Have You Heard? Around the World

Visit countries around the world by exploring your library this summer.

Below you’ll find audiobook recommendations from the Plano Public Library. This is just a sample of the audiobooks in our collection, and you can visit a library location for assistance in finding personalized recommendations.

Adult:

The Survivors by Jane Harper, narrated by Stephen Shanahan. In Australia, Kieran Elliott’s life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences. When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge. A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away. Print / Playaway / Large print / eAudiobook / eBook.

The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova, narrated by Barrie Kreinik, with Fred Berman, Barbara Caruso, and George Guidall. Searching for the owners of a mysterious urn that’s fallen into her possession, a young American traveler takes a weeklong drive through Bulgaria guided by an enigmatic cabdriver. Print / Playaway / eBook.

Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition by Paul Watson, narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner. The epic story of the Lost Franklin Expedition of 1845, whose two ships and crew of 129 were lost to the Arctic ice, with the modern tale of the scientists, divers, and local Inuit behind the incredible discovery of the flagship’s wreck in 2014. Print / Playaway / Book on CD.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, narrated by Morven Christie. In Iceland, Agnes, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. But as Agnes’s death looms, the farmer’s wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they’ve heard. Print / Playaway / eBook.

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal, narrated by Deepti Gupta and Soneela Nankani. British-Punjabi sisters Rajni, Jezmeen and Shirina Shergill have never been close but when their mother died, she had only one request: that they take a pilgrimage across India to carry out her final rites. Print / Playaway / eBook.

The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan, narrated by Nancy Wu, Joyce Bean, and the author. Violet Minturn, a half-Chinese/half-American courtesan who deals in seduction and illusion in Shanghai, struggles to find her place in the world, while her mother, Lucia, tries to make sense of the choices she has made and the men who have shaped her. Print / Playaway / Book on CD / Large print / eBook.

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah, narrated by the author. Trevor Noah tells his wild coming of age story during the twilight of Apartheid in South Africa and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed. Print / Playaway / Book on CD / Teen edition / eBook.

Barkskins by Annie Proulx, narrated by Robert Petkoff. Barkskins opens in New France in the late 18th century as Rene Sel, an illiterate woodsman makes his way from Northern France to the homeland to seek a living. Print / Playaway.

Adam in Eden by Carlos Fuentos, narrated by Robert Fass. A respected Mexican businessman finds his idyllic life crumbling in the face of his wife’s infidelity with a corrupt director of national security, his brother-in-law’s worship of a child preacher, and his mistress’ break with reality. Translated from the Spanish. Playaway.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, narrated by Armando Durán. In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career, he whiles away the years in 622 affairs yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Translated from the Spanish. Print / Playaway / Spanish / Spanish eBook / eAudiobook / eBook.

Teen:

The Lines we Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah, narrated by Tim Pocock and Candice Moll. In Australia, Michael’s parents are leaders of a new anti-immigrant political party called Aussie Values which is trying to halt the flood of refugees from the Middle East; Mina fled Afghanistan with her family ten years ago, and just wants to concentrate on fitting in and getting into college–but the mutual attraction they feel demands that they come to terms with their family’s concerns and decide where they stand in the ugly anti-Muslim politics of the time. Print / Playaway / eAudiobook.

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini. Romania, 1989. In a country governed by isolation, fear, and a tyrannical dictator, seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer, but he decides to use his position to try to outwit his handler, undermine the regime, give voice to fellow Romanians, and expose to the world what is happening in his country. Print / Playaway / eAudiobook / eBook.

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, narrated by the author and a full cast. Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North. Print / Playaway / Book on CD / eAudiobook / eBook / Graphic novel.

Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman, narrated by Jennifer Grace and Graham Halstead. In ancient Greece, Katerina, on a mission to kill the queen, falls in love with Alexander, Prince of Macedonia. Print / Playaway / eAudiobook.

Wicked Fox by Kat Cho, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. After eighteen-year-old Gu Miyoung, a nine-tailed fox surviving in modern-day Seoul by eating the souls of evil men, kills a murderous goblin to save Jihoon, she is forced to choose between her immortal life and his. Print / eAudiobook.

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abawi, narrated by Leila Buck. After their home in Syria is bombed, Tareq, his father, and his younger sister seek refuge, first with extended family in Raqqa, a stronghold for the militant group, Daesh, and then abroad. Print / Playaway / eBook.

How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child by Sandra Uwiringiyimana, narrated by the author. The author shares the story of her survival during the Gatumba massacre, despite losing her mother and sister, and how after moving to America she found healing through art and activism. Print / Playaway / eAudiobook / eBook.

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe, narrated by James Fouhey. When Norris, a black French Canadian, starts his junior year at an Austin, Texas, high school, he views his fellow students as cliches from “a bad 90s teen movie.” Print / Playaway / eAudiobook / eBook.

North of Happy by Adi Alsaid, narrated by Luis Moreno. A wealthy dual citizen of Mexico and the United States rebels against his family’s strict plans for his future in the aftermath of his older brother’s tragic death, an event that compels him to secure a job with his favorite celebrity chef. Print / Playaway.

An Affair of Poisons by Addie Thorley, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller and Tim Campbell. After unwittingly helping her mother poison King Louis XIV, seventeen-year-old alchemist Mirabelle Monvoisin is forced to see her mother’s Shadow Society in a horrifying new light: they’re not heroes of the people, as they’ve always claimed to be, but murderers. Along with a bastard prince, she must unite the commoners and former nobility against the Shadow Society. Print / Playaway.

Children’s:

The Search for Sunken Treasure by Elizabeth Singer Hunt, narrated by MacLeod Andrews. Secret agent Jack Stalwart searches for a diver missing from the Great Barrier Reef and a treasure that has vanished from the wreck of the HMS Pandora while trying to defeat a deadly band of pirates. Print / Playaway / eBook.

The Boy on the Wooden Box: a Memoir by Leon Leyson, narrated by Danny Burstein. Traces the story of Polish Holocaust survivor Leon Leyson, who was the youngest child in his family and possibly the youngest of the hundreds of Jews rescued by Oskar Schindler. Print / Playaway / eAudiobook.

Ice Whale by Jean Craighead George, narrated by Christina Moore. In 1848, ten-year-old Toozak, a Yupik Eskimo, sees a whale being born and is told by a shaman that he and his descendants must protect that whale, which Toozak names Siku, as long as it lives. Print / Playaway.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri, narrated by Frances Cassidy. A Swiss orphan is heartbroken when she must leave her beloved grandfather and their happy home in the mountains to go to school and to care for an invalid girl in the city. Print / Playaway / Book on CD / Large print / eAudiobook / eBook.

Dumpling Days by Grace Lin, narrated by Angela Lin. When Pacy, her two sisters, and their parents go to Taiwan to celebrate Grandma’s sixtieth birthday, the girls learn a great deal about their heritage. Print / Playaway / Book on CD / eAudiobook / eBook.

Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai, narrated by Lulu Lam. California girl born and raised, Mai can’t wait to spend her vacation at the beach. Instead, though, she has to travel to Vietnam with her grandmother, who is going back to find out what really happened to her husband during the Vietnam War. Print / Playaway.

Last Gate of the Emperor by Kwame Mbalia and Prince Joel Makonnen, narrated by Prince Araya Mengesha. In this Afrofuturist adventure about a mythical Ethiopian empire, Yared Heywat must search for his missing uncle and answers to his place in a forgotten, galaxy-spanning war. Print / Playaway.

Mr. and Mrs. Bunny – Detectives Extraordinaire! by Polly Horvath, narrated by the author. Middle-schooler Madeline’s hippy parents have been kidnapped from Hornby Island, Canada, by foxes and Madeline, upon discovering that she can understand animal languages, hires two rabbit detectives to find them. Print / Playaway / Book on CD / eAudiobook / eBook.

Stella Díaz Never Gives Up by Angela Dominguez, narrated by Kyle Garcia. Stella gets a big surprise when her mom plans a trip to visit their family in Mexico! Stella loves marine animals, and she can’t wait to see the ocean for the first time, until she arrives and learns that the sea and its life forms are in danger due to pollution. Print / Playaway.

Hero on a Bicycle by Shirley Hughes, narrated by Simon Vance. Florence, Italy, 1944: The city is under heavy Nazi occupation, but for thirteen-year-old Paolo, war is a long and boring wait. Too young to fight for the resistance, yet desperate for action and adventure, he sneaks out each night to ride his bicycle along the darkened city streets. Print / Playaway.