Maybe you’re wading in a kiddie pool instead of getting sprayed by Iguazu Falls. Or your idea of an exotic vacation is visiting the next neighborhood over, not closing your eyes and hopping to whatever country your finger hits on the globe. Or perhaps you would simply appreciate a few trusty narrators-as-guides as you gear up for your carefully researched seasonal travels — it’s hard not to be swept away by Bill Bryson’s curiosity for Australia or Murakami’s magical view of Japan.
No matter your plans (or lack thereof), there’s a listen to suit you.
Italy Don't all memorable summers start off on the Italian coast? That’s the case for Pasquale, a young man doomed to live in the tiny (fictitious) village of Porto Vergogna — colloquially known, thanks to its situation in the vertical seam of a cliff, as baldracca culo*. (Ask an Italian friend.) He’s doomed, of course, until a young Hollywood starlet shows up, fresh off the set of Cleopatra with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Did I mention it’s 1962? Their mismatched meet-cute, complete with charming language barrier, kicks off Walter’s decade-spanning novel that hops from Europe to Hollywood to Seattle, and more. But it’s the descriptions of Italia — and narrator Edoardo Ballerini’s liquid accent — that’ll get ya.
London When visiting London, no matter how many “hot” restaurants you seek or avant-garde art museums you visit, there’s a sense, upon leaving, that you’ve only scratched the surface. According to Gaiman’s fantasy epic, you have. The beloved writer, who narrates his own book, dives into London Below, an alternate reality beneath the familiar city. Before submerging, however, he captures a vivid above-ground London: “It was a city of red brick and white stone, red buses and large black taxis, bright red mailboxes and green grassy parks and cemeteries ... but there is a price to be paid for all good places, and a price that all good places have to pay,” says Gaiman, before protagonist Richard Mayhew literally falls through the cracks and must battle monsters in order to return to the London he knew. This 20-year-old book is classic Gaiman, but the author is ready for an update: he’s currently writing Neverwhere’s sequel, The Seven Sisters.
And happy news for fans: Roy has a new novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.
For once, I felt like I went to an island and actually saw the truth. As transporting as a good vacation, but also eye-opening.
Finally, there’s nothing more meta than capping off a summer of listening with a book that celebrates literature in one of the most alluring countries of all. I started this novel during a sunny afternoon walk and fell for our aging lovelorn protagonist, Monsieur Perdu, who prides himself on selecting books for people that will cure what ails them. He’s still obsessed with a woman from his past and travels to the south of France to try and find her. This is a breezy listen, both enjoyable and tinged with nostalgia.
Author Nina George seems to feel the same way many of us do about experiencing the world this way: “He had never had to travel; his conversations with books had been sufficient,” George writes, adding "...until finally he prized them more highly than people.