze of memory and retelling,Roseanne's story becomes an alternative, secret history of Ireland'schanging character and the story of a life blighted by terriblemistreatment and ignorance, and yet marked still by love and passion andhope. (Shortlisted 2008). TB 16056.
Byatt, A S
The children's book. 2009. Read by Judy Franklin, 32 hours 56 minutes. TB 16724.
Olive Wellwood, a famous writer, writes for each of her children aseparate private book, bound in different colours and placed on a shelf.In their rambling house near Romney Marsh the children play in astory-book world - but their lives, and those of their rich cousins,children of a city stockbroker, and their friends, the son and daughter ofa curator at the new Victoria and Albert Museum, are already inscribedwith mystery.(Shortlisted 2009). Contains strong language. TB 16724.
Carey, Peter
True history of the Kelly gang. 2001. Read by John Eastmann, 12hours 30minutes. TB 12665.
This story is the song of Australia, and it sings its protest in a voiceat once crude and delicate, menacing and heart-wrenching. The author givesus Ned Kelly as orphan, as Oedipus, as horse thief, farmer, bushranger,reformer, bank-robber, police-killer and as his country's Robin Hood. (Winner 2001).Unsuitable for family reading. TB 12665.
Carey, Peter
Parrot and Olivier in America. 2010. Read by Gordon Griffinand Jonathan Keeble, 14 hours 58 minutes. TB 17385.
Olivier is a French aristocrat, the traumatized child of survivors of theRevolution. Parrot the son of an itinerant printer who always wanted to bean artist but has ended up a servant. Born on different sides of history,their lives will be brought together by their travels in America. WhenOlivier sets sail for the New World, ostensibly to study its prisons butin reality to save his neck from one more revolution - Parrot is sent withhim, as spy, protector, foe and foil. (Shortlisted 2010) Contains strong language. TB 17385.
Coetzee, J M
Summertime: scenes from provincial life. 2009. Read by various narrators, 8 hours 48 minutes. TB 16776.
A young English biographer is working on a book about the late writer,John Coetzee. He plans to focus on the years from 1972-1977 when Coetzee,in his thirties, is sharing a run-down cottage in the suburbs of Cape Townwith his widowed father. This, the biographer senses, is the period whenhe was 'finding his feet as a writer'. Never having met Coetzee, heembarks on a series of interviews with people who were important to him.(Shortlisted 2009). Contains strong language. TB 16776.
Dangor, Achmat
Bitter fruit. 2004. Read by Paul Herzberg, 10hours 19minutes. TB 13894.
The last time Silas Ali encountered the Lieutenant, Silas was locked inthe back of a police van and the Lieutenant was conducting a viciousassault on Lydia, his wife. When Silas sees him again, by chance, crimesfrom the past erupt into the present, splintering the Ali's fragile familylife. (Shortlisted 2004). Contains strong language.TB 13894.
Desai, Kiran
The inheritance of loss. 2006. Read by Steve Hodson, 13hours 47minutes. TB 14792.
At the foot of MountKanchenjunga in the Himalayas, lives an embitteredold judge who wants nothing more than to retire in peace. But with thearrival of his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and his cook's son trying tostay a step ahead of US immigration services, this is far from easy. Whena Nepalese insurgency threatens Sai's blossoming romance with her handsome tutor they are forced to consider their colliding interests. (Winner 2006). TB 14792.
Donoghue, Emma
Room. 2010. Read by various narrators, 10 hours 45 minutes. TB 17969.
It's Jack's birthday, and he's excited about turning five. Jack lives withhis Ma in Room, which has a locked door and a skylight, and measures 11feet by 11 feet. He loves watching TV, and the cartoon characters he callsfriends, but he knows that nothing he sees on screen is truly real - onlyhim, Ma and the things in Room. Until the day Ma admits that there's aworld outside. Told in Jack's voice, "Room" is the story of a mother andson whose love lets them survive the impossible. (Shortlisted 2010). TB 17969.
Enright, Anne
The gathering. 2007. Read by Alison McKenna, 8hours 5minutes. TB 15399.
This is a family epic, condensed and clarified through the lens of AnneEnright's unblinking eye. It is also a sexual history: tracing the line ofhurt and redemption through three generations - starting with thegrandmother, Ada Merriman - showing how memories warp and family secrets fester. This is a novel about love and disappointment, about thwarted lust and limitless desire, and how our fate is written in the body, not in the stars. (Winner 2007). Contains strong language. TB 15399.
Foulds, Adam
The quickening maze. 2009. Read by Damian Lynch, 7 hours 3 minutes. TB 16755.
Based on real events in Epping Forest on the edge of London around 1840,this novel centres on the first incarceration of the great nature poet,John Clare, in High Beach Private Asylum. At the same time another poet,the young Alfred Tennyson, moves nearby and becomes entangled in the lifeand catastrophic schemes of the asylum's owner, the peculiar, charismaticDr Matthew Allen. This novel describes his vertiginous fall, throughhallucinatory episodes of insanity and dissolving identity, towards hisfinal madness. (Shortlisted 2009). Contains passages of a sexual nature and is unsuitable for family reading. TB 16755.
Galgut, Damon
The good doctor. 2003. Read by Jon Cartwright, 7hours. TB 13542.
When Laurence Waters arrives at his rural hospital posting, Frank isinstantly suspicious. Laurence is everything Frank is not - young andoptimistic. The two become uneasy friends, while the rest of the staff inthe deserted hospital view Laurence with a mixture of awe and mistrust. (Shortlisted 2003). Contains strong language. TB 13542.
Galgut, Damon
In a strange room. 2010. Read by Paul Herzburg, 6 hours 7 minutes. TB 17968.
A young man takes three journeys, through Greece, India and Africa. Hetravels lightly, simply. To those who travel with him and those whom hemeets on the way - including a handsome, enigmatic stranger, a group ofcareless backpackers and a woman on the edge - he is the Follower, theLover and the Guardian. Yet, despite the man's best intentions, eachjourney ends in disaster. Together, these three journeys will change hiswhole life. (Shortlisted 2010). TB 17968.
Ghosh, Amitav
Sea of poppies. 2008. Read by Steve Hodson, 21hours58minutes. TB16054.
At the heart of this epic saga, set just before the Opium Wars, is an oldslaving-ship, The Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across theIndian Ocean, its crew a motley array of sailors and stowaways, cooliesand convicts. Fate has thrown together a truly diverse cast of Indians andWesterners, from a bankrupt Raja to a widowed villager, from anevangelical English opium trader to a mulatto American freedman. As theirold family ties are washed away they, like their historical counterparts,come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais or ship-brothers. An unlikelydynasty is born, which will span continents, races and generations. (Shortlisted 2008). Contains strong language. TB 16054.
Grant, Linda
The clothes on their backs. 2008. Read by Lucy Scott,8hours40minutes. TB 16040.
In a red brick mansion block off the Marylebone Road, Vivien, a sensitive,bookish girl grows up sealed off from both past and present by her timidrefugee parents. Then one morning a glamorous uncle appears, dressed in amohair suit, with a diamond watch on his wrist and a girl in aleopard-skin hat on his arm. Why is Uncle Sandor so violently unwelcome inher parents' home? Set against the backdrop of a London from the 1950s tothe present day, this is a novel about the clothes we choose to wear, thepersonalities we dress ourselves in, and about how they define us all.(Shortlisted 2008). Contains strong language.TB 16040.
Grenville, Kate
The secret river. 2006. Read by Richard Burnip, 12hours 18minutes. TB 14787.
London, 1807 - William Thornhill, happily wedded to his childhoodsweetheart Sal, is a waterman on the River Thames. Life is tough butbearable until William makes a mistake, a bad mistake for which he and hisfamily are made to pay dearly. His sentence: to be transported to NewSouth Wales for the term of his natural life. Soon Thornhill, a manneither better nor worse than most, has to make the most difficultdecision of his life... (Shortlisted 2006). Contains strong language. TB 14787.
Hall, Sarah
The electric Michelangelo. 2004. Read by Jonathan Oliver, 14hours 3minutes. TB 13893.
This tells the story of Cy Parks, from his childhood spent in a seasideguest house for consumptives with his mother, to his apprenticeship as atattoo-artist. His skills acquired and a thirst for experience burningwithin him, he departs for America and the riotous world of the ConeyIsland boardwalk, where he sets up his own business as 'The electricMichelangelo'. Here he meets Grace, a mysterious immigrant and circusperformer who commissions him to cover her body entirely with tattooedeyes. (Shortlisted 2004). Contains strong language.TB 13893.
Hamid, Mohsin
The reluctant fundamentalist. 2007. Read by SatyaBhabha, 4hours46minutes. TB 15527.
At a cafe table in Lahore, a Pakistani man begins the tale that has led tohis fateful meeting with an uneasy American stranger... Changez is livingan immigrant's dream of America. He thrives on the energy of New York, hiswork at an elite firm, and his budding relationship. For a time, it seemsthat nothing will stand in the way of his meteoric rise to success. But inthe wake of September 11, Changez finds his relationship crumbling and hisexalted status overturned.(Shortlisted 2007). TB 15527.
Heller, Zoe
Notes on a scandal. 2003. Read by Diana Bishop, 7hours 46minutes. TB 13678.
When Sheba Hart joins St George's as the new pottery teacher, lonelyBarbara Covett senses that she has found a kindred spirit. But Barbara isnot the only one drawn to Sheba. Before long Sheba is involved in anillicit affair with a pupil. Barbara is powerless to stop Sheba frompursuing her foolhardy course of action. But when the liaison is found outand Sheba's marriage falls apart, Barbara is loyally standing by, ready toprovide succour. (Shortlisted 2003). Contains strong language. TB 13678.
Hensher, Philip
The northern clemency. 2008. Read by Owain Shaw, 29hours31minutes.TB 16041.
Set in Sheffield, this epic charts the relationship between two families:Malcolm and Katherine Glover and their three children; and theirneighbours the Sellers family, newly arrived from London so that Berniecan pursue his job with the Electricity Board. The day the Sellers move inthere is a crisis across the road: Malcolm Glover has left home, convincedhis wife is having an affair. The consequences of this rupture will spreadthroughout the lives of both couples and their children, in particular10-year-old Tim Glover, who never quite recovers from a moment of hismother's public cruelty and the amused taunting of 15-year-old SandraSellers, childhood crises that will come to a head twenty years later. Inthe background, England is changing: from a manufacturing and industrialbased economy into a new world of shops, restaurants and serviceindustries, a shift particularly marked in the North with the miners'strike of 1984, which has a dramatic impact on both families. (Shortlisted 2008).Contains strong language. TB 16041.
Hollinghurst, Alan
The line of beauty. 2004. Read by Daniel Philpott, 16hours 52minutes. TB 13890.
"The line of beauty" traces the further history of a decade of change andtragedy. In the summer of 1983, 20-year-old Nick Guest moves into an atticroom in the Notting Hill home of the Feddens as the Thatcher boom-yearsunfold. (Winner 2004). Contains strong language. TB 13890.
Hyland, M J
Carry me down. 2006. Read by John Cormack, 9hours 25minutes. TB 14790.
A story that at its heart examines an adolescent's difficulties navigatingthe world. John Egan is a misfit - a twelve-year-old in the body of agrown man with the voice of a giant - who diligently keeps track of thelies large and small that are told to him. (Shortlisted 2006). Contains strong language. TB 14790.
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Never let me go. 2005. Read by Rachel Atkins, 8hours 36minutes. TB 14158.
A reunion with two childhood friends draws Kathy and her companions on anostalgic odyssey into their lives at Hailsham, an isolated private schoolin the English countryside, and a confrontation with the truth about theirchildhoods. (Shortlisted 2005). Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 14158.
Jacobson, Howard
The Finkler question. 2010. Read by Steven Crossley, 12 hours 34 minutes. TB 17970.
Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular former BBC radio producer,and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and televisionpersonality, are old school friends. Despite a prickly relationship andvery different lives, they've never quite lost touch with each other - orwith their former teacher, Libor Sevick, a Czech always more concernedwith the wider world than with exam results. Now, both Libor and Finklerare recently widowed, and with Treslove, his chequered and unsuccessfulrecord with women rendering him an honorary third widower, they dine atLibor's grand, central London apartment. It's a sweetly painful evening ofreminiscence in which all three remove themselves to a time before theyhad loved and lost; a time before they had fathered children, before thedevastation of separations, before they had prized anything greatly enoughto fear the loss of it. (Winner 2010). TB 17970.
Jones, Lloyd
Mister Pip. 2007. Read by Lucy Scott, 6hours 38minutes. TB 15400.
It is Bougainville in 1991 - a small village on a lush tropical island inthe South Pacific. Eighty-six days have passed since Matilda's last day ofschool as, quietly, war is encroaching from the other end of the island.When the villagers' safe, predictable lives come to a halt, Bougainville'schildren are surprised to find the island's only white man, a recluse,re-opening the school. Pop Eye, aka Mr Watts, explains he will introducethe children to Mr Dickens. (Shortlisted 2007). Contains strong language. TB 15400.
Kelman, James
Kieron Smith, boy. 2009. Read by Robert Howat, 14 hours 18 minutes. TB 16658.
Rejected by his brother and largely ignored by his parents, Kieron Smithfinds comfort and endless stories in the home of his much-lovedgrandparents. But when his family move to a new housing scheme on theoutskirts of Glasgow, a world away from the close community of thetenements, Kieron struggles to find a way to adapt to his new life. KieronSmith, boy is a brilliant evocation of an urban childhood. Capturing thejoys, frustrations, injustices, excitements, revels, battles, games,uncertainties, questions, lies, discoveries and sheer of wonder ofboyhood, it is a story of one boy and every boy.(Shortlisted 2009). Contains strong languageand is unsuitable for family reading. TB 16658.