Following Jack and Elizabeth from their meet cute as alt rock-loving college students in 1990s Chicago to their contemplation of a move to the suburbs in the early 21st century, the audiobook of Nathan Hill’s second novel Wellness (19 hours) chronicles not only the couple’s evolving love story but also the ever-shifting wellness culture that forms its partial backdrop. Even though the audio version of this expansive novel stretches to almost 19 hours, Ari Fliakos’s warm, intelligent narration sustains listeners’ interest. Fliakos, who also read Hill’s (even longer) debut, The Nix, excels at differentiating among a dozen or more primary and secondary characters of different genders and ages, making the dialogue sections especially engaging. With wry humor and pathos, this Gen X coming-of-(middle)-age novel makes for a profoundly emotional and humanistic listening experience.

Read our starred review of the print edition of Wellness.

The Caretaker (6 hours) is a moving story of love, fidelity and friendship set in the North Carolina mountains during the Korean War. Author Ron Rash draws on Shakespeare: Characters include a philosophical gravedigger, a scheming town leader and his wife, a young man unsure of life’s meaning in the face of death, and, in perhaps the clearest parallel, star-crossed lovers defying their parents. Never heavy-handed, these allusions give the novel a beautiful sense of inevitability without revealing what the ending will be.

Drawing on his Kentucky roots, James Patrick Cronin narrates with an authentic timbre and pace. His low-key performance and sympathetic portrayal of even the most unsympathetic characters allows the listener to hear Rash’s message: Love can both redeem us and cause us to betray those whom we love the most.

Ross Gay’s earlier books, The Book of Delights and Inciting Joy, have established him as a writer of highly crafted essayettes on delight—that most elusive but absolutely essential human emotion. The audiobook of The Book of (More) Delights (7 hours) confirms Gay’s ability to discover delight even when it is hidden in sorrow, anger or tedium.

Gay is an award-winning poet, and consequently he understands the power not only of words and imagery, but of punctuation, structure and, especially, sound. His careful reading gives pauses their due, releases the rhythm and rhyme that prose so often hides, and subtly emphasizes descriptions of a beloved nana, flower or friend. There’s nothing pretentious about his reading; instead, it simply brims with the honest pleasure of acknowledging life’s unexpected joys. And nothing is guaranteed to create more delight in a listener’s day than hearing Gay gleefully repeat the words “vehicular vernacular”!

In the male-dominated landscape of wartorn 1963 Saigon, Vietnam, Tricia and Charlene are two American wives striving to be the best possible “helpmeets” to their military husbands: sociable, graceful, obedient, obliging. Through author Alice McDermott’s precise, lingering prose, these women otherwise relegated to the margins bloom with agency and empathy. Charlene’s immense business acumen flares along the line between altruism and absurdity. Tricia struggles to become a mother and to be a good Samaritan, but finds herself held back by the limits of her body and the expectations imposed on a woman of her upper-class status.

Rachel Kenney’s warm, heartfelt narration is a complement to Tricia’s fading naiveté and the strength of her moral compass. Jesse Vilinsky, who voices Charlene’s daughter, Rainey, when she reconnects with Tricia 60 years later, lends a bright, gentle tone to a woman seeking closure. Absolution (10 hours) is not a story about remarkable events, but a story that teases out the remarkableness in everyday people—in neighbors, servants, childhood friends, spouses. It is a breath of fresh air amongst war novels devoted to the machinations of war, speaking instead to war’s ripple effect off the battlefield and years down the line.

Bellies (12 hours) unfolds slowly, savoring each quirk and comment that draws two young lovers, Tom and Ming, together. Nicola Dinan perfectly captures the hypersensitivity of new romance: the fervent touches, the tentative mornings after, and the paranoia about possibly ruining things. As Ming and Tom navigate the push and pull of their relationship, they simultaneously struggle to find their places as individuals in overstimulating 21st-century young adult life.

This audiobook provides a rich listening experience as it alternates between Tom and Ming’s perspectives. Nathaniel Curtis lends Tom a placid, droll voice that underscores Tom’s desperation to appear unfazed despite his whirlwind of insecurities. Octavia Nyombi is soft and steady as Ming, wrapping listeners up in the layers of emotion that pile together in Ming’s extensively reflective thought process.

Dinan bares young love before us: raw, vulnerable, belly-up. By recognizing imperfection and refusing to shy away from struggles big and small—from sleep discomfort to the stigmas surrounding queer love and identity—Bellies soothes the imperfect, struggling parts of ourselves.

Poet and filmmaker Tahir Hamut Izgil reflects on the Chinese government’s persecution of the Uyghur people in Waiting to Be Arrested at Night (7.5 hours). This personal and harrowing audiobook brings together history, memoir and poetry.

Greg Watanabe’s straightforward narration puts the emotion of Izgil’s story into sharp relief, confronting readers with a reality that Izgil powerfully exposes. Both in the prose chapters as well as in Izgil’s poems that are scattered throughout the book, Watanabe’s simple approach underscores Izgil’s dread over mounting persecution and his hope for a better future.

Waiting to Be Arrested at Night uncovers a difficult and necessary story. Izgil and Watanabe give a voice to a silenced community and, together, call for listeners to bear witness to the experience of the Uyghur people.

Shiromi Arserio’s heartfelt performance captures youthful innocence and passion when two 14-year-old girls must hide their blossoming love for one another from the world.

Learned by Heart (9 hours) is set in the confines of an English boarding school in the 1800s—a time when same-sex relationships were criminalized. Although wealthy heiress Eliza Raine tries to follow the rules and not draw attention to herself, the biracial girl can’t escape questions and judgment about her Indian and English heritage. New student Anne Lister makes a strong impression on Eliza because Anne is confident, outspoken and so different from the others. Before long, Eliza is falling for Anne. Arserio’s velvety voice sweeps effortlessly between Eliza’s perspective as a reserved schoolgirl and that of her ardent adult self, conveying Eliza’s anguish as she confronts the consequences of her fateful affections.

Arserio’s blend of emotion and restraint captures the intensity of this tale of desire and devotion by Emma Donoghue.

The debut short story collection from writer Aaliyah Bilal traverses the inner worlds of Black Muslims in America as they grapple with life events like the death or infidelity of a parent. Temple Folk (8 hours) draws listeners in with an array of voices that illuminate the range of the stories. The audiobook features actors and narrators Amir Abdullah, Chanté McCormick, Soneela Nankani, Leon Nixon and Jade Wheeler. Each voice offers complexity and nuance to the rich landscape of Black American Muslim life that Bilal has rendered. Holding emotional heft and spiritual reverence, the narrators’ stunning performances anchor listeners and create a sense of intimacy.