Edoardo Ballerini has narrated 234 audiobooks on Listento.it by 205 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 6,682 ratings. The most-rated is Pandemic.
Pandemic
Summary
A deadly outbreak in Kenya. A conspiracy beyond imagination. And a race to save humanity in its darkest hour. From A. G. Riddle, the worldwide best-selling author of The Atlantis Gene and Departure, comes a novel that will change everything you think you know about pandemics. A hundred miles north of Alaska, an American Coast Guard vessel discovers a sunken submarine at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. It has no national identification and doesn't match the records of any known vessel. Deep within, researchers find evidence of a scientific experiment that will alter our very understanding of the human race. In Atlanta, Dr. Peyton Shaw is awakened by the phone call she has dreaded for years. As the CDC's leading epidemiologist, she's among the first responders to outbreaks around the world. It's a lonely and dangerous job, but it's her life - and she's good at it. This time she may have met her match. In Kenya, an Ebola-like pathogen has infected two Americans. One lies at death's door. With the clock ticking, Peyton assembles her team and joins personnel from the Kenyan Ministry of Health and the WHO. What they find in the remote village is beyond their worst fears. As she traces the origin of the pathogen, Peyton begins to believe that there is more to this outbreak - that it may be merely the opening act in a conspiracy with far-reaching consequences. In Berlin, Desmond Hughes awakens in a hotel room with no memory of how he got there or who he is. On the floor he finds a dead security guard from an international pharmaceutical company. His only clue leads him to Peyton Shaw - a woman who seems to know him but refuses to tell him how. With the police searching the city for him, Desmond desperately tries to piece together what happened to him. To his shock and horror, he learns that he may be involved in causing the outbreak - and could hold the only key to stopping it. As the pathogen spreads around the world, Peyton and Desmond race to unravel the conspiracy behind the pandemic - and uncover secrets some want to keep buried.
©2017 A. G. Riddle (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
Watchers
Summary
Winner of the 2019 Audie Award for Best Male Narrator with an afterword read by the author A “superior thriller” (Oakland Press) about a man, a dog, and a terrifying threat that could only have come from the imagination of #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz - nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read. On his thirty-sixth birthday, Travis Cornell hikes into the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains. But his path is soon blocked by a bedraggled Golden Retriever who will let him go no further into the dark woods. That morning, Travis had been desperate to find some happiness in his lonely, seemingly cursed life. What he finds is a dog of alarming intelligence that soon leads him into a relentless storm of mankind’s darkest creation....
©1987 by Nkui, Inc. Afterword © 2003, 2018 by Dean Koontz. (P)2018 by Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Devoted
Summary
An Amazon Charts, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller. From Dean Koontz, the master of suspense, comes an epic thriller about a terrifying killer and the singular compassion it will take to defeat him. “Canine or human, it is hard to find a more lovable character in fiction than Kipp. Devoted has every mark of a classic.” - Associated Press Woody Bookman hasn’t spoken a word in his eleven years of life. Not when his father died in a freak accident. Not when his mother, Megan, tells him she loves him. For Megan, keeping her boy safe and happy is what matters. But Woody believes a monstrous evil was behind his father’s death and now threatens him and his mother. And he’s not alone in his thoughts. An ally unknown to him is listening. A uniquely gifted dog with a heart as golden as his breed, Kipp is devoted beyond reason to people. When he hears the boy who communicates like he does, without speaking, Kipp knows he needs to find him before it’s too late. Woody’s fearful suspicions are taking shape. A man driven by a malicious evil has set a depraved plan into motion. And he’s coming after Woody and his mother. The reasons are primal. His powers are growing. And he’s not alone. Only a force greater than evil can stop what’s coming next.
©2020 The Koontz Living Trust. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
The Storyteller
Summary
Jodi Picoult's poignant number one New York Times best-selling novels about family and love tackle hot-button issues head on. In The Storyteller, Sage Singer befriends Josef Weber, a beloved Little League coach and retired teacher. But then Josef asks Sage for a favor she never could have imagined - to kill him. After Josef reveals the heinous act he committed, Sage feels he may deserve that fate. But would his death be murder or justice?
©2013 Jodi Picoult (P)2013 Recorded Books
The Orenda
Summary
History reveals itself when, in the 17th century, a Jesuit missionary ventures into the Canadian wilderness in search of converts - the defining moment of first contact between radically different worlds. What unfolds over the next several years is truly epic, constantly illuminating and surprising, sometimes comic, always entrancing, and ultimately all too human in its tragic grandeur. Christophe has been in the New World only a year when his native guides abandon him to flee their Iroquois pursuers. A Huron warrior and elder named Bird soon takes him prisoner, along with a young Iroquois girl, Snow Falls, whose family he has just killed, and holds them captive in his massive village. Champlain's Iron People have only recently begun trading with the Huron, who mistrust them as well as this Crow who has now trespassed on to their land; and her people, of course, have become the Huron's greatest enemy. Putting both to death would resolve the issue, but Bird sees Christophe as a potential envoy to those in New France, and Snow Falls as a replacement for his two daughters who were murdered by the Iroquois. The relationships between these three are reshaped again and again as life comes at them relentlessly: A dangerous trading mission, friendly exchanges with allied tribes, shocking victories and defeats in battle, and sicknesses the likes of which no one has ever witnessed. The Orenda traces a story of blood and hope, suspicion and trust, hatred and love, that comes to a head when Jesuit and Huron join together against the stupendous wrath of the Iroquois, when everything that any of them has ever known or believed faces nothing less than annihilation. A saga nearly 400 years old, it is also timeless and eternal.
©2013 Joseph Boyden (P)2014 Recorded Books
Winter World
Summary
The ice is coming. It was the last thing we expected, but the world is freezing. A new ice age has dawned and humanity has been forced to confront its own extinction. Billions have fled the glaciers, crowding out the world’s last habitable zones. They can run from the ice, but they can’t escape human nature: a cataclysmic war is coming. In orbit, a group of scientists are running the Winter Experiments, a last-ditch attempt to understand why the planet is cooling. None of the climate models they build make sense. But then they discover an anomaly, an unexplained variation in solar radiation...and something else. Close to the burning edge of the sun, they catch a fleeting glimpse of something that shouldn’t be there.... Suddenly humanity must face the possibility it is not alone in the universe. And the terrifying possibility that whatever is out there may be trying to exterminate us.
©2019 A.G. Riddle (P)2018 Recorded Books
One Good Deed
Summary
In this fast-paced historical thriller, the number one New York Times best-selling author introduces Archer, a WWII veteran forced to investigate a small-town murder - or risk returning to prison. It's 1949. When war veteran Aloysius Archer is released from Carderock Prison, he is sent to Poca City on parole with a short list of dos and a much longer list of don'ts: do report regularly to his parole officer, don't go to bars, certainly don't drink alcohol, do get a job - and don't ever associate with loose women. The small town quickly proves more complicated and dangerous than Archer's years serving in the war or his time in jail. Within a single night, his search for gainful employment - and a stiff drink - leads him to a local bar, where he is hired for what seems like a simple job: to collect a debt owed to a powerful local businessman, Hank Pittleman. Soon Archer discovers that recovering the debt won't be so easy. The indebted man has a furious grudge against Hank and refuses to pay; Hank's clever mistress has her own designs on Archer; and both Hank and Archer's stern parole officer, Miss Crabtree, are keeping a sharp eye on him. When a murder takes place right under Archer's nose, police suspicions rise against the ex-convict, and Archer realizes that the crime could send him right back to prison...if he doesn't use every skill in his arsenal to track down the real killer.
©2019 David Baldacci (P)2019 Hachette Audio
Genome
Summary
The thrilling conclusion to The Extinction Files is finally here! A code hidden in the human genome...will reveal the ultimate secret of human existence. And could hold humanity's only hope of survival. In 2003, the first human genome was sequenced. But the secrets it held were never revealed. The truth was discovered 30 years ago, almost by accident. Dr. Paul Kraus had spent his entire career searching for what he called humanity's lost tribes - human ancestors who had gone extinct. When Kraus compared the DNA samples of the lost tribes with our own, he found a pattern of changes: a code. At the time, the technology didn't exist to unravel what it meant. To protect the secret, Kraus hid his work and disappeared. Now the technology exists to finally understand the mysterious code buried in the human genome, but finding the pieces of Kraus' research is more dangerous than anyone imagined. Dr. Peyton Shaw and her mother have obtained part of Kraus' research - and a cryptic message that could lead to the remaining pieces. They believe his work is the key to stopping a global conspiracy - and an event that will change humanity forever. The ultimate secret, buried in the human genome, will change our very understanding of what it means to be human. For Peyton, finding it may come at an incredible price. She must weigh the lives of strangers against those she loves: Desmond Hughes and her mother. With time running out, Peyton makes a fateful choice - one that can never be undone.
©2017 A. G. Riddle (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
The Art of Living
Summary
In troubled times there is an urgency to understand ourselves and our world. We have so many questions, and they tug at us night and day, consciously and unconsciously. In this important volume, Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh - one of the most revered spiritual leaders in the world today - reveals an art of living in mindfulness that helps us answer life's deepest questions and experience the happiness and freedom we desire. Thich Nhat Hanh presents, for the first time, seven transformative meditations that open up new perspectives on our lives, our relationships, and our interconnectedness with the world around us. Based on the last full talks before his sudden hospitalization, and drawing on intimate examples from his own life, Thich Nhat Hanh shows us how these seven meditations can free us to live happy, peaceful, and active lives and face ageing and dying with curiosity and joy and without fear. Containing the essence of the Buddha's teachings and Thich Nhat Hanh's poignant, timeless, and clarifying prose, The Art of Living provides a spiritual dimension to our lives. This is not an effort to escape life or to dwell in a place of bliss outside of this world. Instead this path will allow us to discover where we come from and where we are going. And, most of all, it will generate happiness, understanding, and love, so we can live deeply in each moment of our lives, right where we are.
©2017 Unified Buddhist Church, Inc. (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
A Long Petal of the Sea
Summary
New York Times best seller From the author of The House of the Spirits, this epic novel spanning decades and crossing continents follows two young people as they flee the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in search of a place to call home. Named One of the Best Books of the Year by Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Parade "One of the most richly imagined portrayals of the Spanish Civil War to date, and one of the strongest and most affecting works in [Isabel Allende’s] long career." (The New York Times Book Review) In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires. Together with 2,000 other refugees, Roser and Victor embark for Chile on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda: "the long petal of sea and wine and snow." As unlikely partners, the couple embraces exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. Starting over on a new continent, they face trial after trial, but they will also find joy as they patiently await the day when they might go home. Through it all, their hope of returning to Spain keeps them going. Destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world, Roser and Victor will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along. A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile, and belonging, A Long Petal of the Sea shows Isabel Allende at the height of her powers. Praise for A Long Petal of the Sea "Both an intimate look at the relationship between one man and one woman and an epic story of love, war, family, and the search for home, this gorgeous novel, like all the best novels, transports the reader to another time and place, and also sheds light on the way we live now." (J. Courtney Sullivan, author of Saints for All Occasions) "This is a novel not just for those of us who have been Allende fans for decades, but also for those who are brand-new to her work: What a joy it must be to come upon Allende for the first time. She knows that all stories are love stories, and the greatest love stories are told by time." (Colum McCann, National Book Award-winning author of Let the Great World Spin)
©2020 Isabel Allende (P)2020 Random House Audio
Peace Is Every Step
Summary
In the rush of modern life, we tend to lose touch with the peace that is available in each moment. World-renowned Zen master, spiritual leader, and author Thich Nhat Hanh shows us how to make positive use of the situations that usually pressure and antagonize us. A ringing telephone can be a signal to call us back to our true selves. Dirty dishes, red lights, and traffic jams are spiritual friends on the path to "mindfulness" - the process of keeping our consciousness alive to our present experience and reality. The most profound satisfactions, the deepest feelings of joy and completeness lie as close at hand as our next aware breath and the smile we can form right now. Lucidly and beautifully written, Peace Is Every Step contains commentaries, meditations, personal anecdotes, and stories from Nhat Hanh's experiences as a peace activist, teacher, and community leader. It begins where the listener already is - in the kitchen, office, driving a car, walking - and shows how deep meditative presence is available now. Nhat Hanh provides exercises to increase our awareness of our own body and mind through conscious breathing, which can bring immediate joy and peace. Nhat Hanh also shows how to be aware of relationships with others and of the world around us, its beauty and also its pollution and injustices. The deceptively simple practices of Peace Is Every Step encourage listeners to work for peace in the world as they continue to work on sustaining inner peace by turning the "mindless" into the mindful.
©1991 Thich Nhat Hanh (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Exhalation
Summary
One of The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year A National Best Seller One of the Best Books of The Year: The Washington Post • Time Magazine • NPR • Esquire • Vox • the A.V. Club • the Guardian • Financial Times • the Dallas Morning News “Exhalation by Ted Chiang is a collection of short stories that will make you think, grapple with big questions, and feel more human. The best kind of science fiction.” (Barack Obama, via Facebook) "The universe began as an enormous breath being held." In these nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories, Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine. In “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate”, a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In “Exhalation”, an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will. Including stories being published for the first time as well as some of his rare and classic uncollected work, Exhalation is Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic - revelatory.
©2019 Ted Chiang (P)2019 Random House Audio
The Solar War
Summary
Hear the second book in The Long Winter trilogy! They decimated Earth during the Long Winter. Now the Grid has returned, and they won't stop until the human race is extinct. On a ruined world, humanity's last survivors fight against impossible odds. In their darkest hour, they discover a new hope for survival. But it comes at an unthinkable price, with consequences that will change everything. We thought the war was over. We were wrong. After the Long Winter, Emma Matthews and James Sinclair hoped life would get back to normal. They've settled down in Camp Seven and welcomed their first child, a daughter. And they have waited and watched the sky for any signs of the Grid's return. When NASA discovers that several asteroids have broken from the Kuiper Belt and are headed for Earth, James instantly realizes the truth: the Grid is back. And this battle will be one to the very end. As he and his team prepare for humanity's last stand in space and on the ground, Emma makes a discovery closer to home, one that will change life for her and James once again. With war raging around them, Emma and James fight to keep their family alive. In the cold darkness, humanity splinters. New alliances emerge. At every turn, Emma and James face new dangers and question whom to trust. Just when it seems that all hope is lost, James uncovers what may be the key to humanity's survival. But it comes with enormous risks. To implement his plan, he and Emma will have to survive the Grid and another, even more deadly enemy. One thing is certain: their gambit will change the future of the human race forever.
©2019 A. G. Riddle (P)2019 Recorded Books
Agent Zero
Summary
In this much-anticipated new spy thriller series by Jack Mars, listeners are taken on an action thriller across Europe as presumed-CIA operative Kent Steele, hunted by terrorists, by the CIA, and by his own identity, must solve the mystery of who is after him, of the terrorists’ pending target - and of the beautiful woman he keeps seeing in his mind. Kent Steele, 38, a brilliant professor of European History at Columbia University, lives a quiet life in a New York suburb with his two teenage daughters. All that changes when late one night he gets a knock on his door and is abducted by three terrorists - and finds himself flown across the ocean to be interrogated in a basement in Paris. They are convinced that Kent is the most lethal spy the CIA has ever known. He is convinced they have the wrong man. Do they? With a conspiracy around him, adversaries as smart as he is, and an assassin on his tail, the wild game of cat and mouse leads Kent on a perilous road - one that may lead back to Langley - and to a shocking discovery of his own identity. Agent Zero is an espionage thriller that will keep you listening late into the night.
©2019 Jack Mars (P)2019 Audible Originals, LLC.
Mindfulness in Plain English
Summary
With over a quarter of a million copies sold, Mindfulness in Plain English is one of the most influential books in the burgeoning field of mindfulness and a timeless classic introduction to meditation. This is a book that people listen to, love, and share - a book that people talk about, write about, reflect on, and return to over and over again. Bhante Gunaratana is also the author of Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness, Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English, The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English, and his memoir, Journey to Mindfulness.
©2011 Bhante Henepola Gunaratana (P)2016 Audible, Inc.
The Lost Colony
Summary
Can humanity survive on a new world? On Eos, the last survivors of the Long Winter face their greatest challenge yet - and race to unravel the deepest secrets of the grid. The last survivors of the human race escaped a ruined Earth. Their new homeworld - Eos - seemed perfect at first. Warm. Hospitable. Safe from the grid. But everything isn't as it seems. The first colony of settlers - from the Carthage - have disappeared. Their settlement is still there, but everyone is gone. As James digs into the mystery of the lost colony, he discovers a series of spheres, buried on Eos. Are they the key to finding the lost colonists? Or are they responsible for their deaths? Just as James is unraveling the secrets of the spheres, a storm hits Jericho City. Emma, recently elected mayor, struggles to lead her people to safety while James tries to make his way home. In the middle of the chaos, a new danger emerges - a threat no one saw coming. With time running out to save the colonists, James and Emma face their hardest choice yet. About THE LOST COLONY The Lost Colony is the third and final book in The Long Winter trilogy, which began with Winter World and continued in The Solar War.
©2019 A.G. Riddle (P)2019 Recorded Books
The Push
Summary
Instant international best seller “Written with an unflinching eye and a stylistically sharp, tight economy The Push is a single-sitting read, as suspenseful as any thriller, as thoughtful as any literary novel, with an almost physical force behind each of its turns and revelations." (Toronto Star) A tense psychological drama about the making and breaking of a family, told through the eyes of a woman whose experience of motherhood is nothing at all what she hoped for - and everything she feared. Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, supportive mother she never had to her new baby, Violet. But in the thick of motherhood's exhausting early days, Blythe doesn't find the connection with her daughter she expected. She's convinced that something is wrong with Violet - the little girl is distant, rejects affection, and becomes increasingly disruptive at preschool. Or is it all in Blythe's head? Her husband, Fox, says she is imagining things. Fox doesn't see what Blythe sees; he sees a wife who is struggling to cope with the day-to-day challenges of being a mother. And the more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity.... Then their son, Sam, is born - and with him, Blythe has the natural maternal connection she'd always dreamed of. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth about herself, her past, and her daughter. The Push is a rare and extraordinary gift to listeners: a novel about the expectations of motherhood we're taught not to challenge and what really happens behind the closed doors of even the most perfect-looking families. It's impossible to put down and impossible to forget.
©2021 Ashley Audrain (P)2021 Viking
The Fourth Monkey
Summary
Se7en meets The Silence of the Lambs in this dark and twisting novel from the author Jeffery Deaver called "a talented writer with a delightfully devious mind". For over five years, the Four Monkey Killer has terrorized the residents of Chicago. When his body is found, the police quickly realize he was on his way to deliver one final message, one that proves he has taken another victim, who may still be alive. As the lead investigator on the 4MK task force, Detective Sam Porter knows even in death, the killer is far from finished. When he discovers a personal diary in the jacket pocket of the body, Porter finds himself caught up in the mind of a psychopath, unraveling a twisted history in hopes of finding one last girl, all while struggling with personal demons of his own. With only a handful of clues, the elusive killer's identity remains a mystery. Time is running out, and the Four Monkey Killer taunts from beyond the grave in this masterfully written, fast-paced thriller.
©2017 J. D. Barker (P)2017 Recorded Books
The Fall
Summary
Elegantly styled, Camus' profoundly disturbing novel of a Parisian lawyer's confessions is a searing study of modern amorality. Born in Algeria in 1913, Albert Camus published The Stranger - now one of the most widely read novels of this century - in 1942. Celebrated in intellectual circles, Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957.
©1956, 1984 Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (P)2018 Recorded Books
Speaks the Nightbird
Summary
Audie Award Nominee, Fiction, 2013 Judgment of the WitchThe Carolinas, 1699: The citizens of Fount Royal believe a witch has cursed their town with inexplicable tragedies - and they demand that beautiful widow Rachel Howarth be tried and executed for witchcraft. Presiding over the trial is traveling magistrate Issac Woodward, aided by his astute young clerk, Matthew Corbett. Believing in Rachel's innocence, Matthew will soon confront the true evil at work in Fount Royal....Evil UnveiledAfter hearing damning testimony, magistrate Woodward sentences the accused witch to death by burning. Desperate to exonerate the woman he has come to love, Matthew begins his own investigation among the townspeople. Piecing together the truth, he has no choice but to vanquish a force more malevolent than witchcraft in order to save his beloved Rachel - and free Fount Royal from the menace claiming innocent lives.
©2002 Robert McCammon (P)2012 Audible, Inc.