Sean Barrett's performance of these 67 essays written by Henning Mankell between his diagnosis with lung cancer and his death faithfully encapsulates the Swedish author's sense of seriousness and social justice. Mankell ranges across his life, letting us glimpse childhood memories, his satisfaction with running a theater in Mozambique, embarrassment at asking a teenager dying of AIDS if she was afraid of death, and grave concern about the storage of nuclear waste in Finland for 100,000 years. Barrett's voice and tone expertly incorporate a vague sense of being European and of language translation. His timing and rhythm are so perfect that we can hear the melancholy and joy that shape Mankell's reflections. Mankell fears being dead for a long time. We, at least, have the large body of work he left behind to enjoy.
Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2017
Duration: 9 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781524756949
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Listeners looking to examine joy from a faith-based perspective will find much to reflect on.
In this audiobook, Bowler poses the question, "What is joy?" Narrating her own work, she muses on this theme, discussing finding joy in the ordinary, the role of emotions, recapturing past joy, and the way her faith has shaped her interpretation and experience of joy. Bowler’s narration is down to earth as she talks about her experience battling Stage 4 cancer shortly after her mother's death. She also tackles big ideas about duty and obligation, shared emotion, toxic positivity, how to convert faith into something concretely good, the secret of miracles, and taking risks to achieve joy.
Listeners looking to examine joy from a faith-based perspective will find much to reflect on.Pub Date: April 7, 2026
Duration: 5 hrs, 58 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217176564
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: April 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
This author-narrated audiobook blends memories and poems with some mind-bending moments--as Elizabeth Gilbert talks with her late lover and converses with God. A practiced speaker, Gilbert performs this excruciatingly honest work with passion and restraint. The memoir is about addiction and how Gilbert healed after the death of her friend, lover, global-traveling companion, and one-time hairdresser, Rayya, a "badass," streetwise recovering addict until not long before her death from cancer. Composed in fragments--stories, recollections, poems, aphorisms--that are connected by guitar bridges, it ends in the present. Gilbert describes herself as a "sex and love addict," and much of the text reveals her struggles. She's been in a 12-step program for five years, stayed celibate, stopped drinking and drugs, and has buzz cut her hair.
Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
Duration: 10 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217156726
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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