GENERAL FICTION
Talking 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.
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Ali, Monica
Brick Lane. 2003. Read by Tania Rodriguez, 18 hours 21 minutes. TB 13604.
Keeping house and rearing children, Nazneen does what is expected of her. Into that fragile peace walks Karim, raising questions of longing and belonging that open her eyes to surprising truths. While Nazneen struggles in Tower Hamlets, her sister Hasina has her own dreams back home in Bangladesh.TB 13604.
Amis, Martin
Time's arrow, or, the nature of the offence. 1991. Read by Raymond Sawyer, 5 hours 37 minutes. TB 8883.
Shortlisted for the 1991 Booker Prize, "Time's Arrow" caused considerable controversy because of its treatment of the Holocaust. The story begins with an old man dying in hospital and through the narrator, trapped in the man's head, we learn the story of his life - in reverse. Moving backwards in both narration and plot, the novel chillingly re-enacts the life of a Nazi war criminal on the run.Contains strong language.TB 8883.
Atkinson, Kate
Behind the scenes at the museum. Read by Susan Jameson, 12 hours 19 minutes. TB 13467.
Bunty had never wanted to marry George but he was all that was left. She was stuck in a flat in York with Patricia aged 5, and greedy cross-patch Gillian and Ruby - Ruby tells the story of the family from the end of the nineteenth century, through to the memorable events of her own life.Contains strong language.TB 13467.
Atwood, Margaret
The blind assassin. 2000. Read by Liza Ross, 19 hours 46 minutes. TB 12317.
Even now, at the age of 82, Iris lives in the shadow cast by her younger sister Laura. Now poor and trying to cope with a failing body, Iris reflects on her far from exemplary life, in particular the events surrounding her sister's tragic death and the novel which earned her such notoriety. Contains passages of a sexual nature.TB 12317.
Austen, Jane
Love and friendship, and other early works. 2000. Read by Rachel Atkins, 3 hours 50 minutes. TB 14975.
"Love and friendship", "The three sisters" and "Lesley Castle" form part of this endearing collection of Jane Austen's earliest works. Some written when Jane was as young as fifteen, were initially only intended for family listening. The works are full of the exuberance of youth as well as the sharp wit which is so prominent in her later works.TB 14975.
Banks, Iain
Dead air. 2003. Read by Kenny Blyth, 11 hours 52 minutes. TB 14325.
In a loft apartment in the East End, in a former factory due to be knocked down in a few days, after a wedding breakfast people start dropping fruits from a balcony on to a deserted carpark ten storeys below, then they start dropping other things; an old TV that doesn't work, a blown loudspeaker, beanbags, other unwanted furniture...Then they get carried away and start dropping things that are still working, while wrecking the rest of the apartment. But mobile phones start ringing and they're told to turn on a TV, because a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Centre.Contains strong language.TB 14325.
Banville, John
The sea. 2005. Read by Stephen Hogan, 6 hours 40 minutes. TB 14351.
When Max Morden returns to the coastal town where he spent a holiday in his youth he is both escaping from a recent loss and confronting a distant trauma. The Grace family appear that long ago summer as if from another world. Drawn to the Grace twins, Chloe and Myles, Max soon finds himself entangled in their lives, which are as seductive as they are unsettling. What ensues will haunt him for the rest of his years and shape everything that is to follow.Contains strong language.TB 14351.
Barnes, Julian
A history of the world in 10 1/2 chapters. 1989. Read by various narrators, 11 hours 36 minutes. TB 10010.
Julian Barnes's audacious fictional history of the world first seems to consist of simple, intriguing, disconnected stories, sophisticatedly told. But gradually they echo each other; the chapters interlock; images insistently recur; themes deepen. This is no ordinary history, but something stronger, a challenge and a delight for the reader's imagination, ambitious yet accessible, witty and playfully serious.TB 10010.
Bennett, Arnold
Anna of the Five Towns. 1936. Read by Ray Jones, 8 hours 31 minutes. TB 6867.
Anna is one of Bennett's "modern" heroines: brought up in a typical Potteries' town with its prayer meetings and rent collecting, stark Sunday schools and dark interiors, by a father who is a miser as well as a tyrant. Gradually her spirit expands until - at last - she manages to defy him. Almost a character in its own right, the community in which they live is shown as gossipy, myopic and uncaring.TB 6867.
Binchy, Maeve
Evening class. 1996. Read by Brett O'Brien, 15 hours 4 minutes. TB 11885.
The new Italian evening class at MountainviewSchool in Dublin is like hundreds of others starting up all over the city - but this one has its own special quality...the hopes and dreams of so many people are tied up in the twice-weekly lessons.TB 11885.
Brookner, Anita
The rules of engagement. 2004. Read by Joanna David, 8 hours 14 minutes. TB 13468.
Elizabeth and Betsy are old school friends. Born in 1948 and not ready for the sixties, they had high hopes of the lives they would lead, even though their circumstances were so different. When they meet again in their thirties, Elizabeth, married to the safe, older Digby is relieving the boredom of a cosy but childless marriage with an affair. Betsy seems to have found real romance in Paris. Are their lives taking off, or are they just making more of the wrong choices without even realising it?TB 13468.
Buchan, Elizabeth
The good wife. 2004. Read by Joanna David, 8 hours 24 minutes. TB 13764.
Fanny Savage has been married for twenty busy, packed years to a man very much in the public eye. 'Our marriage grew and deepened' she reflects. 'It went through troughs, blossomed, withered a little, blossomed again but it was never stagnant'. Now, Fanny feels in need of breathing space and a change and finds herself on a plane to Italy. There, settled in the lovely decaying Casa Rosa, among the vines and the olive trees, she has the solitude and the peace to reflect on her life. Is she happy? Will she remain the Good Wife and, if so, what exactly does it mean?TB 13764.
Burgess, Anthony
Earthly powers. 1980. Read by Andrew Timothy, 32 hours 33 minutes. TB 3993.
Michael Toomey, distinguished writer, tells the story of his life from the First World War to his final years of idleness. Having seen much cruelty in the world, he has at last come to the conclusion that evil comes from man himself - it is inborn.TB 3993.
Camus, Albert
The plague. 2002. Read by Steve Hodson, 11 hours 6 minutes. TB 13857.
The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation and claustrophobia follow as they are forced into quarantine, each responding in their own way to the lethal bacillus: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame and a few, like Dr Rieus, resist the terror.Unsuitable for family reading.TB 13857.
Coelho, Paulo
The alchemist. 1998. Read by Nigel Graham, 4 hours 52 minutes. TB 13472.
The story of an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a treasure. He journeys to the markets of Tangiers and into the Egyptian desert where a fateful encounter with the alchemist awaits him. This story teaches us about the wisdom of listening to our hearts, reading the omens along life's path and following our dreams.TB 13472.
Coetzee, J M
Life and times of Michael K. 1983. Read by John Livesey, 5 hours 17 minutes. TB 5124.
Michael K, the anti-hero of this tale of war and the dispossessed, is stronger than any hero and more subversive than any freedom fighter because he refuses to be assimilated into the system, to belong to one side or the other or even to be helped. A jobbing gardener with a harelip and a dying mother, he yet manages to live his own life on his own terms, however minimal, while society is disintegrating around him. (Booker Prize Winner in 1983).TB 5124.
Colette
The collected stories of Colette. 1984. Read by Pauline Munro, 26 hours 32 minutes. TB 5519.
A collection of 100 stories written between 1908 and 1945. The settings move from Paris to the Brittany coast, from Mediterranean gardens to theatre dressing rooms and from disreputable bars to the countryside of the author's native Burgundy.TB 5519.
Dickens, Charles
Barnaby Rudge. 1841. Read by George Hagan, 30 hours. TB 1544.
Barnaby, pathetic and half-witted son of a murderer, and his raven Grip play unwitting parts in the Gordon riots of 1780 and in the family feud of the Haredale and Chester families.TB 1544.
Donovan, Anne
Buddha Da. 2003. Read by Sally Armstrong and Jonathan Hackett, 9 hours 23 minutes. TB 13030.
Anne Marie's Da, a Glaswegian painter and decorator, has always been game for a laugh. So when he first takes up meditation at the Buddhist Centre, no one takes him seriously, especially when his pursuit of the new lama ends in a trip round the Carmunnock bypass. But as Jimmy becomes more involved in a search for the spiritual, his beliefs start to come into conflict with the needs of his wife, Liz. Cracks appear in their apparently happy family life, and the ensuing events change the lives of each family member.TB 13030.
Dostoevskii, F M
The idiot. 1970. Read by Gene Foad, 29 hours 18 minutes. TB 5963.
Two young men meet on the Petersburg train; Rogozhin, dark, stocky, well-dressed and rich; Prince Myshkin, tall, fair, rather gaunt and shabby. His education has been interrupted by epilepsy and he calls himself an idiot, but he does have some unusual gifts, not the least being the ability to say - with disconcerting clarity - not only what he is thinking himself, but to put into words the thoughts of others; yet his innocence has a strange attraction for all who meet him.TB 5963.
Doyle, Roddy
Paddy Clarke ha, ha, ha. 1993. Read by John Cormack, 7 hours 5 minutes. TB 9617.
Paddy Clarke is ten in 1968 and loves George Best, Geronimo and the smell of his hot water bottle. He hates zoos, kissing and boys from the Corporation houses and his brother. He wants to be a missionary and plays lepers. Kevin is his best friend. He's confused; he sees everything, but understands less and less.TB 9617.
Eliot, George
The mill on the Floss. 1860. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 21 hours. TB 1118.
Maggie Tulliver is deeply attached to her brother Tom, but their conflicting temperaments and outlook produce only stress and misunderstanding until they are finally reconciled in a moment of revelation before tragedy overtakes them.TB 1118.
Elton, Ben
Dead famous. 2001. Read by David Thorpe, 11 hours 10 minutes. TB 12454.
One house, ten contestants, thirty cameras and forty microphones. Another televised, real-life soap opera, House Arrest. Everyone knows the rules: total strangers are forced to live together while the rest of the country watches them do it. Only this time they're asking: who is the murderer?Contains strong language.TB 12454.
Erdrich, Louise
Tracks. 1988. Read by Laurel Lefkow,7 hours 17 minutes. TB 8954.
The story of the devastation of the American Indian way of life is told by Nanapush, sole survivor of the clan of that name and Pauline, the gossipy young Chippewa woman with bizarre ideas about life. It is a story for a new generation, woven with raw myth and Indian folklore of the tragic past that has gone forever.TB 8954.
Faulks, Sebastian
On Green Dolphin Street. 2001. Read by Jacqueline King, 12 hours 29 minutes. TB 13948.
America, 1959. With two young children she adores, loving parents back in London, and an admired husband, Charlie, working at the British embassy in Washington, the world seems an effervescent place of parties, jazz and family happiness to Mary Van der Linden. But the Eisenhower years are ending, and 1960 brings the presidential battle between two ambitious senators: John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. An American newspaper reporter called Frank Renzo dramatically enters the Van der Linden's lives, and through him Mary is forced to confront the terror of the Cold War that is the dark background of their carefree existence.Contains strong language.TB 13948.
Fforde, Katie
Life skills. 1999. Read by Penelope Freeman, 11 hours 35 minutes. TB 11962.
When Julia breaks off her engagement to boringly safe Oscar, she decides to go for a complete change of life, as cook on a narrow boat. But even afloat, Julia's past catches up with her and she must contend with not only Oscar and his awful mother but also the arrival of the enigmatic Fergus.TB 11962.
Fitzgerald, F Scott
The great Gatsby. 1926. Read by John Dunn, 5 hours 30 minutes. TB 1487.
Gatsby in his fabulous Long IslandMansion is the enigmatic central figure of this picture of the Jazz age.TB 1487.
Flaubert, Gustave
Madame Bovary. 1857. Read by John Richmond, 15 hours 50 minutes. TB 1337.
A French novel renowned for its realistic picture of smalltown bourgeois life of an ambitious, ruthless wife who drives her doctor-husband to despair and destruction with her deceits and schemes.TB 1337.
Fletcher, Susan
Eve Green. 2005. Read by Penelope Freeman, 7 hours 48 minutes. TB 14095.
Following the loss of her mother, eight-year-old Evie is sent to a new life in rural Wales - a dripping place, where flowers appear mysteriously on doorsteps and people look at her twice. With a sense of being lied to she sets out to discover her family's dark secret - unaware that there is yet more darkness to come with the sinister disappearance of local girl Rosemary Hughes. Now many years later Eve Green is waiting for the birth of her own child, and when she revisits her past something clicks in her mind and her own reckless role in the hunt for Rosie's abductor is revealed.Contains strong language.TB 14095.
Foden, Giles
The last king of Scotland. 1998. Read by Jonathon Hackett, 15 hours 14 minutes. TB 11907.
Combining elements of the thriller-noir with comedy, this novel is based on the macabre events of Idi Amin's regime. "The last King of Scotland" is one of the many titles that the dictator bestowed upon himself. It is also about a young Scottish doctor who becomes involved in Amin's administration.Contains strong language.TB11907.
Forster, E M
A room with a view. 1908. Read by Corbett Woodall, 8 hours 15 minutes. TB 1525.
The moral of this story is that many people, though good, are ruled by catchwords and phrases rather than the truth of their inner hearts.TB 1525.
Fowles, John
The magus. 1977. Read by Ian Craig, 27 hours 45 minutes. TB 5191.
A young English schoolmaster, Nicolas Urfe, meets the urbane self-styled psychic, Maurice Conchis, on a Greek island. A cat-and-mouse game develops between the two men, which Nicolas finds puzzling and directly challenging.Unsuitable for family reading.TB 5191.
Franzen, Jonathan
The corrections. 2002. Read by Garrick Hagon, 23 hours 53 minutes. TB 13220.
This novel about the Lambert family brings an old-time America of industrialism and civic duty, of Cub Scouts, Christmas cookies and sexual inhibitions, into collision with the modern absurdities of brain science, home surveillance, hands-off parenting, and do-it-yourself mental healthcare.TB 13220.
Fry, Stephen
The stars' tennis balls. 1999. Read by Raymond Sawyer, 12 hours 40 minutes. TB 13757.
The story of a very nice young man called Ned Maddstone who, 20 years after being seized outside a Knightsbridge language college and thrown into solitary confinement as a political prisoner, returns to London implacably focused upon revenge. Contains strong language.TB 13757.
Gaskell, Elizabeth
North and south. 1854. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 19 hours. TB 1129.
This novel is a study of the contrast between the values and habits of rural southern England and industrial northern England. The heroine, Margaret Hale, is the daughter of a parson whose religious doubts force him to resign his Hampshire living and to move with his family to a northern city.TB 1129.
Gissing, George
New Grub Street. 1997. Read by Michael Tudor Barnes, 21 hours 50 minutes. TB 12019.
Through the foggy gloom of the British Library Reading Room and the garrets of Tottenham Court Road, this novel follows a collection of hack journalists, aspiring newcomers and embittered veterans through the literary world of the 1880's. This study edition also contains a commentary.TB 12019.