検索キーワード： 制作 "Recorded Books" 大衆小説

Ursula K. Le Guin has enthralled fans with her imagination, clarity, and moral vision. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, and five Hugo and five Nebula Awards, this renowned writer has created a provocative, ever-evolving universe filled with diverse worlds and rich characters reminiscent of our earthly selves. Now, in The Birthday of the World, this gifted artist returns to these worlds in eight brilliant short works, including a never-before-published novella, each of which probes the essence of humanity.

In Victoria on a former prison colony, two exiled groups - the farmers of Shantih and the city dwellers - live in apparent harmony. All is not as it seems, however. While the peace-loving farmers labor endlessly to provide food for the city, the city bosses rule the Shantih with an iron fist. When a group of farmers decide to form a new settlement further away, the bosses retaliate by threatening to crush the "rebellion".

In this riveting domestic thriller for listeners of Jeneva Rose, Kimberly McCreight, Kimberly Belle, and Shanora Williams, one woman’s seemingly perfect marriage is shattered by a shocking revelation. Now, how far will she go to learn the whole truth—and will it be enough to outrun the lethal consequences?

Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the perfect 1950s housewife. Despite the tragic memories that haunt her and the weight of exhausting expectations, she keeps her husband happy, her household running, and her gelatin salads the talk of the neighborhood. But after she gives birth to her second child, Lulu's carefully crafted life begins to unravel.

Abby Rosso, a high school counselor, has reason to fear the worst—not only that she is partially to blame for the recent apparent suicides of two female students, but that her son Benjamin has somehow been involved in the deaths, the details of which are still murky. It’s hard for Abby to know if Benjamin’s stoic and sometimes sullen behavior is normal, if she should believe him when he claims to be innocent.

1987. Supermodel Harlow Hayes seeks solace in a quaint Florida beach town to heal from a heartbreak that shattered her entire world. To her surprise, she encounters Matt Knight—a Hollywood A-lister with a bad-boy reputation—who has returned to his hometown to help his plucky grandmother, Tuesday, save her century-old skating rink, the Starlight.

Monreith, Massachusetts, was once a small community of whalers and farmers. These days it’s a well-to-do town filled with commuters drawn to its rugged coastline and country roads. A peaceful, predictable place—until popular restaurateur Laurel Thibodeau is found brutally murdered in her own home. Suspicion naturally falls on Laurel’s husband, Simon, who had gambling debts that only her life insurance policy could fix. But there are other rumors too. Among the group of six friends gathered for Alice Stone’s fortieth birthday, theories abound concerning Laurel’s death.

If you lived in a different place and had a different job, couldn't you have a different life? Ginny Masters manages a popular boutique hotel in Seattle and manages it with aplomb. But the daily challenges and irritations of a fast-paced job and a demanding boss are starting to get to her. Jacqueline Potter manages her grandfather’s fishing lodge in Idaho because it was the only job she could find after graduating with her hospitality degree. She’s grateful for the work but longs for a more sophisticated and cosmopolitan life she’s just not going to find in this backwoods town.

In the fictional African country of Zambuena, Katmé Abbia enjoys a life of privilege and influence married to Tashun, the powerful prefect of Zambuena's capital. Yet after years spent playing the obedient, demure wife to a husband who has ceased to notice her, Katmé grows increasingly restless. Her one source of connection is Samy, a childhood friend, struggling artist, and gay man—an offense punishable by law in Zambuena.

All's fair in love and lore. Joonie is living in a fantasy—at least that’s what people tell her. Men in the real world have done nothing but disappoint her time and time again, so she keeps her heart reserved for Ryke, the fictional male lead of her favorite romance series, who just happens to be a merman. And so far, her book boyfriend is meeting her needs more than any other “real” man ever has.

Unsure of her future within the Amish community, Beth Peachy arrives in Lancaster County to care for her ailing grandmother for the summer at her lake house. Yet with dementia threatening to steal away Mammi's memories, Beth's visit quickly evolves into an urgent quest for the answers to questions that her relatives seem determined to avoid. How can Beth possibly make a lifelong vow to the Amish church when her own family is concealing so much of the past from her?

A sweeping, multicultural family story of keen observation and the supernatural in which one man’s journey to wholeness against the collapse of the West Indies’ banana industry during the 1990s reflects the lasting impacts of colonialism, Catholicism, and immigration. Before the gadèt-zafè came to warn his mother she would die, six-year-old Fidel knew only the everyday mystery of the Guadeloupe around him.

In 1907, eight years before she published her first novel, a twenty-five-year-old Virginia Woolf drafted three interconnected comic stories chronicling the adventures of a giantess named Violet—a teasing tribute to Woolf’s friend Mary Violet Dickinson. But it was only in 2022 that Woolf scholar Urmila Seshagiri discovered a final, revised typescript of the stories. The typescript revealed that Woolf had finished this mock-biography, making it her first fully realized literary experiment and a work that anticipates her later masterpieces.

For two months, FBI Special Agent Oliver Jaxton has been searching for his wife. Even with the help of her friends and the Phoenix FBI office, he’s no closer now than the day she disappeared. Forced to face his weaknesses, Jax is ready to admit he needs help. But with no break in the case in sight, he’s about to lose hope. When evidence surfaces that Kenna now works for their enemy, he refuses to believe it, even if it puts his job in jeopardy. He won’t quit.

Beth Calloway has always longed for a family, but after a childhood marked by loss, she’s learned to live quietly—typing reports at the Boise Foundling Home and keeping her heart carefully tucked away. Until one snowy night, a baby is left on her doorstep. With no room at the orphanage and no one else to help, she takes the risk…never expecting the handsome wounded soldier next door to take notice.

In Ur of the Chaldees, Ishcah faces the daunting prospect of marrying Abram, a man she has never once met in her thirty-nine years, and a man who renames her Sarai on their wedding day. Their union, arranged since childhood, tests her as she grapples with uncertainty about her future and Abram's true nature, including his devotion to an unseen God—entirely unlike the idols she has worshipped all her life.

Anne Loveday, a surgeon's daughter, is determined to live a single, useful life. To escape her matchmaking stepmother, she accepts an invitation from an old friend to return to Painswick, the place she and her sister spent many happy summers until that last, fateful year. Soon after arriving, Anne is asked to serve as sick-room nurse to Lady Celia, who forbade her nephew to marry Anne's sister years before. Pushing aside resentments, Anne moves into Painswick Court, a shadowy old house rumored to be haunted.

Her sister Violet has died and her niece Rose has been kidnapped. The U.S. Marshals who are supposed to be looking for Rose are ill and injured. Lily Whitman has two choices: find Rose herself, which she has no idea how to do, or trust Trace McConnell to find the baby for her. But Lily has trusted men for the last time. So maybe she will do this on her own.

Grace and Claire have formed a close friendship over their love of reading. After many years and many books that provided armchair adventures, the time has come for them to go somewhere instead of only dreaming of someday. Traveling to Venice, Florence, and Bellagio, the Suitcase Sisters find themselves immersed in the magnificent works of art, scrumptious gelato flavors, and endless pasta variations of Italy. And they discover a vulnerability to disclose their struggles in ways they never did at home.

When an earthquake strikes Two Harts Ranch, it shakes the life of Annie Lane along with Cord Westbrook, who has been working as a cowboy on Annie's family's ranch in anticipation of purchasing his own.