6 audiobook stories to inspire hope in 2021

Last spring, publishers raced to fast-track the release of Ontario writer Emma Donoghue’s novel, set in a Dublin maternity ward during the 1918 Great Flu. It’s quite an experience to learn about one pandemic while living through another. The narrator’s thick Irish brogue and the historical reminders that this took place a century ago made the story feel a comfortable distance away. Fear of contagion and the focus on a trio of caregivers – a nurse, and a doctor and volunteer – in a small supply room turned quarantine area is engrossingly familiar. In the end, you’ll be reassured by the light that comes after the darkness (and grateful our vaccinations are rolling out). More like this (but futuristic): Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.

It’s hard not to marvel at Trevor Noah’s journey from Johannesburg’s Soweto township to his job hosting The Daily Show, especially when it’s described in Noah’s own gorgeous accent. Born to a white European father and black Xhosa mother during South African apartheid, Noah spent much of his childhood hidden from a government that would deem his very existence proof of his parents’ illegal union. Peppered with hilarious impressions and often poignant storytelling about his mother’s spirited devotion, Noah shares his mischievous coming of age and observations of the many different cultures where he struggled to belong. More like this (but fictional): Hum if You Don’t Know the Words by Bianca Marais.

Adunni is an inquisitive 14-year-old girl living in rural Nigeria. When her mother dies, she loses the protection of the one adult committed to her education. Despite becoming the reluctant third wife of an old village man and later a servant to an abusive wealthy couple, Adunni never loses sight of her mother’s vision that she will one day have a voice, a powerful “louding voice” that will be heard even before she opens her mouth “to be talking.” Adunni’s spunky optimism and endearing fragmented English shine in this 2020 debut novel, spectacularly performed by accomplished British actress Adjoa Andoh. More like this (but nonfiction set in Liberia): The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir by Wayetu Moore.

Aboriginal Canadian actor Billy Merasty narrates this haunting post-apocalyptic novel set on a small northern Anishanabe reservation. Proudly traditional and relatively self-sufficient, the community plunges into utter isolation when the power and all avenues of communication go dark. As the blackout persists, Rice zooms in on the tribal leadership’s tensions as residents cope with the threat of hunger and the intrusion from foreigners escaping the chaos erupting in the nearest city. An unlikely hero emerges in Evan, a reservation-born maintenance worker who turns to hunting and Anishinabee traditions to survive. It’s a bleak but breathtaking story of resilience with a sequel expected in 2022, that resumes the tribe’s rebuilding a decade after the blackout.

Author-read memoirs give listeners a unique chance to walk in another’s shoes and learn about courage straight from the source. In 2016, an American collegiate swimmer was convicted for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. The day after he received a stunningly mild six-month sentence, the survivor, then 23 and known as Emily Doe, published the victim-impact statement she’d read in court. The piece went viral from Buzzfeed, reaching 11 million readers in 4 days. Three years later, Chanel Miller revealed her identity and experience in a raw and profound memoir, Know My Name. Her writing is unembellished, her reading is calm and deliberate, and her story – in the wake of the Me Too movement – is essential listening for us all. More like this (but about wrongful conviction), The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton.

From Victorian writer Esi Edugyan, this epic adventure follows the enslaved George Washington Black (“Wash”) in his search for freedom from the cane fields of Barbados to the Canadian Arctic, Europe and Morocco. The story is rooted in historical fiction with scenes set in Virginia and The Underground Railroad but takes off in fantasy, quite literally in a “Cloud-cutter” hot-air balloon as the escape vehicle from the plantation. Wash is enlisted to be manservant to Christopher Wilde “Titch,” his master’s brother and the flying machine creator and scientist who teaches Wash to read and unearth his natural talent for drawing. The rich narration (by Audible Hall of Famer Dion Graham) takes a listener into realms otherwise unimaginable, as both Wash and Titch wrestle with loss, abandonment and the brutal stain of slavery. You’ll find yourself cheering Wash on every step of the way. More like this (but no flying machine): The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.