Narrator Sunil Malhotra tackles the three "East" stories, and narrator Steven Crossley delivers the three "West" stories. Both share the "East, West" stories in separate narrations. With the challenge of delivering more accents and impersonations, Malhotra has, arguably, the harder assignment. But both successfully navigate these works, which move between Eastern and Western culture as well as the real and unreal. Stories as densely packed with references and inferences as these require close attention. Listeners may find themselves replaying passages to get their full flavor, but this is not a criticism. While these multicultural stories of isolation and companionship are not autobiographical, recalling that Rushdie wrote them while in hiding lends a certain intimacy to the listening experience. K.W. 2017 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2016
Duration: 4 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781501920639
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
A series of terrifying accounts of the macabre is brought to life through David Ledoux's splendid reading. Ledoux offers a straightforward approach, making Hill's startling tales as believable as they are frightening. As narrator, Ledoux understands these stories—be it the dazzlingly imaginative "Pop Art" or the tense "Best New Horror," in which the central character is a horror editor who finds himself entrapped in one of his stories. Hill is a master at creating a high-tension atmosphere that never ceases to pay off with a scare. This innate ability is perfectly realized by Ledoux, who knows precisely when to increase his tone and pitch, or let his voice accelerate to increase the stakes. Dark, brooding, and realistic, Ledoux's performance is underplayed where it could go over the top.
Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2007
Duration: 12 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9780061554667
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Ottessa Moshfegh, author of several audiobooks, one of which she narrates, steps in to deliver this new production of the late Leonard Cohen's early fiction, written in the 1950s. The 16 short stories and a novella are a snapshot of the period and the artist's development of his voice. Cohen focuses on themes of violence, deeply intimate sex, rejection, the betrayals of old age, and more violence. Moshfegh's voice may be unexpected, given Cohen's many first-person male characters, but, curiously, it works. Moshfegh meets the moments of sexual intimacy, and of shocking violence, straight on, conveying a reverence for these early works.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
Duration: 7 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781696609784
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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