The Best Audiobooks of 2024

In 2024, audiobook narrators pulled out all the stops, wringing every drop of humor, tenderness, suspense and wonder from their texts.

Listeners will find A Fatal Inheritance to be an effective overview of research on cancer and hereditary predisposition, one that achieves serious investigation while remaining intensely human.

By Kiley Reid, Narrated by Nicole Lewis

Darkly funny and provocative, Come and Get It is absolutely absorbing. Kiley Reid writes unabashedly about the unique dramas of university life, and Nicole Lewis’ dynamic choices as narrator make it difficult to turn the audiobook off.

Voice is crucial in James, Percival Everett’s retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Dominic Hoffman’s deft performance reveals James’ complexity and humanity with great immediacy and power.

By Kevin Kwan, Narrated by Jing Lusi

The audiobook of Kevin Kwan’s latest standalone novel, Lies and Weddings, is a thoroughly entertaining global romp packed with colorful descriptions of fashion, contemporary art and food.

By Yoko Ogawa, Narrated by Nanako Mizushima, Translated by Stephen B. Snyder

Mina’s Matchbox is a delightful audiobook touched with fairy-tale enchantment, depicting the friendship between two cousins in 1972 Japan.

Movingly read by author Diana Khoi Nguyen herself, the audiobook of Root Fractures offers a close approximation of attending a poetry reading.

Edited by Desiree S. Evans, Edited by Saraciea J. Fennell, Narrated by Shayna Small

These terrifying short stories starring Black girl protagonists are anything but predictable, stretching the limits of the horror genre towards sci-fi, gothic, comedy and more.

Listeners will be loath to press pause on this entirely unpredictable tale of a Greek island getaway gone wrong.

By Kaliane Bradley, Narrated by George Weightman, Narrated by Katie Leung

Audiobook narrators George Weightman and Katie Leung bring the many histories and personalities of this time-travel adventure to life, making The Ministry of Time a uniquely immersive listening experience.

Listening to Kathryn Drysdale read The Modern Fairies will make you feel like you’re in a 17th-century Paris salon yourself, with a front-row seat to the glittering origins of the fairy tale genre.

Acclaimed actress Juliet Stevenson’s performance is a beautifully balanced blend of wit, irony and compassion that mirrors the subtle richness of Shirley Hazzard’s remarkable 1980 novel, The Transit of Venus.

This impeccably researched audiobook, compellingly narrated by Nan McNamara, traces the American epidemic of loneliness to its tragic and perhaps inevitable conclusion in the stories of four individuals whose bodies are unclaimed after their death.

Audie Award-winner Nicola Walker is a superb narrator whose exquisite comic timing makes the audiobook of Richard Osman’s We Solve Murders terrifically engaging.