Aysha Kala has narrated 25 audiobooks on Listento.it by 22 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 321 ratings. The most-rated is Catch-22.
Catch-22
Summary
Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American literature and one of the funniest - and most celebrated - novels of all time. In recent years, it has been named to "best novels" lists by Time, Newsweek, the Modern Library, and the London Observer. Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy - it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he's assigned, he'll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: A man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved. Since its publication in 1961, no novel has matched Catch-22's intensity and brilliance in depicting the brutal insanity of war. This 50th-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller's masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; personal essays on the genesis of the novel by the author; a wealth of critical responses and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers from Joseph Heller's personal archive; and a selection of advertisements from the original publishing campaign that helped turn Catch-22 into a cultural phenomenon. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.
©1955, 1961 Joseph Heller. Copyright renewed (c) 1989 Joseph Heller. All rights reserved (P)2017 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved
Radio Silence
Summary
From critically acclaimed author Alice Oseman comes a smartly crafted contemporary YA novel, perfect for fans who love Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl. This is an utterly captivating and authentic teen novel from the author of Solitaire, which VOYA said “could put her among the great young adult fiction authors.” Frances Janvier spends most of her time studying. Everyone knows Aled Last as that quiet boy who gets straight As. You probably think that they are going to fall in love or something. Since he is a boy and she is a girl. They don’t. They make a podcast. In a world determined to shut them up, knock them down, and set them on a cookie cutter life path, Frances and Aled struggle to find their voices over the course of one life-changing year. Will they have the courage to show everyone who they really are? Or will they be met with radio silence?
©2017 Alice Oseman (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
Beneath These Scars
Summary
I'm the guy you love to hate. In every story in my life, I seem to end up playing the villain - and I've got the scars to prove it. That role works fine for me, because I'm sure as hell not anyone's hero. I run my life and my empire with an iron fist - until she knocks my tightly controlled world off its axis. She's nobody's damsel in distress, but I can't help but want to save her anyway. I guess we're about to find out if there's a hero buried...beneath these scars.
©2015 Meghan March (P)2015 Blackstone Audio
Tilly and the Bookwanderers
Summary
A magical adventure to delight the imagination. A curl-up-on-the-sofa snuggle of a debut from a uniquely talented author. Eleven-year-old Tilly has lived above her grandparents’ bookshop ever since her mother disappeared shortly after she was born. Like the rest of her family, Tilly loves nothing more than to escape into the pages of her favourite stories. One day Tilly realises that classic children’s characters are appearing in the shop through the magic of ‘book walking’ - crossing over from the page into real life. With the help of Anne of Green Gables and Alice in Wonderland, Tilly is determined to solve the mystery of what happened to her mother all those years ago, so she bravely steps into the unknown, unsure of what adventure lies ahead and what dangers she may face.
©2018 Anna James (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
I Was Born for This
Summary
The third novel from the phenomenally talented Alice Oseman, author of Solitaire and the graphic novel series Heartstopper – soon to be a major Netflix series. For Angel Rahimi life is about one thing: The Ark - a pop-rock trio of teenage boys who are taking the world by storm. Being part of The Ark’s fandom has given her everything she loves - her friend Juliet, her dreams, her place in the world. Jimmy Kaga-Ricci owes everything to The Ark. He’s their frontman - and playing in a band with his mates is all he ever dreamed of doing. But dreams don’t always turn out the way you think, and when Jimmy and Angel are unexpectedly thrust together, they find out how strange and surprising facing up to reality can be. A funny, wise, and heartbreakingly true coming-of-age novel. I Was Born for This is a stunning reflection of modern teenage life and the power of believing in something - especially yourself.
©2018 Alice Oseman (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
The Midnight Rose
Summary
Shortlisted for the Epic Novel award in the Romantic Novelists Association Books Awards. Spanning four generations, The Midnight Rose by Lucinda Riley sweeps from the glittering palaces of the great maharajas of India to the majestic stately homes of England, following the extraordinary life of a girl, Anahita Chavan, from 1911 to the present day.... A lifelong passion. An endless search. In the heyday of the British Raj, 11-year-old Anahita, from a noble but impoverished family, forms a lifelong friendship with the headstrong Princess Indira, the privileged daughter of rich Indian royalty. Becoming the princess's official companion, Anahita accompanies her friend to England just before the outbreak of the Great War. There, she meets the young Donald Astbury - reluctant heir to the magnificent, remote Astbury Estate - and his scheming mother. Eighty years later, Rebecca Bradley, a young American film star, has the world at her feet. But when her turbulent relationship with her equally famous boyfriend takes an unexpected turn, she's relieved that her latest role, playing a 1920s debutante, will take her away from the glare of publicity to the wilds of Dartmoor in England. Shortly after filming begins at the now-crumbling Astbury Hall, Ari Malik, Anahita's great-grandson, arrives unexpectedly, on a quest for his family's past. What he and Rebecca discover begins to unravel the dark secrets that haunt the Astbury dynasty....
©2020 Lucinda Riley (P)2020 Macmillan Publishers International Ltd
Midnight's Children
Summary
Nikesh Patel stars as Saleem in BBC Radio 4's epic dramatisation of Salman Rushdie's Booker Prize-winning novel of love, history and magic. Saleem Sinai is born on the stroke of midnight on 14th-15th August 1947, at the exact moment that India and Pakistan become separate, independent nations. From that moment on, his fate is mysteriously handcuffed to the history of his country. But Saleem's story starts almost thirty years earlier, when his grandfather, Dr Aadam Aziz, falls in love with a woman concealed behind a perforated sheet. That pivotal moment in Kashmir in 1919 sparks a series of bizarre events that will lead to a cryptic prophecy and the birth of a boy with an extraordinary destiny. As a 'Midnight's Child', Saleem has magical powers, and can telepathically tune in to all the other gifted children whose birth coincided with India's division. However, his strange entanglement with the fate of India will have dramatic repercussions for both him and his country.... Adapted by Ayeesha Menon, this dazzling dramatisation of Rushdie's many-layered, magical realist masterpiece is both an enthralling family saga and a riveting history of post-colonialism. First broadcast to mark the 70th anniversary of the Partition of India, it features Nikesh Patel as Saleem, with a star cast including Abhin Galeya, Meera Syal, Anneika Rose and Narinder Samra. Also included is an interview with Salman Rushdie, in which the author talks to radio drama director Emma Harding about his multi-award winning novel. Midnight's Children won the Booker Prize in 1981, and was subsequently awarded the 'Booker of Bookers' prize in 1993 and 'The Best of the Booker' prize in 2008.
©2017 Salman Rushdie (P)2017 BBC Worldwide Ltd
The Caged Queen
Summary
Kristen Ciccarelli’s distinct brand of lyrical, haunting fantasy continues in the companion to her best-selling debut, The Last Namsara. Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and Renee Ahdieh. Once, there were two sisters born with a bond so strong that it forged them together forever. Roa and Essie called it the hum. It was a magic they cherished - until the day a terrible accident took Essie’s life and trapped her soul in this world. Dax - the heir to Firgaard’s throne - was responsible for the accident. Roa swore to hate him forever. But eight years later, he returned, begging for her help. He was determined to dethrone his cruel father, under whose oppressive reign Roa’s people had suffered. Roa made him a deal: She’d give him the army he needed if he made her queen. Only as queen could she save her people from Firgaard’s rule. Then a chance arises to right every wrong - an opportunity for Roa to rid herself of this enemy king and rescue her beloved sister. During the Relinquishing, when the spirits of the dead are said to return, Roa discovers she can reclaim her sister for good. All she has to do is kill the king.
©2018 Kristen Ciccarelli (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
Pages & Co.
Summary
A magical adventure to delight the imagination. The curl-up-on-the-sofa snuggle of a series from a uniquely talented author. Tilly Pages is a bookwanderer; she can travel inside books and even talk to the characters she meets there. But Tilly’s powers are put to the test when fairy tales start leaking book magic and causing havoc. On a wintry visit to Paris, Tilly and her best friend Oskar bravely bookwander into the land of fairy tales to find that characters are getting lost, stories are all mixed up and mysterious plot holes are opening without warning. Can Tilly work out who, or what, is behind the chaos so everyone gets their happily ever after? The second enthralling tale in the best-selling Pages & Co. series.
©2019 Anna James (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Tilly and the Map of Stories
Summary
Third in the modern-classic and best-selling bookwandering series that celebrates all that is best in life: books, adventure, friendship – and cake. Strange things are happening. A man comes into Pages & Co looking for a book...then suddenly can’t remember it. Tilly and her family feel like the world is changing – but can’t quite put their finger on why. Meanwhile, the Underwoods are expanding their control over bookwandering – and they still have their sights set on Tilly. Leaving the safety of the bookshop, Tilly heads to America to find the legendary Archivists and save bookwandering....or at least, that’s the plan. Wandering in layers of story, Tilly and her friend Oskar come up against dangers they could never have expected, team up with an unexpectedly familiar face and ultimately find themselves taking on the biggest threat to stories there has ever been – with only their courage and ingenuity to help them. As well as some of their dearest fictional friends....
©2020 Anna James (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Flawed
Summary
In her breathtaking young-adult debut, best-selling author Cecelia Ahern depicts a society in which perfection is paramount and flaws are punished. And where one young woman decides to take a stand that could cost her everything. Celestine North lives a perfect life. She's a model daughter and sister, she's well liked by her classmates and teachers, and she's dating the impossibly charming Art Crevan. But then Celestine encounters a situation in which she makes an instinctive decision. She breaks a rule and now faces life-changing repercussions. She could be imprisoned. She could be branded. She could be found flawed.
©2016 Cecelia Ahern (P)2016 Macmillan Audio
Perfect
Summary
Celestine North lives in a society that demands perfection. After she was branded Flawed by a morality court, Celestine's life has completely fractured - all her freedoms gone. Since Judge Crevan has declared her the number one threat to the public, she has been a ghost, on the run with Carrick - the only person she can trust. But Celestine has a secret - one that could bring the entire Flawed system crumbling to the ground. A secret that has already caused countless people to go missing. Judge Crevan is gaining the upper hand, and time is running out for Celestine. With tensions building, Celestine must make a choice: save just herself or to risk her life to save all Flawed people. And, most important of all, can she prove that to be human in itself is to be Flawed?
©2016 Cecelia Ahern (P)2016 Macmillan Audio
The Deathless Girls
Summary
Gothic, intoxicating, feminist, darkly provoking and deeply romantic - this is the breathtakingly imagined untold story of the brides of Dracula, by best-selling author Kiran Millwood Hargrave in her much-anticipated YA debut. They say the thirst of blood is like a madness - they must sate it. Even with their own kin. On the eve of her divining, the day she'll discover her fate, 17-year-old Lil and her twin sister, Kizzy, are captured and enslaved by the cruel Boyar Valcar, taken far away from their beloved traveller community. Forced to work in the harsh and unwelcoming castle kitchens, Lil is comforted when she meets Mira, a fellow slave who she feels drawn to in a way she doesn't understand. But she also learns about the Dragon, a mysterious and terrifying figure of myth and legend who takes girls as gifts. They may not have had their divining day, but the girls will still discover their fate....
©2019 Kiran Millwood Hargrave (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Thirteen Storeys
Summary
A chilling thriller that's perfect for fans of Get Out and The Haunting of Hill House. A dinner party is held in the penthouse of a multimillion-pound development. All the guests are strangers - even to their host, the billionaire owner of the building. None of them know why they were selected to receive his invitation. Besides a postcode, they share only one thing in common - they've all experienced an unsettling occurrence within the building's walls. By the end of the night, their host is dead, and none of the guests will say what happened. His death remains one of the biggest unsolved mysteries - until now.
©2020 Jonathan Sims (P)2020 Orion Publishing Group
When They Call You a Terrorist (Young Adult Edition)
Summary
"The audio version adds to the authenticity even more as she narrates her own words, bringing the listener into her world." (School Library Journal, starred review) This program includes a foreword read by Angela Davis Patrisse Cullors' and asha bandele's instant New York Times bestseller, When They Call You a Terrorist is now adapted for the YA audience! A movement that started with a hashtag - #BlackLivesMatter - on Twitter spread across the nation and then across the world. From one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement comes a poetic memoir and reflection on humanity. Necessary and timely, Patrisse Cullors’ story asks us to remember that protest in the interest of the most vulnerable comes from love. Leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement have been called terrorists, a threat to America. But in truth, they are loving women whose life experiences have led them to seek justice for those victimized by the powerful. In this meaningful, empowering account of survival, strength, and resilience, Cullors and asha bandele seek to change the culture that declares innocent black life expendable. A Macmillan Audio production from Wednesday Books
©2020 Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele (P)2020 Macmillan Audio
The Nesting
Summary
It was like something out of a fairytale.... The grieving widower. The motherless daughters. A beautiful house in the woods. Deep in a remote Norwegian forest, Lexi has found a new home with architect Tom and his two young daughters. With snow underfoot and the sound of the nearby fjord in her ears, it’s as if Lexi has stepped into a fairy tale. But this family has a history – and this place has a past. Something was destroyed to build their beautiful new house. And those ancient, whispering woods have a long memory. Lexi begins to hear things, see things that don’t make sense. She used to think this place heavenly, but in the dark, dark woods, a menacing presence lurks. With darkness creeping in from the outside, Lexi knows she needs to protect the children in her care. But protect them from what? Atmospheric, gothic, spine-chilling.... The new thriller from C.J Cooke will haunt you long after you stop the audiobook.
©2020 C.J. Cooke (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
The Weaver
Summary
The author of the critically acclaimed Memory of Water returns with this literary ecological tale in the vein of Ursula K. Le Guin and Sheri S. Tepper, in which an innocent young woman becomes entangled in a web of ancient secrets and deadly lies that lie at the dark center of her prosperous island world. Eliana is a model citizen of the island, a weaver in the prestigious House of Webs. She also harbors a dangerous secret: She can dream, an ability forbidden by the island's elusive council of elders. No one talks about the dreamers, the undesirables ostracized from society. But the web of protection Eliana has woven around herself begins to unravel when a young girl is found lying unconscious in a pool of blood on the stones outside the house. Robbed of speech by her attackers, the only clue to her identity is one word tattooed in invisible ink across her palm: Eliana. Why does this mysterious girl bear her name? What links her to the weaver - and could she hold Eliana's fate in her hand? As Eliana finds herself growing closer to this injured girl she is bound to in ways she doesn't understand, the enchanting lies of the island begin to crumble, revealing a deep and ancient corruption. Joining a band of brave rebels determined to expose the island's dark secrets, Eliana becomes a target of ruthless forces determined to destroy her. To save herself and those she loves, she must call on the power within her she thought was her greatest weakness: her dreams.
©2016 Emmi Itäranta (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers
The Dog Who Saved the World
Summary
The astounding new novel from the best-selling and Costa short-listed author of Time Travelling with a Hamster, this is a story for everyone of 10 and older who loves adventure, laughs and tears. When 12-year-old Georgie makes friends with an eccentric retired scientist, she becomes the test subject for a thrilling new experiment: a virtual reality, 3-D version of the future. Then a deadly virus threatens to wipe out every dog in the country, and Georgie’s beloved dog, Mr Mash, gets sick. Which is bad - but worse is still to come. As the world is thrown into chaos, Georgie embarks on a desperate quest: to save every dog on earth and all of humanity.... ...without actually leaving the room. An extraordinary quest with the biggest stakes of all and a huge idea at its heart, this is time travel - but not as you know it.
©2019 Ross Welford (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers
Trust Her
Summary
It wasn't just that I didn't like her. I didn't trust her. Charlotte is a people pleaser - she can't help but go the extra mile. So when she stumbles upon an unconscious man one night, it's only natural that she wants to help. Brought into the arms of the victim's loving family, she sees at once how much they need her. But while his parents happily welcome her into the fold, his sister is another story. It's not just that Rebecca doesn't like Charlotte, she clearly doesn't trust her either. But the more time Charlotte spends in Rebecca's company, the more she suspects she's the one with something to hide. And if Charlotte is to protect this family - and herself - she'll need to do whatever she can to find out what that is.... A twisty story of lies, obsession and revenge that will have you wondering who to believe until the last page. Perfect for fans of Clare Mackintosh and Laura Marshall.
©2018 Jessica Vallance (P)2018 Hachette Audio UK
Gratitude
Summary
Bloomsbury presents Gratitude by Delphine de Vigan, read by Oseloka Obi, Gabrielle Glaister and Aysha Kala. Marie owes Michka more than she can say - but Michka is getting older and can't look after herself any more. So Marie has moved her to a home where she’ll be safe. But Michka doesn’t feel any safer - she is haunted by strange figures who threaten to unearth her most secret buried guilt, guilt that she’s carried since she was a little girl. And she is losing her words - grasping more desperately day by day for what once came easily to her. Jérôme is a speech therapist, dispatched to help the home’s ageing population snatch and hold tight onto the speech still afforded to them. But Michka is no ordinary client. Michka has been carrying an old debt she does not know how to repay - and as her words slide out of her grasp, time is running out. Delicately wrought and darkly gripping, Gratitude is about love, loss and redemption - about what we owe one another, and the redemptive power of showing thanks.
©2021 Delphine de Vigan (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc