Historical Fiction audiobooks

Jane and the Year Without a Summer

By: Stephanie Barron

Narrated by: Kate Reading

Length: 9 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

May 1816: Jane Austen is feeling unwell, with an uneasy stomach, constant fatigue, rashes, fevers and aches. She attributes her poor condition to the stress of family burdens, which even the drafting of her latest manuscript—about a baronet’s daughter nursing a broken heart for a daring naval captain—cannot alleviate. Her apothecary recommends a... Read more

Don't Cry for Me

By: Daniel Black

Narrated by: Daniel Black

Length: 7 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

Don't miss Daniel Black's next novel Isaac's Song coming January 2025

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK IN ESSENCE MAGAZINE, THE MILLIONS AND BOOKISH


"Don't Cry for Me is a perfect song."—Jesmyn Ward

A Black father makes amends with his gay son through letters written on his deathbed in this wise and penetrating novel of empathy and forgiveness, for... Read more

The Pages

By: Hugo Hamilton

Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith

Length: 9 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

An entirely original novel in which a book—Joseph Roth's masterpiece Rebellion—narrates its own astonishing life story, from 1930s Germany to the present day, at the heart of a gripping mystery.
 
“A powerful, powerful piece of work.” —Colum McCann, best-selling author of Apeirogon

One old copy of the novel Rebellion sits in Lena Knecht’s tote... Read more

The Storyteller

By: Kathryn Williams

Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya

Length: 10 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

With the mystery of Maureen Johnson and Brittany Cavallaro and the historical intrigue of Romanov, this genre-bending YA will pull readers into one girl’s journey of discovering the impossible tale of a long-lost aunt—and through her, the importance of being true to yourself. It’s not every day you discover you might be related to Anastasia…or... Read more

Invisible Cities

By: Italo Calvino

Narrated by: Richard Higgins

Length: 2 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” — from Invisible Cities

In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the young Marco Polo — Mongol emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has sensed... Read more

The Death of Jane Lawrence

By: Caitlin Starling

Narrated by: Mandy Weston

Length: 13 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Best Books of 2021 · NPR
ALA/The Reading List Best Horror 2021 Pick
Longlisted for the Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement in a Novel, 2021

From the Bram Stoker-nominated author of The Luminous Dead comes a gothic fantasy horror—The Death of Jane Lawrence.

"Narrator Mandy Weston's cool narration is the perfect match to this tale, making the... Read more

The Actual Star

By: Monica Byrne

Narrated by: Carolina Hoyos, Kareem Ferguson & Gisela Chipe

Length: 19 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas meets Octavia Butler’s Earthseed series, as acclaimed author Monica Byrne (The Girl in the Road) crafts an unforgettable piece of speculative fiction about where humanity came from, where we are now, and where we’re going—and how, in every age, the same forces that drive us apart also bind us together.""A stone-cold... Read more

Revelator

By: Daryl Gregory

Narrated by: Reagan Boggs

Length: 11 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • The dark, gripping tale of a 1930’s family in the remote hills of the Smoky Mountains, their secret religion, and the daughter who turns her back on their mysterious god—from the acclaimed author of Spoonbenders.
 
“Gods and moonshine in the Great Depression, written with a ... Read more

Devil in Disguise

By: Lisa Kleypas

Narrated by: Mary Jane Wells

Length: 9 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

New York Times bestseller Lisa Kleypas returns with an enthralling and steaming romance between a Scot with a mysterious past and strong-willed lady looking for adventure—and love. “The devil never tries to make people do the wrong thing by scaring them. He does it by tempting them.”Lady Merritt Sterling, a strong-willed young widow who’s... Read more

An Unlikely Spy

By: Rebecca Starford

Narrated by: Jane Collingwood

Length: 10 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

“A beguiling tale of espionage."" -- Pam Jenoff, author of The Orphans Tale and The Lost Girls of ParisA twisting, sophisticated World War II novel following a spy who goes undercover as a part of MI5—in chasing the secrets of others, how much will she lose of herself?Evelyn Varley has always been ambitious and clever. As a girl, she earned a... Read more

The Woman with the Blue Star

By: Pam Jenoff

Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya, Emily Lawrence & Nancy Pet...

Length: 12 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

"An emotional novel that you will never forget." —Lisa Scottoline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eternal

From the author of The Lost Girls of Paris comes a riveting tale of courage and unlikely friendship during World War II -- Now a New York Times bestsller!

1942. Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents in the Kraków Ghetto... Read more

Lovecraft Country

By: Matt Ruff

Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly

Length: 12 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

Now an HBO® series from J.J. Abrams (executive producer of Westworld), Misha Green (creator of Underground), and Jordan Peele (director of Get Out and Us), this brilliant and imaginative novel by critically acclaimed author Matt Ruff makes visceral the terrors of Jim Crow America, melding historical fiction, pulp noir, and Lovecraftian... Read more

The House on Vesper Sands

By: Paraic O'Donnell

Narrated by: Charles Armstrong

Length: 10 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

With all the wit of a Jane Austen novel, and a case as beguiling as any in Sherlock Holmes's casebook, Paraic O'Donnell introduces a detective duo for the ages, and slowly unlocks the secrets of a startling Victorian mystery.



London, 1893: high up in a house on a dark, snowy night, a lone seamstress stands by a window. So begins the swirling,... Read more

Soulswift

By: Megan Bannen

Narrated by: Hayden Bishop

Length: 12 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

A dark, epic fantasy about a girl who must rethink everything she believes after she is betrayed and hunted by the religion that raised her—from Megan Bannen, author of The Bird and the Blade. Perfect for fans of The Winner’s Curse and The Girl of Fire and Thorns. Gelya is a Vessel, a girl who channels the word of the One True God through song.... Read more

Tsarina

By: Ellen Alpsten

Narrated by: Anna Krippa

Length: 18 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

"Makes Game of Thrones look like a nursery rhyme." —Daisy Goodwin, New York Times bestselling author of The Fortune Hunter

“[Alpsten] recounts this remarkable woman’s colourful life and times." —Count Nikolai Tolstoy, historian and author

Before there was Catherine the Great, there was Catherine Alexeyevna: the first woman to rule Russia in her... Read more

The Black Kids

By: Christina Hammonds Reed

Narrated by: Kiersey Clemons

Length: 8 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

A New York Times bestseller
A William C. Morris Award Finalist

“Should be required reading in every classroom.” —Nic Stone, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin
“A true love letter to Los Angeles.” —Brandy Colbert, award-winning author of Little & Lion
“A brilliantly poetic take on one of the most defining moments in Black... Read more

Girl, Serpent, Thorn

By: Melissa Bashardoust

Narrated by: Nikki Massoud

Length: 10 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

Girl, Serpent, Thorn is “an alluring feminist fairy tale” (Kirkus Reviews) about a girl cursed to be poisonous to the touch and who discovers what power might lie in such a curse.

There was and there was not, as all stories begin, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch. But for Soraya, who has lived her life hidden away, apart from her... Read more

Simon the Fiddler

By: Paulette Jiles

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 11 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

The critically acclaimed, bestselling author of News of the World and Enemy Women returns to Texas in this atmospheric story, set at the end of the Civil War, about an itinerant fiddle player, a ragtag band of musicians with whom he travels trying to make a living, and the charming young Irish lass who steals his heart.In March 1865, the long... Read more

To Have and to Hoax

By: Martha Waters

Narrated by: Anais Inara Chase & Joel Froomkin

Length: 10 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

Named a Best Romance of April by Goodreads, Popsugar, Bustle, and more!

“A laugh out loud Regency romp—if you loved the Bridgertons, you’ll adore To Have and to Hoax!” —Lauren Willig, New York Times bestselling author

In this fresh and hilarious historical rom-com, an estranged husband and wife in Regency England feign accidents and illness in... Read more

A Witch in Time

By: Constance Sayers

Narrated by: Courtney Patterson, Claire Christie, Brittany W...

Length: 15 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

A witch is cursed to relive a doomed love affair through many lifetimes, as both troubled muse and frustrated artist, in this haunting debut novel.

Helen Lambert has lived several lives-a young piano virtuoso in 1890s Paris, an actress in 1930's Hollywood, a rock star in 1970s Los Angeles -- only she doesn't know it. Until she meets a strange man... Read more

Cartier's Hope

By: M. J. Rose

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Length: 11 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

From M.J. Rose, New York Times bestselling author of Tiffany Blues, “a lush, romantic historical mystery” (Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale), comes a gorgeously wrought novel of ambition and betrayal set in the Gilded Age.

New York, 1910: A city of extravagant balls in Fifth Avenue mansions and poor immigrants crammed into crumbling Lower East... Read more

The Wicked Redhead

By: Beatriz Williams

Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg & Julie McKay

Length: 12 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

The dazzling narrator of The Wicked City brings her mesmerizing voice and indomitable spirit to another Jazz Age tale of rumrunners, double crosses, and true love, spanning the Eastern seaboard from Florida to Long Island to Halifax, Nova Scotia.1924. Ginger Kelly wakes up in tranquil Cocoa Beach, Florida, having fled south to safety in the... Read more

Mary Toft; or, the Rabbit Queen

By: Dexter Palmer

Narrated by: Susan Lyons

Length: 13 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

In 1726, in the town of Godalming, England, a woman confounded the nation’s medical community by giving birth to seventeen rabbits. This astonishing true story is the basis for Dexter Palmer’s stunning, powerfully evocative new novel. Surgeon’s apprentice Zachary Walsh knows that his master, John Howard, prides himself on his rationality. But... Read more

The Other Windsor Girl

By: Georgie Blalock

Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon

Length: 8 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

If you love The Crown, then this is the audiobook for you!Diana, Catherine, Meghan…glamorous Princess Margaret outdid them all. Springing into post-World War II society, and quite naughty and haughty, she lived in a whirlwind of fame and notoriety. Georgie Blalock captures the fascinating, fast-living princess and her “set” as seen through the... Read more