The Art & Literature category has 653 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 1,594 ratings. The most-rated is Inheritance.
Levels of Life
Summary
”You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed…” Julian Barnes's new book is about ballooning, photography, love and grief; about putting two things, and two people, together, and about tearing them apart. One of the judges who awarded him the 2011 Man Booker Prize described him as “an unparalleled magus of the heart”. This book confirms that opinion.
©2014 Audible, Inc. (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Lindsey Davis - April 2017
Summary
Robin Morgan welcomes back into the studio the brilliant Lindsey Davis. She's a historical novelist, the author of the historical crime series Falco and Flavia Albia. She was last in the studio to talk about book four of her Flavia Albia series and has made a return to talk about book five, The Third Nero.
©2017 Audible Studios (P)2017 Audible Studios
Dolly Alderton
Summary
Celebrated for being the ‘Nora Ephron’ of the millennial generation, Dolly Alderton joined us for a chat about female friendships, recording her audiobook, and revealed who she’d like to play her in a film. Dolly Alderton is an award-winning journalist, writer and director, known for her podcast The High Low, as well as her honest and relatable writing. She brings us her debut audiobook, Everything I Know about Love, a spot-on, wildly funny and sometimes heartbreaking book about growing up, growing older and navigating all kinds of love along the way.
©2018 Audible Ltd (P)2018 Audible Ltd
Jennifer Saunders
Summary
Joining us in the Audible Studios to talk about her narration of Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s The Christmas Hirelings is BAFTA Award-winning British actress Jennifer Saunders. Appearing on our screens since the '80s, Jennifer has written numerous scripts for film, television and stage as well as appearing in many of them. Known for her starring roles in Absolutely Fabulous and French and Saunders, Jennifer Saunders has had an incredible career to date. In this interview, Jennifer introduces us to the story of the Christmas Hirelings and the emotional connection she had with it. She also shares her love for an overlooked Christmas food and her thoughts on what Edina from Absolutely Fabulous would make of audiobooks.
©2018 Audible Ltd (P)2018 Audible Ltd
Tracy Borman
Summary
Exclusive to Audible. Tracy Borman, author of the best-selling biography of Thomas Cromwell, takes us behind the scenes to reveal the intimate secrets of the Tudor court and the private lives of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I and more. If you could follow Henry VIII as he left the court and went to his private chambers, what would you see? Focusing on the daily routines of iconic royalty, Tracy Borman reveals the truth behind the glamorous exterior.
©2016 Audible Ltd (P)2016 Audible Ltd
Simon Scarrow and Lee Francis
Summary
Simon Scarrow visits the Audible Studios for the second time, with Lee Francis, cowriter of their contemporary thriller Playing with Death. They talk about their collaboration, the writing process, writing for specific genres, social media and the terrifying thought of where this could lead in the near future.
©2017 Audible Ltd (P)2017 Audible Ltd
The Last Leonardo
Summary
An epic quest exposes hidden truths about Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, therecently discovered masterpiece that sold for $450 million - and might not be the real thing. In 2017, Leonardo da Vinci’s small oil painting the Salvator Mundi was sold at auction. In the words of its discoverer, the image of Christ as savior of the world is “the rarest thing on the planet.” Its $450 million sale price also makes it the world’s most expensive painting. For two centuries, art dealers had searched in vain for the Holy Grail of art history: a portrait of Christ as the Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci. Many similar paintings of greatly varying quality had been executed by Leonardo’s assistants in the early 16th century. But where was the original by the master himself? In November 2017, Christie’s auction house announced they had it. But did they? The Last Leonardo tells a thrilling tale of a spellbinding icon invested with the power to make or break the reputations of scholars, billionaires, kings, and sheikhs. Ben Lewis takes us to Leonardo’s studio in Renaissance Italy; to the court of Charles I and the English Civil War; to Amsterdam, Moscow, and New Orleans; to the galleries, salerooms, and restorer’s workshop as the painting slowly, painstakingly emerged from obscurity. The vicissitudes of the highly secretive art market are charted across six centuries. It is a twisting tale of geniuses and oligarchs, double-crossings and disappearances, in which we’re never quite certain what to believe. Above all, it is an adventure story about the search for lost treasure, and a quest for the truth. Praise for The Last Leonardo “The story of the world’s most expensive painting is narrated with great gusto and formidably researched detail in Ben Lewis’s book.... Lewis’s probings of the Salvator’s backstory raise questions about its historical status and visibility, and these lead in turn to the fundamental question of whether the painting is really an autograph work by Leonardo.” (Charles Nicholl, The Guardian) “As the art historian and critic Ben Lewis shows in his forensically detailed and gripping investigation into the history, discovery and sales of the painting, establishing the truth is like nailing down jelly.” (Michael Prodger, The Sunday Times)
©2019 Ben Lewis (P)2019 Random House Audio
Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller, and Countrywoman
Summary
The audiobook edition of Judy Taylor’s classic biography, Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller, and Countrywoman, read by the actress Patricia Routledge. Starting with the publication of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, in 1902, Beatrix Potter went on to become one of the world’s most successful children’s authors. This biographical audiobook takes the reader through the whole of her life, from her Victorian childhood in London to her final years farming in the Lake District. Regarded as a standard work on Beatrix Potter’s life, this work has been updated regularly to include fresh material that has come to light as interest in Beatrix Potter continues to grow.
©2012 Judy Taylor (P)2012 Penguin Books Ltd
Lynda La Plante
Summary
Lynda La Plante visits the Audible Studios to discuss the audiobook release of her books Hidden Killers and The Cold Cases. Lynda began her career as an actress of stage and screen but, in the 80s, started writing books and TV screenplays to universal acclaim. Her debut novel, The Legacy, became a best seller and her popularity has never waned, producing hit after hit, including the Prime Suspect and the Trial and Retribution series. She has since been awarded a CBE, become a member of The Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame and is the only lay person to become a fellow of the Forensic Science Society.
©2017 Audible Ltd (P)2017 Audible Ltd
Markus Zusak
Summary
Markus Zusak visits Audible to discuss his latest novel, the much-awaited Bridge of Clay, 13 years after his last book published. In Bridge of Clay, listeners will be transported to Australia and follow the story of five brothers living in a house without grown-ups. But what happens when their father walks back into their lives? Markus Zusak talks about how he came up with the idea for Bridge of Clay, the dynamic between the five Dunbar brothers and the many quirks woven into the story. Zusak is the author of six novels, including his best-selling audiobook The Book Thief.
©2018 Audible Ltd (P)2018 Audible Ltd
Dr Michael Mosley
Summary
Joining us at Audible Studios is Dr Michael Mosley, trained GP, presenter, author and creator of the 5:2 diet. In his new book, The Fast 800, he gives recipes and meal plans to help you take your future health into your own hands. He gives scientific evidence for using intermittent fasting, tells of the power of time-restricted eating and confirms that 800 calories is the magic number for weight loss. If you can stick to 800 calories a few days a week, you will trigger desirable metabolic changes while still having enough calories to keep you sustained. We spoke about enduring diet myths that need busting, how fasting can help the brain and always trying things out on himself.
©2019 Audible Ltd (P)2019 Audible Ltd
Jessie Keane
Summary
Exclusive interview. Jessie Keane visits the Audible Studios to talk to Sophie Plateau about her Annie Carter series.
©2016 Audible Ltd (P)2016 Audible Ltd
Matthew Syed
Summary
Joining us in the studio to talk about his latest book, Rebel Ideas, is British table tennis Olympian, author, journalist and broadcaster Matthew Syed. Known for being the ping-pong guy from popular sports podcast Flintoff, Savage and the Ping Pong Guy, Matthew Syed started his career as a table tennis player, competing in two Olympic games, and was ranked as a top player in England for 10 years. Since then, Matthew moved on to a career in journalism, writing a column in The Times and broadcasting on the BBC and Eurosport. Rebel Ideas follows Syed’s previous books, Bounce, Black Box Thinking and You Are Awesome. In this interview, Matthew Syed talks to us about his book Rebel Ideas, working with Flintoff and Savage, and how his varied career path has led him to where he is today.
©2019 Audible Ltd (P)2019 Audible Ltd
Slow Motion
Summary
From one of the most gifted writers of her generation comes the harrowing and exquisitely written true story of how a family tragedy saved her life. Dani Shapiro was a young girl from a deeply religious home who became the girlfriend of a famous and flamboyant married attorney - her best friend's stepfather. The moment Lenny Klein entered her life, everything changed: She dropped out of college, began to drink heavily, and became estranged from her family and friends. But then the phone call came. There had been an accident on a snowy road near her family's home in New Jersey, and both her parents lay hospitalized in critical condition. This haunting memoir traces her journey back into the world she had left behind. At a time when she was barely able to take care of herself, she was faced with the terrifying task of taking care of two people who needed her desperately. Dani Shapiro charts a riveting emotional course as she retraces her isolated, overprotected Orthodox Jewish childhood in an anti-Semitic suburb and draws the connections between that childhood and her inevitable rebellion and self-destructiveness. She tells of a life nearly ruined by the gift of beauty and then saved by the worst thing imaginable. This is a beautiful and unforgettable memoir of a life utterly transformed by tragedy.
©2012 Dani Shapiro (P)2020 Random House Audio
Lisa McInerney
Summary
Irish writer Lisa McInerney joins Robin Morgan in the Audible Studios just a few days after her debut novel, The Glorious Heresies, was awarded the prestigious Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.
©2016 Audible Ltd (P)2016 Audible Ltd
Adam Rutherford
Summary
Joining us in the Audible Studios to talk about his latest title, The Book of Humans, is geneticist, author and broadcaster Adam Rutherford. An editor of the journal Nature for a decade, genetics expert Adam Rutherford has also produced several science documentaries, is a frequent contributor to The Guardian and hosts the BBC Radio 4 programme Inside Science. His latest title is The Book of Humans, published in September 2018. Adam Rutherford talks to us about whether or not humans are still evolving, what it was like to work on blockbuster Ex Machina and why sea otters are not as cute and cuddly as you might think.
©2018 Audible Ltd (P)2018 Audible Ltd
The Distance Between Us
Summary
"In this poignant memoir about her childhood in Mexico, Reyna Grande skillfully depicts another side of the immigrant experience - the hardships and heartbreaks of the children who are left behind." (Sonia Nazario, Pulitzer Prize winner, and author of Enrique's Journey)
Reyna Grande vividly brings to life her tumultuous early years in this "compelling...unvarnished, resonant" (BookPage) story of a childhood spent torn between two parents and two countries. As her parents make the dangerous trek across the Mexican border to "El Otro Lado" (The Other Side) in pursuit of the American dream, Reyna and her siblings are forced into the already overburdened household of their stern grandmother. When their mother at last returns, Reyna prepares for her own journey to "El Otro Lado" to live with the man who has haunted her imagination for years, her long-absent father.
Funny, heartbreaking, and lyrical, The Distance Between Us poignantly captures the confusion and contradictions of childhood, reminding us that the joys and sorrows we experience are imprinted on the heart forever, calling out to us of those places we first called home.
Also available in Spanish as La distancia entre nosotros.
©2012 Reyna Grande (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio
Wild Ducks Flying Backward
Summary
Known for his meaty seriocomic novels, expansive works that are simultaneously lowbrow and highbrow, Tom Robbins has also published over the years a number of short pieces, predominantly nonfiction. His travel articles, essays, and tributes to actors, musicians, sex kittens, and thinkers have appeared in publications ranging from Esquire to Harper's, from Playboy to The New York Times, High Times, and Life. A generous sampling, collected here for the first time and including works as diverse as scholarly art criticism and some decidedly untypical country music lyrics, Wild Ducks Flying Backward offers a rare sweeping overview of the eclectic sensibility of an American original. Whether he is rocking with the Doors, depoliticizing Picasso's Guernica, lamenting the angst-ridden state of contemporary literature, or drooling over tomato sandwiches and a species of womanhood he calls "the genius waitress," Robbins's briefer writings often exhibit the same five traits that perhaps best characterize his novels: an imaginative wit, a cheerfully brash disregard for convention, a sweetly nasty eroticism, a mystical but keenly observant eye, and an irrepressible love of language. Embedded in this primarily journalistic compilation are a couple of short stories, a sheaf of largely unpublished poems, and an off-beat assessment of our divided nation. And wherever we open Wild Ducks Flying Backward, we're apt to encounter examples of the intently serious playfulness that percolates from the mind of a self-described "romantic Zen hedonist" and "stray dog in the banquet halls of culture."
©2005 Tom Robbins (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.
Joe Lycett
Summary
Maddie Hickish chats to the comedian Joe Lycett in the Audible Studios. His debut book Parsnips Buttered, successfully solves all of modern life’s problems.
©2016 Audible Ltd. (P)2016 Audible Ltd.
Helen Russell
Summary
Helen Russell joins Sophie Plateau in the Audible Studios to talk about her new novel.
©2017 Audible Studios (P)2017 Audible Studios