Audiobooks used to be a niche proposition. Not any more. Instead, they’ve become one of the fastest-growing areas in publishing. The fact that you can consume a book while walking, working out, doing the washing up, or lying on a couch with your eyes closed makes it a desirable option, especially for those who haven’t picked up an actual book in a long time. And with the advent of big-name narrators, full casts and inventive production techniques, the lure of the audiobook is even greater. Here are 10 great listens from 2026 so far, across a range of genres.Vigil by George SaundersNarration: Judy Greer, Stephen Root and a cast of 20, including the author.Listening time: 5 hours 32 minutesGenre: Fiction Photo: In Saunders’ first novel since his Booker-winning Lincoln in the Bardo, we meet Jill “Doll” Blaine, a doula who accompanies the dying into the next realm. In fact, she has ushered 343 people from life into death, so she’s an old hand at this. But her latest charge, the arrogant climate change-denying oil tycoon K. J. Boone, is so full of himself that he doesn’t want the help and doesn’t elicit much sympathy. Should Jill try to save his soul, or leave him to his just deserts? It’s a slim novel and a relatively short audiobook, but the big cast of voices, headlined by actors Judy Greer and Stephen Root, brings the afterlife to life.The Land and Its People by David SedarisNarration: David SedarisListening time: 7 hours 26 minutesGenre: Non-fiction/memoir Photo: If you’ve ever seen David Sedaris do a live reading on stage, you know what you’re in for here – funny, sharply written stories gleaned from his own life that unexpectedly pull at your heartstrings or punch you in the gut, all recounted in that delightfully droll drawl. “I’m in the hard part of getting old,” he says at one point, “the part where everything irritates you.” Whether writing about his partner Hugh’s hip replacement or the freedom of judgmenthe feels now that his father is dead, Sedaris still has the sass and the satire.The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth StroutNarration: Robert PetkoffListening time: 6 hours 35 minutesGenre: Fiction Photo: Fans of Elizabeth Strout see the working-class, American small-town characters in her novels as real people, and even friends. She has placed her best-known creations, Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton, in various novels. But her latest book introduces a new character – Artie Dam is a 57-year-old schoolteacher who has a happy marriage and a good life. But – you knew there was a “but” coming – after living through the pandemic, and before the 2024 US election, he starts to feel uneasy about a world he doesn’t understand. And that’s when a family secret from the past turns everything upside down.London Falling by Patrick Radden KeefeNarration: Patrick Radden KeefeListening time: 12 hours 59 minutesGenre: Non-fiction Photo: The body of 19-year-old Zac Brettler was recovered from the River Thames in November 2019. Security camera footage revealed that he had fallen from the fifth-floor balcony of a luxury apartment building. But did he die by suicide? Or was something more sinister involved? His parents are desperate for answers. And Patrick Radden Keefe, the esteemed writer for The New Yorker and of the books Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, was the man to find out. He discovers that Brettler, who was English and middle-class, had been posing as the son of a Russian oligarch, and he was not alone in the apartment that night, but in the company of some very shady characters indeed.You with the Sad Eyes: A Memoir by Christina ApplegateNarration: Christina ApplegateListening time: 8 hours 27 minutesGenre: Non-fiction/memoir Photo: Christina Applegate has been defined by her public image her whole life, first as the stereotypical ’80s dumb, ditzy blonde Kelly Bundy in Married…With Children. Of course, Applegate was anything but dumb and ditzy, and she struggled with the role, her image and her body. We also discover in her memoir that she struggled with a horrific upbringing, which included a drug-addicted mother, sexual abuse, and physical violence from men in her life. Then, in 2021, life dealt her a dramatic blow – she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The audiobook is narrated by Applegate, giving the emotional scenes extra weight, but she also knows how to dish the gossip and tell a joke, even if the humour can be dark.In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man by Tom JunodNarration: Tom JunodListening time: 18 hours 24 minutesGenre: Non-fiction/memoir Photo: Tom Junod is one of the best long-form creative non-fiction writers around: his magazine stories about children’s TV entertainer Mr Rogers and the infamous photo of a man jumping from the World Trade Centre on September 11 are bona fide classics. But in this book, he turns his rigorous reporting skills on his own family, specifically his late father. Lou Junod was larger than life, a salesman who had the gift of the gab, a personality too big for any room, and – as Junod finds out – a closet full of secrets. As he starts unearthing more about the lies and deceptions in his family that go back years, Junod learns lessons on how to be a better man.A Rising of the Lights by Steve ToltzNarration: Henry NixonListening time: 10 hours 37 minutesGenre: Fiction Photo: Australian novelist Steve Toltz, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his debut novel A Fraction of the Whole, has form when it comes to male characters coming apart at the seams and trying to put themselves back together. In A Rising of the Lights, we meet Rusty Wilson, who early on in life was split from his twin sister when their divorcing parents tossed a dice to decide who got whom. It’s no wonder that at 51, laid off as a result of AI and cheated on by his wife, he has become a misanthrope. Will he remain in the sad, bitter role he was born to play, or will he redeem himself and rejoin the human race?Harry Potter series (Full-Cast Audio Edition) by J.K. RowlingNarration: Hugh Laurie, Matthew Macfadyen, Frankie Treadaway and a couple of hundred more voicesListening time: 115 hoursGenre: Fiction/fantasy Photo: “Wait a minute!” we hear you ask. “Isn’t there already a perfectly good Harry Potter audiobook series with Stephen Fry narrating? What’s this, then?” Well, this is nothing less than a complete reinvention of the Potter audiobook universe. Beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone late last year, and with the final instalment of the seven-book series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, dropping last month, this “full-cast edition” is not only notable for its huge cast of voices, but also for its incredible sound design. It really feels like you’re in a vast dining hall accompanied by clattering cutlery, or in a classroom surrounded by bubbling potions, or in the middle of a Quidditch match chasing a Golden Snitch.Look What You Made Me Do by John LanchesterNarration: Louise Brealey and Genevieve GauntListening time: 9 hours 4 minutesGenre: Fiction Photo: What if the hottest new show on TV seems to be based on intimate details of your own three-decade-long marriage, that only you and your spouse could know about? That’s what happens to Kate, as she watches the secrets of her private life unfold on the screen for entertainment. It turns out that a young screenwriter named Phoebe has penned the scripts. But how does she know so much about Kate? So begins a dark tale that delves into competitiveness, age, betrayal and who gets to tell whose story. With two female narrators in the audiobook, you get the full effect of two lives colliding, and the result is part black comedy, part battle royal.The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn ClarkeNarration: Fiona HardinghamListening time: 11 hours 43 minutesGenre: Fiction/mysteryNever heard of Evelyn Clarke? That’s because she doesn’t exist. It’s a pen name for Cat Clarke and V.E. Schwab, who collaborated on this Agatha Christie-meets-The White Lotus set-up: six authors are invited to an island off the coast of Scotland by a renowned thriller writer named Arthur Fletch. Once they arrive, they learn that Fletch is, in fact, dead. He has left behind an unfinished manuscript, and each of them is tasked with writing a possible ending. The winner will get $1 million and a three-book contract. Yes, of course someone is going to die, and Clarke and Schwab dole out twists to keep you guessing, while having a lot of fun playing with the ins and outs of the publishing world.What else is happening in the book world?How buzzy prize winner The Correspondent has revived the epistolary novel.A Miles Franklin winner turns her attention to alien abductions.A micro publisher with just one book has been shortlisted for the country’s biggest book prize.What do you do when you’ve covered your mansion in doodles? Start a million more.The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday.