Men in Love by Irvine Welsh: audiobook vs book, which should you choose?
Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie are off heroin and into the late 1980s in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting sequel. It edges to print for its rotating narrators, but the Scots on the page makes the audiobook a close second.
Read it on Kindle
Read Men in Love, but only just. The chapters rotate between first-person narrators from the group, with Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie at its heart, and Tam Dean Burn reads them all, so the page makes it easier to see whose chapter you are in. The audiobook has a real pull too: parts are written in phonetic Scots, which can be easier to hear than to read, and it helps with 544 pages.
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The audiobook at a glance
| Recording | UK edition, our verdict | US listing |
|---|---|---|
| Narrator | Tam Dean Burn | Tam Dean Burn |
| Length | 20 hours 8 minutes (20h 8m), unabridged | 20 hours 5 minutes (20h 5m) |
| At 1.5x | about 13h 25m | about 13h 23m |
| At 2x | about 10h 4m | about 10h 3m |
| Audio publisher and date | Vintage Digital (Penguin Audio), 24 July 2025 | Recorded Books, 7 July 2026 |
| Audiobook price | £15.24 on Audible UK | $31.58 on Audible US |
| Kindle price | £5.99 on Amazon UK | Not listed |
| Vintage paperback, 544 pages, 2026 | Pegasus Books, 2026, pages not listed | |
| Listener rating | Performance 4.42 from 204 ratings | Performance 5.0 from 3 ratings |
The UK Vintage Digital listing is the one scored. Audible US sells a Recorded Books listing with the same narrator and almost the same length, released a year later; we treat it as a US copy, though the listing doesn’t say whether it is the same recording.
No dramatised or abridged version was found. Ratings and prices checked 6 November 2026. Prices change often. US Kindle prices are left out, as Amazon only shows them to US visitors.
Lengths checked 6 November 2026. Speed times are calculated.
Men in Love
Irvine Welsh
- Genre
- Literary fiction
- Series
- Trainspotting sequel
- First published
- July 2025
- Length
- 544 pages (UK paperback)
- On audio
- 20 hrs 8 mins, Tam Dean Burn
On this page
Why we reached this verdict
Every book on this site is checked against the same thirteen questions. They are based on research into what most people find easier to follow in each format, not on whether the book is any good.
Checked, not a factor here (10)
Several first-person narrators read by one narrator (8) give reading 8 points, while the Scots dialect (3) and the book’s length (3) give listening 6. That puts it at 54%, a close call that edges to print.
Every book gets the same thirteen checks, set in advance. Verdicts are never paid for or influenced by affiliate links. Last edited 6 November 2026, and rechecked every year as editions and narrators change. Read the checks in full · Is listening the same as reading? See what the research says.
The recording in detail
- Scored
- Tam Dean Burn, Vintage Digital, 2025, 20h 8m, unabridged
- Critic review
- No critic review of this recording found
- Alternatives
- US Recorded Books listing, also Tam Dean Burn (20h 5m)
- What you miss
- Nothing. There’s no map, family tree or special layout
What this book actually is
Men in Love is Irvine Welsh’s sequel to Trainspotting, published by Jonathan Cape on 24 July 2025. It follows Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie in the late 1980s, at the end of the Thatcher years, after they have left heroin behind.
Critics are split, from the Scotsman’s “his paciest, funniest, most page-turning book in years” to the Spectator’s “tedious, lazy, pretentious and simply bad writing”. It includes graphic sex, strong language, drug use and the characters’ heroin past.
The case for reading it
The book is told in rotating first-person chapters, with Mark Renton the most frequent narrator and Sick Boy the second main thread (Kirkus). One reader voices them all in the audiobook, so print makes it easier to keep track of who is speaking when a new chapter starts.
At 544 pages it is a long book, and reading lets you set your own pace through the stretches of dialect.
The case for listening to it
Parts of the book are written in phonetic Scots. The Spectator quotes Spud: “she should pure huv the vocabulary tae express hersel withoot recourse tae foul language.” Lines like that can be slow to decode on the page and come naturally when a Scottish reader says them aloud.
Listeners rate Tam Dean Burn’s performance 4.42 on Audible UK, and the audiobook turns a book of well over 500 pages into a 20-hour listen for commutes and walks.
The audiobook in detail
Tam Dean Burn reads the whole book alone for Penguin Audio, released by Vintage Digital on 24 July 2025 and running 20 hours 8 minutes, unabridged. No PDF comes with it.
No critic has reviewed this recording yet. Kirkus praised his Scots performance on another Welsh audiobook, A Decent Ride, but that is a different book.
Who should ignore this verdict
The gap is small. If you know Welsh’s voice from Trainspotting and find phonetic Scots slow going on the page, the audiobook is a good choice. If you want to keep the rotating narrators straight, read it.
Kindle
- 544 pages (UK paperback)
- Keep the rotating narrators straight
- About 9 hours to read (our estimate)
Related verdicts
John of John
Scottish voices on the page.
The Heights
Set in Edinburgh.
Demon Copperhead
A long novel in a strong regional voice.
The Goldfinch
Drugs and male friendship at its heart.
A Little Life
A long novel about a group of male friends.
Shadow Ticket
Another new literary novel from 2025.
Start hereHow we decide
The thirteen questions behind every verdict on this site.
Questions people ask
Who narrates the Men in Love audiobook?
Tam Dean Burn reads the whole unabridged audiobook on his own, for Penguin Audio.
How long is the Men in Love audiobook?
20 hours 8 minutes. That is about 13 hours 25 minutes at 1.5x speed and 10 hours 4 minutes at 2x (calculated).
Is the Men in Love audiobook abridged?
No. The Audible UK edition is unabridged.
How many pages is Men in Love?
The UK Jonathan Cape hardback and the Vintage paperback both have 544 pages.
Is Men in Love a sequel to Trainspotting?
Yes. Audible’s listing calls it “The Sunday Times bestselling Trainspotting sequel”, and it follows Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie.
When is Men in Love set?
In the late 1980s, in the last years of the Thatcher era, as the 1990s approach (publisher summary).
Who tells the story in Men in Love?
The chapters rotate between first-person narrators from the group, with Mark Renton the most frequent (Guardian; Kirkus).
Is Men in Love written in Scots dialect?
In part, yes. The Spectator quotes Spud’s chapters in phonetic Scots, and the Wall Street Journal’s reviewer describes “working-class Scots vernacular”.
When did Men in Love come out in paperback?
The UK Vintage paperback was published on 4 June 2026 (Bookshop.org UK).
Should I read or listen to Men in Love?
Read, but only just. One narrator voices several first-person narrators across 544 pages, and print makes it easier to see whose chapter you are in. Listen if phonetic Scots is easier for you to hear than to read: the gap between the formats is small.
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