If your family is like mine, you never quite know what to expect when the holidays arrive. Will it be smooth sailing, or will someone inevitably choose to bring up the most contentious political debates of the season? For the book-lovers who may have to deal with frustratingly dense relatives, these eight audiobooks about family will help you make it through Thanksgiving with your own family.
Each of the titles on the list below is an acclaimed family drama released in 2017. The stories touch on every corner of the globe and span decades in the lives of their protagonists. From a tale of historical fiction about children stolen from their families in Depression Era Tennessee, to the tale of an Iranian-American woman living in modern-day Europe, these are books about people, with all of their virtues and faults.
No matter if you plan to drive home for the holidays or have already booked your flight and hotel, it's essential to have a great selection of books to read and listen to while you travel. Not only will these titles help keep you awake in your seat, but they will also make the time you spend in a cramped airplane or car fly by.
Compiled by Audiobooks.com, this list of family-centric books will keep you entertained throughout the holiday season. Some of them, such as Joshua Max Feldman's Start Without Me, deal directly with the national day of turkey and stuffing, but others lack that holiday framing. Either way, you can't go wrong with choosing any of the eight audiobooks below as the soundtrack to your homeward-bound holiday travels.
Obviously, listening to an audiobook will not iron out your family's differences this holiday season, but it probably can't make them any worse. Depending on how badly your Thanksgivings tend to go, having a poignant, funny, family drama at your side could make your dinner table conversations feel a little less tense. And, if all else fails, having a few of these books loaded up on your favorite device will give you something comforting and relaxing to come home to at the end of a long day with your family.
No matter how lovely your family is, the holidays are a stressful time. These audiobooks will help you make it through Thanksgiving with minimal anguish. Check out the eight titles on the list below, and share your favorite family-centric reads with me on Twitter!
'Start Without Me' by Joshua Max Feldman, narrated by Charlie Thurston
Set in an airport on Thanksgiving morning, Joshua Max Feldman's Start Without Me centers on Adam and Marissa, two strangers returning home for the holidays, but uncertain of their future places in their respective families.
'Home Fire' by Kamila Shamsie, narrated by Tania Rodrigues
Londoner Isma has finally managed to escape the responsibilities of playing mother-figure to her orphaned younger siblings, but she's now forced to watch from the other side of the Atlantic as her brother runs off to follow in his father's extremist footsteps.
'Hey Harry, Hey Matilda' by Rachel Hulin, narrated by Ari Fliakos and Kristen Sieh
An epistolary novel that plays out over email, Hey Harry, Hey Matilda is the story of a pair of fraternal twins whose lies and lives may come undone at Thanksgiving, when Matilda's boyfriend will almost certainly find out that her supposedly dead brother is alive, and Harry may pay for his decision to sleep with one of his students.
'Little Fires Everywhere' by Celeste Ng, narrated by Jennifer Lim
Elena Richardson's idyllic, suburban life is disrupted by the arrival of a new tenant: free-spirited single mother, Mia Warren. But when the women's politics politics put them on opposing sides of a local adoption case, Elena finds herself invested in uncovering the secrets of Mia's past.
'Before We Were Yours' by Lisa Wingate, narrated by Catherine Taber and Emily Rankin
In 1939, five shantyboat-dwelling children are ripped away from their parents and home, dumped in a Tennessee orphanage. The eldest, 12-year-old Rill, fights to keep her siblings together, but her struggle will only be appreciated decades later, when a South Carolina lawyer discovers that her grandmother may have been trafficked through the notorious Tennessee Children’s Home Society.
'Stay with Me' by Ayobami Adebayo, narrated by Adjoa Andoh
After marrying Yejide for love, Akin defies expectations when he does not take a second wife. But after years of watching her son and Yejide try unsuccessfully to conceive, Akin's mother, Moomi, arrives with a new wife named Funmi. Distraught, Yejide finds herself in a race to give birth before Funmi, whom Akin visits on weekends, does.
'Refuge' by Dina Nayeri, narrated by Mozhan Marno and Youssif Kamal
When her family flees for the U.S. in the late 1980s, eight-year-old Niloo's father is left behind in Iran. Over the next two decades, the increasingly cosmopolitan daughter will see her father only four times as she moves from the U.S. to Europe, and into the heart of the refugee crisis.
'A Kind of Freedom' by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, narrated by Bahni Turpin, Adenrele Ojo, and Kevin Kenerly
Set in New Orleans, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton's A Kind of Freedom follows Evelyn, a young Creole woman, and her descendants as they fall into and out of situations both good and bad, leading up to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
