The Best of the Best: 2024 Audie Award Winners

Such a perfect choice for the highest honor because this audiobook, which took two years to produce, changes the definition of “audiobook.” Surrender is many things at once—a conversational memoir of a working-class Irish lad turned international rock star, a philosopher-musician’s thoughts about humanity’s flaws and possibilities, and a unique form of storytelling that integrates music as part of the fabric of the narration. Plus, author and narrator Bono makes you feel as if you’re chatting with a good friend. U2 fans will be particularly excited about the soundtrack, which includes reimagined versions of the band’s classics, but every listener will be mesmerized by this innovative way to tell a remarkable life story.

Earphones Award winning narrator Billie Fulford-Brown delivers an emotional performance in this heart-wrenching yet hopeful story, inspired by true events during World War II. Fulford-Brown’s narration ebbs and flows as the small lifeboat carrying children to Canada is tossed among the perilous waters.

This monumental and enlightening biography is supremely enhanced by Dion Graham, narrator of over 300 audiobooks and an AudioFile Golden Voice award, plus multiple Earphones and Audie Awards (including a second this year, Poverty, By America). Here, Graham is at the height of his powers portraying America’s recognized single greatest orator, as well as the many people who surround and inform King’s legacy. This isn’t just an audiobook—it’s a revelation, not only of the many facets of King but also of how a sensitive and intelligent audio interpretation can add meaning and understanding to an author’s words.

This is the riveting memoir of the one and only Sir Patrick Stewart, from his humble beginnings in northern England to worldwide acclaim on stage, screen, and film playing iconic characters. There are few audio experiences more enjoyable than listening to 18+ hours of Stewart’s transfixing voice as he tenderly, humbly, and honestly recounts all phases of his amazing life and the many people—both the unknown and very well-known—who have been part of it.

Continuing from last year’s win for Best Female Narrator of The Wheel of Time, Rosamund Pike brought home the Fantasy win again for The Dragon Reborn. Pike regales listeners with vivid and engaging narration of this timeless series.

Legendary actress Meryl Streep adds another Audie to her awards case, alongside her Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes, and other accolades for one of our Best Audiobooks of 2023. Her performance here is a gift to listeners who want to disappear into Ann Patchett’s sentimental family tale. When you’ve finished this book club favorite and you’re ready for more audiobooks narrated by Meryl Streep, find them here.

Based on the 2017 movie of the same name starring Margot Robbie and Domhnall Gleeson, this is the true story of the relationship between A.A. Milne, the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh, and his son, the real-life Christopher Robin, whose childhood toys inspired his father’s work. This new interpretation is in loving hands with Simon Vance, a highly regarded British actor, who is also one of the audiobook world’s most decorated narrators with over 15 Audie Awards. Vance beautifully captures the changing colors of the father-son dynamic as Christopher Robin does what Pooh, Eeyore, and Piglet never do—he grows up, and he learns to accept the mixed blessings of the characters of the Hundred Acre Wood.

In the foreword to this hysterical and heartwarming memoir, Chris Rock says, “There’s nobody like Leslie Jones. Leslie Jones is hilarious…” and he’s 100% correct. The time will fly by as you listen to Leslie’s stories—including five hours of bonus material not found in the print edition. And now this stand-up comedian and star of the big and small screen can add Audie Award Winner to her resume as well.

We love books about books, but we especially love a book that includes an audiobook as part of the plot. The whole story is a dynamic structure of 10 characters, each voiced by a different narrator, as their stories intertwine around a book within this world. This creates an engaging listening experience for No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister.

Audiobook superstar Eunice Wong (a finalist in three categories this year) brings Vera Wong and a large cast of characters to life in this fun and quirky cozy mystery from the bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties, Jesse Q. Stutanto.

No stranger to being behind the microphone, Mary Louise Kelly’s soothing voice reaches millions of listeners all the time as one of the hosts of NPR’s long running news radio program, All Things Considered. Here she reflects on being a working mother, her eldest son’s final year at home, losing her father, and other unexpected twists and turns in life in this must-listen, new classic.

Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, By America, asks profoundly serious questions: Why does the United States, the richest country on earth, have more poverty than any other advanced democracy? And what can we do to change this? The answers are complex, dealing with policies and ideologies that are not everyday parlance for most readers, but nonfiction narrator guru Dion Graham (who also won an Audie this year for King) brings clarity and understanding to Desmond’s analysis and intensity and urgency to the book’s key takeaway, which is that we should all become “poverty abolitionists.”

AudioFile Magazine gave this multi-cast work an Earphones Award, saying, “There’s no point in calling out individual actors since they are all wonderful with accents and emotions.” Recorded from a live performance by Los Angeles Theatre Works, this poignant production uses real-life remembrances to shed light on the little-known piece of Holocaust history of 20,000 European Jews escaping to China during the Second World War.

Writing partners Christina Lauren are self-proclaimed lovers of audiobooks. And if you’ve listened to them before, you’ll be familiar with Jonathan Cole (whose voice has appeared in five previous books by the duo), who brings documentary filmmaker Connor Prince to life while Cindy Kay (narrator of over 200 audiobooks—wow) brings novelist Felicity “Fizzy” Chen to life in this swoony romance.

Only available as an audiobook and only four hours long, this is a uniquely accessible study of Mary Oliver’s award-winning work and of the poet herself. Structured like a podcast and gracefully hosted by actress Sophia Bush, the chapters interweave poems with personal commentary by assorted guests who befriended Oliver, worked with her, or were taught by her. All were inspired by her. A special treat: Oliver, who died in 2019, reads some of the poems herself.

Adam Lazarre-White fully embodies Titus Crown, the first black sheriff from nowhere-near-here Virginia. Lazarre-White deftly shifts between different ages and races, even believably portraying Titus’ damaged larynx near the end. There is more to this story than just a crime thriller, and Lazarre-White delivers those racial tensions without overshadowing the main plot.

Narrator Gail Shalan expertly embodies all the turbulent emotions a teenager experiences when her father is diagnosed as HIV-positive in this moving piece of 1990s historical fiction. Shalan, who also is part of the cast of What Happened to Rachel Riley, the middle grade Audie winner this year, is extraordinarily relatable as an adolescent trailblazing a path through fear, worry, and the stigma that an AIDS diagnosis meant in that era, on top of all the standard drama that is high school.