Richard & Judy
Talking Books
The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the
RNIB National Library Talking Book Service.
Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan. When you return a title,
you will then receive another one.
If you would like to read any of these titles then please contact the Customer Services
Team on 0303 123 9999 or email cservices@rnib.org.uk
If you would like further information, or help in selecting titles to read, then please
contact the Reader Services Team on 01733 37 53 33 or email
libraryinfo@rnib.org.uk
You can write to us at RNIB NLS, PO Box 173, Peterborough
PE2 6WS
Fiction
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
Half of a yellow sun. 2007. Read by Joy Elias-Rilwan, 20 hours 10 minutes. TB
14989.
In 1960s Nigeria, a country blighted by civil war, three lives intersect. Ugwu, a boy
from a poor village, works as a houseboy for a university lecturer. Olanna, a young
woman, has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos, to live with her charismatic new
lover, the professor. The third is Richard, a shy Englishman in thrall to Olanna's
enigmatic twin sister. When the shocking horror of the war engulfs them, their
loyalties are severely tested as they are pulled apart and thrown together in ways that
none of them imagined. Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 14989.
Ahern, Cecelia
PS, I love you. 2004. Read by Brett O'Brien, 12 hours. TB 13749.
Holly, a young Irish widow who must put her life back together after she loses her
husband Gerry to a brain tumour. Three months after his death, Holly emerges from
her house to retrieve a mysterious package from her mother. When Holly opens it up,
she finds that Gerry has left her a letter for each month of the year following his death,
each instructing Holly to do something to help her heal. Contains strong language.
TB 13749.
Ali, Monica
Brick Lane. 2003. Read by Tania Rodriguez, 18 hours 21 minutes. TB 13604.
Keeping house and rearing children, Nazneen does what is expected of her. Into that
fragile peace walks Karim, raising questions of longing and belonging that open her
eyes to surprising truths. While Nazneen struggles in Tower Hamlets, her sister
Hasina has her own dreams back home in Bangladesh. TB 13604.
Bourne, Sam
The righteous men. 2006. Read by Glynne Steele, 12 hours 51 minutes. TB
14786.
Two murders at opposite ends of America. Then a series of killings in every corner of
the globe. Will Monroe, a young, British-born reporter on The New York Times, feels
there can’t possibly be a connection between the events. Until the morning his
beautiful wife Beth is kidnapped. Desperate, Will follows a trail that leads to a
mysterious sect right on his own doorstep. TB 14786.
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Boyd, William
Restless. 2007. Read by Beth Chalmers, 11 hours 20 minutes. TB 14908.
It is 1939. Eva Delectorskaya is a beautiful 28-year-old Russian émigré living in Paris.
As war breaks out she is recruited for the British Secret Service by Lucas Romer, a
mysterious Englishman, and under his tutelage she learns to become the perfect spy,
to mask her emotions and to trust nobody. Now years later she must complete one
final assignment and this time she needs her daughter Ruth's help. Contains strong
language. TB 14908.
Bradley, James
The resurrectionist. 2008. Read by Jonathan Oliver, 9 hours 44 minutes. TB
16014.
This book is set in London, 1826. Leaving behind his father's tragic failures, Gabriel
Swift arrives to study with Edwin Poll, the greatest of the city's anatomists. It is his
chance to find advancement by making a name for himself. But instead he finds
himself drawn to his master's nemesis, Lucan, the most powerful of the city's
resurrectionists and ruler of its trade in stolen bodies. Dismissed by Mr Poll, Gabriel
descends into the violence and corruption of London's underworld, a place where
everything and everyone is for sale, and where - as Gabriel discovers - the taking of a
life is easier than it might seem. Contains violence. TB 16014.
Brodrick, William
The sixth lamentation: a novel. 2003. Read by Michael Tudor Barnes, 13 hours
50 minutes. TB 14018.
What should you do if the world has turned against you? When Father Anselm is
asked this question by an old man at Larkwood Priory, his response, to claim
sanctuary, is to have greater resonance than he could ever have imagined. For that
evening the old man returns, demanding the protection of the church. His name is
Eduard Schwermann and he is wanted by the police as a suspected war criminal.
With her life running out, Agnes Aubret feels it is time to unburden to her
granddaughter Lucy the secrets she has been carrying for so long. Fifty years earlier,
Agnes had been living in Occupied Paris, a member of a small group risking their
lives to smuggle Jewish children to safety - until they were exposed by a young SS
Officer: Eduard Schwermann. As Anselm attempts to uncover Schwermann's past,
and as Lucy's search into her grandmother's history continues, their investigations
dovetail to reveal a remarkable story. TB 14018.
Capella, Anthony
The food of love. 2005. Read by Daniel Philpott, 9 hours 45 minutes. TB 14291.
Laura Patterson is studying art history in Rome. She's decided that from now on she'll
only go out with a man who can cook. Tommaso Massi, handsome and silver
tongued, tells Laura that he's a chef at one of Italy's best restaurants. In fact, he's just
a humble waiter. His best friend, Bruno, who really is a chef - a brilliant one - is called
3
upon to help. But when he also falls for Laura the sparks begin to fly. Contains
passages of a sexual nature. TB 14291.
Cartwright, Justin
The promise of happiness. 2004. Read by Charlotte Strevens, 11 hours 40
minutes. TB 13995.
The Judds, formerly of London N1, now scattered, are about to be thrown together
again by the eldest child Juliet's release from prison in New York. The family is
devastated by Juliet's conviction for art theft. This is an elegy to the idiocies and
intimacies of family love, this is the captivating story of an apparently ordinary English
family caught up in uncontrollable events, united again, as much by apprehension as
celebration on the return of the prodigal daughter. Contains strong language. TB
13995.
Cezair-Thompson, Margaret
The pirate's daughter. 2008. Read by Inika Leigh-Wright, 16 hours 40 minutes.
TB 16010.
An unforgettable story of love and adventure, spanning three decades of Jamaican
history. A tale of passion and recklessness, of two generations of women and their
battles for love and survival, and of a nation struggling to rise to the challenge of hardwon independence. TB 16010.
Cole, Martina
The know. 2003. Read by Di Langford, 13 hours 44 minutes. TB 13649.
Joanie Brewer's children mean the world to her. She'd do anything to make sure
they're fed and clothed - even if it means going on the game - and she lives in
constant fear that one of them will be taken from her. Eighteen-year-old Jon is kneedeep in crime, and Jeanette, only fourteen, knows more than is good for her. But it's
her eleven-year-old daughter Kira who is the most vulnerable to danger. Then Kira
disappears and Joanie's darkest fears are realised. She thinks she knows what's
happened to her little girl, and her obsession to uncover the truth threatens to destroy
them all. Contains strong language. TB 13649.
Davies, Martin
The conjuror's bird. 2005. Read by Crawford Logan, 10 hours 10 minutes. TB
14501.
Despite being the leading expert in his field, Fitz has never really fulfilled his potential,
never written the great book on extinct species that everyone expected from him
when he was starting out. Suddenly, a figure from those days reappears in his life.
The beautiful Gabby wants him to help find something that vanished over two
hundred years ago from the collection of the pioneering naturalist Joseph Banks: a
specimen known as The Mysterious Bird of Ulieta. TB 14501.
4
Davies, Peter Ho
The Welsh girl. 2007. Read by Charlotte Stevens, 12 hours 2 minutes. TB 15662.
It is Wales 1944 and Captain Rotheram, a Jewish refugee working for British
Intelligence, arrives to interrogate the infamous captive, Rudolf Hess. In a prison
camp near a remote Snowdonian village, a young German soldier wrestles with the
shame of his surrender. And among the curious locals is seventeen-year-old Esther
Evans, who longs to experience the wider world. When their paths connect, all three
will come to question their deepest loyalties, as the war irrevocably alters the course
of their lives. Contains strong language. TB 15662.
Donnelly, Jennifer
A gathering light. 2004. Read by Regina Reagan, 9 hours 46 minutes. TB 13748.
When Mattie is given the letters by a guest at the hotel in which she has a summer
job she thinks that the giver is simply upset. But the next day when the woman is
found drowned in Big Moose Lake Mattie has to decide if she will read the letters, or
burn them as the woman requested. But Mattie has problems enough of her own as
she is growing up and trying to decide on her future. Her desire to be a writer and her
dreams of life outside the small rural community in which she has always lived are
beginning to overwhelm her. Will Mattie make it away from home? Will she leave the
family and boyfriend who both love and smother her? Will she be like her friend and
settle to married life or like her other friend and mentor the poet Ms Wilcox. Slowly the
two stories merge to one amazing conclusion as Mattie finds the courage to make
very important decisions. TB 13748.
Edwards, Kim
The memory keeper's daughter. 2007. Read by Lachele Carl, 15 hours 49
minutes. TB 15811.
It should have been an ordinary birth, the start of an ordinary happy family. But the
night Dr David Henry delivers his wife's twins is a night that will haunt five lives for
ever. For though David's son is a healthy boy, his daughter has Down's syndrome.
And, in a shocking act of betrayal whose consequences only time will reveal, he tells
his wife their daughter died while secretly entrusting her care to a nurse. TB 15811.
Ferris, Joshua
Then we came to the end: a novel. 2008. Read by Jeff Harding, 13 hours 18
minutes. TB 15659.
They spend their days - and too many of their nights - at work. Away from friends and
family, they share a stretch of stained carpet with a group of strangers they call
colleagues. There's Chris Yop, clinging to his ergonomic chair; Lynn Mason, the boss,
whose breast cancer everyone pretends not to talk about; Carl Garbedian, secretly
taking someone else's medication; Marcia Dwyer, whose hair is stuck in the eighties;
and Benny, who's just - well, just Benny. Amidst the boredom, redundancies, water
cooler moments, meetings, flirtations and pure rage, life is happening, to their great
5
surprise, all around them. This book is about sitting all morning next to someone you
cross the road to avoid at lunch. It's the story of life. Contains strong language. TB
15659.
Fowler, Karen Joy
The Jane Austen book club. 2004. Read by Liza Ross, 8 hours 33 minutes. TB
14015.
In California's Central Valley, six people meet once a month to discuss Jane Austen's
novels. They are ordinary people, neither happy nor unhappy, but each of them is
wounded in different ways, they are all mixed up about their lives and relationships.
Over the six months they meet, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable
arrangements become suitable, under the guiding eye of Jane Austen a couple of
them even fall in love? Contains strong language. TB 14015.
Gale, Patrick
Notes from an exhibition. 2008. Read by Steven Pacey, 10 hours 59 minutes. TB
15885.
Gifted artist Rachel Kelly is a whirlwind of creative highs and anguished, crippling
lows. She's also something of an enigma to her husband and four children. So when
she is found dead in her Penzance studio, leaving behind some extraordinary new
paintings, there's a painful need for answers. Her Quaker husband appeals for
information on the internet. The fragments of a shattered life slowly come to light, and
it becomes clear that bohemian Rachel has left her children not only a gift for art - but
also her haunting demons. Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 15885.
Gregson, Julia
East of the sun. 2008. Read by Lucy Scott, 17 hours 15 minutes. TB 15983.
Autumn 1928. Three young women are on their way to India, each with a new life in
mind. Rose, a beautiful but naive bride-to-be, is anxious about leaving her family and
marrying a man she hardly knows. Victoria, her bridesmaid couldn't be happier to get
away from her overbearing mother, and is determined to find herself a husband. And
Viva, their inexperienced chaperone, is in search of the India of her childhood, ghosts
from the past and freedom. Each of them has their own reason for leaving their
homeland but the hopes and secrets they carry can do little to prepare them for what
lies ahead in India. TB 15983.
Hart, John
Down river. 2008. Read by Peter Brooke, 11 hours 12 minutes. TB 15978.
Adam Chase has spent the last five years in New York trying to forget. When he left
North Carolina, Adam left for good. Now he has no choice but to return - and being
remembered as a murderer doesn't help. Within hours of arriving, Adam is beaten up,
accosted and has to face the hostility of those closest to him, including Grace, the
young woman he cannot forget. And then people start turning up dead. Adam
6
becomes the prime suspect for the new murders and he alone can clear his name.
Contains strong language. TB 15978.
Heller, Zoe
Notes on a scandal. 2003. Read by Diana Bishop, 7 hours 46 minutes. TB 13678.
When Sheba Hart joins St George's as the new pottery teacher, lonely Barbara
Covett senses that she has found a kindred spirit. But Barbara is not the only one
drawn to Sheba. Before long Sheba is involved in an illicit affair with a pupil. Barbara
is powerless to stop Sheba from pursuing her foolhardy course of action. But when
the liaison is found out and Sheba's marriage falls apart, Barbara is loyally standing
by, ready to provide succour. Contains strong language. TB 13678.
Homes, A M
This book will save your life. 2006. Read by Garrick Hagon, 12 hours 41
minutes. TB 15058.
This story, sets in Los Angeles, is about one man's effort to bring himself back to life.
Richard is a modern day everyman; a middle-aged divorcee trading stocks out of his
home. He has done such a good job getting his life under control that he needs no
one. His life has slowed almost to a standstill, until two incidents conspire to hurl him
back into the world. Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 15058.
Hyde, Catherine Ryan
Love in the present tense. 2007. Read by John Chancer, Laurence Bouvard and
Peter Brooke, 7 hours 3 minutes. TB 15075.
For five years Pearl has managed to stop the past from catching up with her and her
bright, frail five-year-old son. Life has given her every reason to mistrust people, but
circumstances force her to trust her neighbour Mitch with watching Leonard while she
goes off to work. Then one day Pearl drops her son off and never returns. Contains
strong language. TB 15075.
Jones, Sadie
The outcast. 2008. Read by Richard Teverson, 11 hours 3 minutes. TB 15980.
This book is about a boy called Lewis - his childhood and adolescence as he grows
up in the stultifying world of the home counties in the late forties and fifties. It is an
everyday tale of drunkenness, violence and a fair amount of sex, set amongst the
well-brought-up professional classes. It is also a love story. Contains strong
language. TB 15980.
Jordan, Toni
Addition. 2008. Read by Sarah Kants, 7 hours 28 minutes. TB 15977.
Grace Lisa Vandenburg counts. The letters in her name (19). The steps she takes
every morning to the local cafe (920). Grace counts everything, because that way
there are no unpleasant surprises. Seamus Joseph O'Reilly (also a 19) thinks she
7
might be better off without the counting. If she could hold down a job, say. Or open
her cupboards without conducting an inventory, or leave her flat without measuring
the walls. As Grace struggles to balance a new relationship with old habits, to find a
way to change while staying true to herself, she realises that nothing is more chaotic
than love. Contains strong language. TB 15977.
Kernick, Simon
Relentless. 2007. Read by Mark Elstob, 9 hours 19 minutes. TB 15693.
John Meron, a happily married father of two who's never been in trouble, receives a
phone call that will change his life for ever: his friend Jack Calley, a high-flying City
lawyer, is screaming down the phone for help. As Meron listens, Calley is murdered.
His last words, spoken to his killer, are the first two lines of Meron's address. Contains
strong language. TB 15693.
Koomson, Dorothy
My best friend's girl. 2006. Read by Candida Gubbins, 14 hours 21 minutes. TB
16020.
What would you do for the friend who broke your heart? Best friends Kamryn Matika
and Adele Brannon thought nothing could come between them - until Adele did the
unthinkable and slept with Kamryn's fiance, Nate. Worse still, she got pregnant and
had his child. When Kamryn discovered the truth about their betrayal she vowed
never to see any of them again. Two years later, Kamryn receives a letter from Adele
asking her to visit her in hospital. Adele is dying and begs Kamryn to adopt her
daughter, Tegan. Contains strong language. TB 16020.
Kostova, Elizabeth
The historian: a novel . 2005. Read by Liza Ross, 26 hours 48 minutes. TB
14907.
Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book
and a cache of yellowing letters addressed ominously to 'My dear and unfortunate
successor'. Her discovery plunges her into a world she never dreamed of - a labyrinth
where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an
evil hidden in the depths of history. TB 14907.
Lansens, Lori
The girls: a novel . 2006. Read by Barbara Barnes, 12 hours 52 minutes. TB
15065.
Rose and Ruby Darlen are closer than most twin sisters. Indeed, they have spent
their twenty-nine years on earth joined at the head. Given that they share a web of
essential veins, there is no possibility that they can be separated in their lifetime.
Contains strong language. TB 15065.
8
Lawson, Mary
The other side of the bridge. 2007. Read by Simon Lee Phillips, 10 hours 54
minutes. TB 15937.
Arthur and Jake are brothers, yet worlds apart. Arthur is older, shy, dutiful, and set to
inherit his father's farm. Jake is younger and reckless, a dangerous man to know.
When Laura arrives in their 1930s rural community, am already uneasy relationship is
driven to breaking point. Contains strong language. TB 15937.
Meloy, Maile
Liars and saints. 2004. Read by Regina Reagan, 9 hours 29 minutes. TB 13751.
Yvette Santerre had met the photographer on the beach as her children played. He
had offered to take their picture for her husband, away at war. When he arrives at her
house with his camera, the last thing she had expected was that he would try to kiss
her. But his kiss will haunt her family for generations. Set in California, the narrative
follows four generations of the Santerre family from World War II to the present, as
they navigate a succession of life-changing events. Contains strong language. TB
13751.
Mills, Mark
The savage garden. 2007. Read by Daniel Philpott, 9 hours 42 minutes. TB
15658.
Behind a villa in the heart of Tuscany lies a Renaissance garden of enchanting
beauty. Its grottoes, pagan statues and classical inscriptions seem to have a secret
life of their own and a secret message, too, for those with eyes to read it. Young
scholar Adam Strickland is just such a person. Arriving in 1958, he finds the Docci
family, their house and the unique garden as seductive as each other. But post-War
Italy is still a strange, even dangerous place, and the Doccis have some dark
skeletons hidden away which Adam finds himself compelled to investigate. Contains
strong language. TB 15658.
Min, Anchee
Empress Orchid. 2005. Read by Di Langford, 15 hours 36 minutes. TB 15339.
To rescue her family from poverty and avoid marrying her slope-shouldered cousin,
seventeen-year-old Orchid competes to be one of the Emperor's wives. When she is
chosen as a lower-ranking concubine she enters the erotically charged and ritualised
Forbidden City. Orchid trains herself in the art of pleasuring a man, bribes her way
into the royal bed, and seduces the monarch, drawing the attention of dangerous
foes. Little does she know that China will collapse around her, and that she will be the
last Empress. Unsuitable for family reading. TB 15339.
9
Mitchell, David
Cloud atlas. 2004. Read by Various Narrators, 21 hours 30 minutes. TB 13891.
A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific Ocean in 1850; a disinherited composer
blagging a precarious livelihood in Belgium between the First and Second World
Wars; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan's California; a vanity publisher
fleeing his gangland creditors; the testament of a genetically modified 'dinery server'
on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science
and civilisation - the narrators of Cloud Atlas hear each other's echoes down the
corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small. Contains
strong language. TB 13891.
Morton, Kate
The house at Riverton. 2007. Read by Elizabeth Proud, 18 hours 6 minutes. TB
15522.
Summer 1924: On the eve of a glittering Society party, by the lake of a grand English
country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and
Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again. Winter 1999: Grace Bradley,
98, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a
film about the poet's suicide. Ghosts awaken and memories, long-consigned to the
dark reaches of Grace's mind, begin to sneak back through the cracks. A shocking
secret threatens to emerge; something history has forgotten but Grace never could.
TB 15522.
Mosse, Kate
Labyrinth. 2006. Read by Rachel Atkins, 20 hours 4 minutes. TB 14559.
July 1209: in Carcassonne a seventeen-year-old girl is given a mysterious book by
her father which he claims contains the secret of the true grail. Although Aläis cannot
understand the strange words and symbols hidden within, she knows her destiny lies
in keeping the secret of the labyrinth safe. July 2005: Alice Tanner discovers two
skeletons in a forgotten cave in the French Pyrenees. Puzzled by the labyrinth symbol
carved into the rock, she realises she's disturbed something that was meant to remain
hidden. Somehow, a link to a horrific past - her past - has been revealed. Contains
passages of a sexual nature. TB 14559.
Nicholls, David
Starter for ten. 2003. Read by Peter Kenny, 10 hours. TB 13695.
It's 1985 and Brian Jackson has arrived at university with a burning ambition - to
make it onto TV's foremost general knowledge quiz. But no sooner has he embarked
on 'The Challenge' than he finds himself falling hopelessly in love with his teammate,
the beautiful and charismatic would-be-actress Alice Harbinson. When Alice fails to
fall for his slightly over-eager charms, Brian comes up with a foolproof plan to capture
her heart once and for all. He's going to win the game, at any cost, because - after all
10
- everyone knows that a woman really wants from a man is a comprehensive grasp of
general knowledge. Contains strong language. TB 13695.
Niffenegger, Audrey
The time traveler's wife. 2005. Read by Russell Bentley and Sarah Mennell, 17
hours 58 minutes. TB 13998.
This novel is the story of Clare and Henry who have known each other since Clare
was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and
Henry thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed
with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds
himself pulled suddenly into his past or future. His disappearances are spontaneous
and his experiences are alternately harrowing and amusing. The Time Traveler's Wife
depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's passionate love for each other
with grace and humour. Their struggle to lead normal lives in the face of a force they
can neither prevent nor control is intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.
Contains strong language. TB 13998.
O'Connor, Joseph
Star of the sea: farewell to old Ireland. 2003. Read by Various Narrators, 16
hours 34 minutes. TB 13758.
In the bitter winter of 1847, from an Ireland torn by injustice and natural disaster, the
Star of the Sea sets sail for New York. On board are hundreds of fleeing refugees.
Among them are a maidservant with a devastating secret, bankrupt Lord Merridith
and his family, an aspiring novelist, a maker of revolutionary ballads, all braving the
Atlantic in search of a new home. All are connected more deeply than can possibly
know, but a camouflaged killer is stalking the desks, hungry for the vengeance that
will bring absolution. Contains strong language. TB 13758.
Picoult, Jodi
My sister's keeper. 2004. Read by Various Narrators, 13 hours 11 minutes. TB
14020.
By age thirteen, Anna has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and
injections so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has
plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna
was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate - a life and a role that she has never
challenged ... until now. Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a
decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the
sister she loves. TB 14020.
11
Pollen, Bella
Hunting unicorns. 2004. Read by Christopher Oxford and Laurel Lefkow, 8
hours 53 minutes. TB 13750.
American Maggie Monroe is a journalist for New York's hard-hitting current affairs
show Newsline. Independent and fearless, the more cutting-edge the story, the
happier she is. But when her next assignment turns out to be an in-depth
documentary on the decline of England's ruling classes, she's furious at being sent to
cover a bloody tea party. This unlikely romantic comedy paints an endearing portrait
of a family, which like so many others, holds itself together despite its evident frailties.
Contains strong language. TB 13750.
Richards, Ben
The mermaid and the drunks. 2004. Read by Joan Walker, 9 hours 23 minutes.
TB 13753.
Fresia, the daughter of Chilean exiles, leaves London following the suicide of her
father to embark on a journey of self-discovery in her mother country. The legacy of
Pinochet provides the backdrop to this novel which examines nationality, roots,
friendship, loyalty and love. Contains strong language. TB 13753.
Robertson, James
The testament of Gideon Mack. 2007. Read by Hugh Ross, 14 hours 43 minutes.
TB 15017.
For Gideon Mack, faithless minister, unfaithful husband and troubled soul, the
existence of God, let alone the Devil, is no more credible than that of ghosts or fairies.
Until the day he falls into a gorge and is rescued by someone who might just be Satan
himself. His testament recounts one man's emotional crisis, disappearance,
resurrection and death. Contains strong language. TB 15017.
Rubenfeld, Jed
The interpretation of murder. 2006. Read by Jeff Harding, 14 hours 33 minutes.
TB 14977.
This novel is inspired by Sigmund Freud's 1909 visit to America, accompanied by
protege and rival Carl Jung. When a wealthy young debutante is discovered bound,
whipped and strangled in a luxurious apartment overlooking the city, the mayor of
New York calls upon Freud to use his revolutionary new ideas to solve the crime.
Contains strong language. TB 14977.
Ruiz Zafon, Carlos
The shadow of the wind. 2004. Read by Nigel Graham, 20 hours 1 minute. TB
14016.
Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the 'cemetery of lost books', a
labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. To
this library, a man brings his 10-year-old son Daniel one cold morning in 1945. Daniel
12
is allowed to choose one book from the shelves and pulls out 'La Sombra del Viento'
by Julian Carax. But as he grows up, several people seem inordinately interested in
his find. Then, one night, Daniel is approached by a figure who reminds him of a
character from La Sombra del Viento, a character who turns out to be the devil and he
is tracking down every last copy of Carax's work in order to burn them. Contains
strong language. TB 14016.
Scheinmann, Danny
Random acts of heroic love. 2008. Read by Steve Hodson, 12 hours 48 minutes.
TB 15660.
1992: Leo Deakin wakes up in a hospital somewhere in South America, his girlfriend
Eleni is dead and Leo doesn't know where he is or how Eleni died. He blames himself
for the tragedy and is sucked into a spiral of despair. But Leo is about to discover
something which will change his life forever. 1917: Moritz Daniecki is a fugitive from a
Siberian POW camp. Seven thousand kilometres over the Russian Steppes separate
him from his village and his sweetheart, whose memory has kept him alive through
carnage and captivity. The Great War may be over, but Moritz now faces a perilous
journey across a continent riven by civil war. Contains strong language. TB 15660.
Sebold, Alice
The lovely bones. 2003. Read by Regina Reagan, 10 hours 52 minutes. TB
13540.
Watching from her place in heaven, Susie sees her happy, suburban family
devastated by her death, isolated even from one another as they each try to cope with
their terrible loss alone. Over the years, her friends and siblings grow up, fall in love,
do all the things she never had the chance to do herself. But life is not quite finished
with Susie yet... Contains strong language. TB 13540.
Slouka, Mark
The visible world. 2008. Read by Garrick Hagon, 8 hours 48 minutes. TB 15665.
The narrator of The Visible World, the American-born son of Czech immigrants living
in New York, grows up in an atmosphere haunted by fragments of a past he cannot
understand. It is only as an adult, when he makes his own journey to Prague, that he
is finally able to piece together the truth of his parents' past: what they did, who his
mother loved, and why they were never able to forget. TB 15665.
Taylor, Andrew
The American boy. 2004. Read by Alex Jennings, 16 hours 50 minutes. TB
13683.
Edgar Allan Poe is the American boy, a child standing on the edge of mysteries. In
1819 two Americans arrive in London, soon afterwards a bank collapses. A man is
found dead and horribly mutilated on a building site. A heiress flirts with her inferiors.
A poor schoolmaster struggles to understand what is happening before it destroys
13
him and those he loves. But the truth, like the youthful Poe himself, has its origins in
the new world as well as the old. Contains violence. TB 13683.
Tracy, P J
Want to play? 2003. Read by Laurence Bouvard, 11 hours 59 minutes. TB
13752.
Magozzi & Grace MacBride series; book 1. In this electrifying debut, the slaying of an
old couple in small town America looks like one-off act of brutal retribution. But at the
same time, in Minneapolis, teams of detectives scramble to stop a sickeningly
inventive serial killer striking again in a city paralysed by fear. When the two separate
investigations converge on an isolated catholic boarding school, decades old secrets
begin to fall away. It seems an old killer has resurfaced. Yet still the killer's real
identity remains dangerously out of reach ... Contains strong language. TB 13752.
Trigiani, Adriana
Lucia, Lucia. 2003. Read by Laurence Bouvard, 9 hours 36 minutes. TB 13645.
Lucia Sartori is the beautiful daughter of a fine Italian immigrant family living in
Greenwich Village, New York, in 1950. Fuelled by the post-war boom, in which
ambitious girls are encouraged to follow their dreams, Lucia becomes an apprentice
for a clothing designer at a chic department store on Fifth Avenue. Though she is
sought after as a potential wife by the best Italian families, Lucia is determined to
have a career. When a handsome stranger catches her eye, it is love at first sight for
both of them. In order to win Lucia's hand, he must first win over her traditional family
and make the proper offer of marriage. Their love affair takes an unexpected turn as
secrets are revealed, Lucia's family honour is tested, and her own reputation
becomes the centre of a sizzling scandal. TB 13645.
Non Fiction
Benson, Richard
The farm. 2006. Read by Richard Stacey, 6 hours. TB 14777.
After 200 years of farming in Yorkshire, the Benson family was forced to sell up. They
found, like so many, that the land could no longer support them. While the farming
way of life never came naturally to Richard Benson - a point that sent him running to
London - he still feels his parents' loss and returns to do what he can to help. TB
14777.
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Butcher, Tim
Blood river: a journey to Africa's broken heart. 2008. Read by Greg Wagland, 11
hours 44 minutes. TB 15661.
Ever since Stanley first charted its mighty river in the 1870s, the Congo has
epitomised the dark and turbulent history of a failed continent. However, its troubles
only served to increase the interest of "Daily Telegraph" correspondent Tim Butcher,
who was sent to cover Africa in 2000. Butcher retraced Stanley's steps and this is
what he found. Contains strong language. TB 15661.
Byrne, Paula
Perdita: the life of Mary Robinson. 2004. Read by Diana Bishop, 16 hours 24
minutes. TB 14019.
The text examines the life of one of the most flamboyant women of the late-eighteenth
century. Mary Robinson's life was marked by reversals of fortune. After being raised
by a middle-class father, Mary was married at the age of fourteen to Thomas
Robinson. His dissipated lifestyle landed the couple and their baby in the debtors'
prison. Here Mary wrote her first book of poetry and met lifelong friend Georgiana, the
Duchess of Devonshire. On her release, Mary became one of the most popular
actresses of the day, famously playing Perdita in The Winter's Tale for a rapt
audience that included the Prince of Wales, who fell madly in love with her. TB
14019.
Heath, Chris
Feel: Robbie Williams. 2004. Read by David Thorpe, 20 hours 17 minutes. TB
14017.
A documentary book on Robbie Williams. The text explores nature of fame, ambition
and talent and tells a very surreal tale of an ordinary young man thrust into a most
peculiar world. Contains strong language. TB 14017.
Jones, Griff Rhys
Semi-detached. 2007. Read by Richard Derrington, 11 hours 33 minutes. TB
15064.
Semi-detached is Griff Rhys Jones own account of his ordinary suburban childhood;
of adolescent scraps and scrapes; of coming of age in the 1960's and 70's; of family
and university life; and at times lost or at least fuzzy around the edges. Contains
strong language. TB 15064.
Palin, Michael
Diaries 1969-1979: the Python years. 2006. Read by Raymond Sawyer, 32 hours
17 minutes. TB 15068.
Michael Palin's diaries reveals how the Python emerged and triumphed, how he, John
Cleese, Graham Chapman, the two Terrys - Jones and Gilliam - and Eric Idle, came
together and changed the face of British comedy. But this is but only part of Palin's
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story. Here is his growing family, his home in a north London Victorian terrace, which
grows as he buys the house next door and then a second at the bottom of the garden;
here, too, is his solo effort - as an actor, in Three Men in a Boat, his writing
endeavours (often in partnership with Terry Jones) that produces Ripping Yarns and
even a pantomime. TB 15068.
Seierstad, Asne
The bookseller of Kabul. 2003. Read by Erica Grant, 8 hours 52 minutes. TB
13677.
Two weeks after September 11th, award-winning journalist Asne Seierstad went to
Afghanistan to report on the conflict there. In the following spring she returned to live
with an Afghan family for several months. For more than 20 years Sultan Khan defied
the authorities - be they Communist or Taliban - in order to supply books to the
people of Kabul. He was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned by the Communists,
and watched illiterate Taliban soldiers burn piles of his books in the street. But while
Khan is passionate in his love of books and hatred of censorship, he is also a
committed Muslim with strict views on family life. TB 13677.
Slater, Nigel
Toast: the story of a boy's hunger. 2004. Read by Nigel Slater, 6 hours 2
minutes. TB 13641.
The book looks at the authors memories of childhood through food. Whether relating
his mother's ritual burning of the toast, his father's dreaded Boxing Day stew or such
culinary highlights of the day as Arctic Roll and Grilled Grapefruit (then considered
something of a status symbol in Wolverhampton), this memoir vividly recreates daily
life in sixties suburban England. Contains strong language. TB 14481.
Smith, Andrew
Moondust: in search of the men who fell to earth. 2005. Read by Steve Hodson,
16 hours 3 minutes. TB 14481.
In this book the author sets out to find and interview the remaining nine astronauts
who have walked on the moon in order to learn how their lives, and ours, were
changed for ever by this surreal adventure. Contains strong language. TB 14481.
If you have read a book you particularly enjoyed (or didn't enjoy) and want to share your tho
with other readers, visit the new RNIB Readers Forum at www.rnib.org.uk/readersforum and
your review on the Forum".
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