Susan

What Is the What

• UNABRIDGED (20 hrs and 33 mins)
• By Dave Eggers
• Narrated By Dion Graham
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Valentino's travels, truly Biblical in scope, bring him in contact with government soldiers, janjaweed-like militias, liberation rebels, hyenas and lions, disease and starvation, and a string of unexpected romances. Ultimately, Valentino finds safety in Kenya and, just after the millennium, is finally resettled in the United States, from where this novel is narrated.

City of Thieves

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 29 mins)
• By David Benioff
• Narrated By Ron Perlman
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

A writer visits his retired grandparents in Florida to document their experience during the infamous siege of Leningrad. His grandmother won't talk about it, but his grandfather reluctantly consents. The result is the captivating odyssey of two young men trying to survive against desperate odds. Lev Beniov considers himself "built for deprivation." He's small, smart, and insecure, a Jewish virgin too young for the army, who spends his nights working as a volunteer firefighter with friends from his building.

Brothers

• UNABRIDGED (15 hrs and 2 mins)
• By Da Chen
• Narrated By various

At the height of China's Cultural Revolution, a powerful general fathered two sons. Tan was born to the general's wife and into a life of comfort and luxury. His half brother, Shento, was born to the general's mistress, who threw herself off a cliff in the mountains of Balan only moments after delivering her child.

The Power of One

• UNABRIDGED (21 hrs and 34 mins)
• By Bryce Courtenay
• Narrated By Humphrey Bower

Born in a South Africa divided by racism and hatred, this one small boy will come to lead all the tribes of Africa. Through enduring friendships with Hymie and Gideon, Peekay gains the strength he needs to win out. And in a final conflict with his childhood enemy, the Judge, Peekay will fight to the death for justice.

Shantaram

• UNABRIDGED (43 hrs and 9 mins)
• By Gregory David Roberts
• Narrated By Humphrey Bower

This mesmerizing first novel tells the epic journey of Lin, an escaped convict who flees maximum security prison in Australia to disappear into the underworld of contemporary Bombay. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The keys to unlock the mysteries that bind Lin are held by two people: his mentor Khader Khan, mafia godfather and criminal-philosopher; and the beautiful, elusive Karla, whose passions are driven by dangerous secrets.

Shanghai Girls: A Novel

• UNABRIDGED (13 hrs and 29 mins)
• By Lisa See
• Narrated By Janet Song
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Hoping to improve their social standing, May and Pearl's parents arrange for their daughters to "Gold Mountain men" who have come from Los Angeles to find brides. But when the sisters leave China and arrive at Angel's Island (the Ellis Island of the West, where they are detained, interrogated, and humiliated for months) they feel the harsh reality of leaving home. And when May discovers she's pregnant, the situation becomes even more desperate. The sisters make a pact that no one can ever know.

People of the Book

• UNABRIDGED (13 hrs and 58 mins)
• By Geraldine Brooks
• Narrated By Edwina Wren
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

This ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in 15th-century Spain.

When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding - an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair - only begin to unlock its deep mysteries.

The Blood of Flowers

• UNABRIDGED (13 hrs and 22 mins)
• By Anita Amirrezvani
• Narrated By Shohreh Aghdashloo

In 17th-century Persia, a 14-year-old woman believes she will be married within the year. When her beloved father dies, she and her mother find themselves alone and without a dowry. With nowhere else to go, they are forced to sell the brilliant turquoise rug the young woman has woven to pay for their journey to Isfahan, where they will work as servants for her uncle, a rich rug designer in the court of the legendary Shah Abbas the Great.