Lesbian literature had come a long way since the days when the poetry of Sappho and underground novels like Radclyffe Hall’s were among the few widely available options. Still, anyone on the hunt for the best LGBTQIA+ audiobooks knows that it can still be challenging to find stories centred on lesbian characters and experiences.
We’ve compiled some of the best audiobook adaptations of lesbian books across fiction and non-fiction with one common factor: All of these selections are stories focused on lesbian characters, written by authors from the LGBTQIA+ community.
In this incredible novel, Patsy is thrilled when she’s finally granted a visa to the United States. She can finally leave her small Jamaican town and join her old friend and first love, Cicely. But it also means leaving behind her overbearing mother and her young daughter, Tru. And when Patsy arrives in New York, it’s not the new life she was expecting—she must survive as an undocumented immigrant working minimum-wage jobs. Meanwhile, Tru reconnects with her father in Jamaica and struggles with identity questions of her own. Sharon Gordon narrates this critically-acclaimed novel that is an absolute must-listen.
A remarkably honest and witty memoir, Jeanette Winterson’s Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is a story of self-discovery and finding the courage to act on that discovery. While listening to this author-narrated tale, it’s easy to understand why Winterson is so revered as a significant literary figure. While her work spans memoir, fiction, and even hot takes on Shakespearean plays (The Gap of Time), her writing is united by its raw and truthful ways of telling on the human condition. Jeanette Winterson is one of the finest LGBT writers out there, and Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is the Manchester icon at her very best.
Set in the early 1990s, The Miseducation of Cameron Post takes place in Montana, USA. It follows the adolescence of Cameron Post, a girl who is orphaned suddenly and must live with her religious Aunt Ruth. As she navigates the baffling worlds of grief and high school, she falls for her new best friend. But the excitement of a first love affair comes crashing down when the girls’ relationship is discovered. Cameron is sent to God’s Promise, a conversion camp for gay teens, where she learns the extent of adult hypocrisy. This brilliant novel, narrated by Beth Laufer, was a finalist for the YALSA Morris Award and is the basis of the award-winning indie film starring Chloë Grace Moretz.
This stunning memoir about love, identity, and domestic abuse is an absolute must-listen. Experimental in structure, Carmen Marie Machado’s short chapters, and various literary devices tell the story of her two years in graduate school when she fell for a beguiling woman who turned abusive. She reveals the emotional abuse and manipulation she endured while also analyzing why instances of domestic abuse between queer couples are rarely revealed or explored in literature. Machado narrates this mesmerizing work, an essential addition to the canon of queer memoirs. isn’t the easiest or simplest listen, but the main characters of Carmen Marie Machado’s tumultuous life will keep you engaged from start to finish.
