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Contemporary fiction: read or listen?

Present-day novels about ordinary lives, and the narrators who read them.

See the verdicts Questions answered
The 17, at a glance
1 Read12 Listen4 Either
Listen67% confidence

A Man Called Ove

Fredrik Backman

One viewpoint, one narrator and an Earphones Award reading favour audio, along with Swedish names that listeners say audio helps with. Flashbacks woven between present-day chapters favour reading.

Audiobook
9h 13m
Narrated by
J.K. Simmons
Print
295 pages
Our pick: the audiobook
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About this shelf

Present-day novels about ordinary lives tend to be told by one person, in order, and that structure works best on audio. Eleanor Oliphant, The Midnight Library and The Hate U Give all score 100% for listening, the clear cut band, because one narrator tells one character's story and nothing in the printed book needs to be seen. Where a recording adds a full cast, as The Hotel Avocado and The Correspondent do, the result is the same.

The one read verdict here comes from structure rather than style. Theo of Golden moves its focus to a new townsperson in each portrait, all read by one narrator, and leans to reading at 65%. Normal People, My Friends and Tom Lake come out as either: for Normal People nothing could be confirmed on either side, and My Friends and Tom Lake each have points for audio and points for print. Me Before You leans to audio at 65% because of its length alone, and listening to a sample would help you decide. Holidays on Ice is either too: David Sedaris reads it himself, but it is mostly fiction, so the author-read memoir criterion does not apply.

Questions about contemporary fiction audiobooks

Which contemporary novels are the best audiobooks?

On our checks, The Wedding People, The Hate U Give and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine all score 100% for listening, tied with The Midnight Library, The Hotel Avocado and The Correspondent, with nothing confirmed pointing to print. The first three each have one narrator, a story told in order, and a recording that has won an award or had strong praise from critics.

Is Normal People better read or listened to?

Either works, on our checks (50%). Nothing could be confirmed on either side, so neither format is favoured. Sally Rooney heads each chapter with a time stamp and Aoife McMahon’s narration is well liked, so a sample is a fair way to decide.

Are celebrity narrators a reason to listen?

Only if a critic or award backs the performance. J.K. Simmons reading A Man Called Ove counts as a listen signal because the reviews are specific; a famous name on its own, as with Meryl Streep reading Tom Lake, does not count for any check.

Why is The Hate U Give on a contemporary fiction shelf?

Because the site has no young adult shelf yet. It is filed here as the nearest fit, alongside other first-person novels about family and identity, and its page says so.

What makes a contemporary novel a Read verdict?

Usually something in the printed book: dated chapters, letters and emails, or more points of view than a solo narrator can keep apart. Prose that reviewers praise sentence by sentence also counts. Humour, pace and a single point of view all point to audio.

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