Librarian Jenny Lindh recommends top audiobooks

Swedish librarian Jenny Lindh has curated a selection of top audiobooks currently available, offering diverse genres and compelling narratives for listeners. This week's recommendations feature a standout crime novel set in Jämtland, a thought-provoking Taiwanese work, and a poignant family drama.

Among the highlights is "Stekenjokk" by Johannes Selåker, read by Martin Wallström. Lindh describes it as "autumn's first headphone highlight," focusing on a recently dumped, prescription-drug-dependent detective chasing a murderer along the legendary Vildmarksvägen in Jämtland. The novel is lauded for its unusually realistic and melancholic crime story, with dialogue that shines amidst its detailed 1980s setting.

Another featured title is "En bra dag att stoppa huvudet i ugnen" (A Good Day to Put Your Head in the Oven) by Taiwanese author Lee Chia-Ying, translated by Anna Gustafsson Chen and read by Emma Peters. Lindh notes the book's frank exploration of themes, including menstruation, presented with "lovely deadpan humor" as a wannabe memoirist struggles to write truthfully about her life. The book is noted for its impressive execution within the challenging genre of "authors exploring their writing process."

Agnes Lidbeck's "Fotografens skugga" (The Photographer's Shadow), read by Christoffer Svensson, is also highly recommended. Lindh praises the performance as "Sweden's foremost reader" delivering a "soft, tonally secure, and thoroughly enjoyable" rendition of the novel. The story delves into inherited family wounds and the struggle between fleeing and finding freedom, centering on Filip, the "photographer's" grandson, who confronts his past while his daughter is in the hospital.

Finally, Maggie O'Farrell's "Land" (Hamnet), translated by Malin Bylund Westfelt and read by Charlotta Jonsson, is presented as a captivating historical narrative. Lindh describes it as a "beautifully nature-mystical, at times unrestrainedly preachy history lesson" about Ireland in the aftermath of the 1840s famine. The story follows Tomás, a mapmaker who becomes lost and experiences a profound connection with the land.

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Hamnet-skaparen är sannerligen tillbaka i sträcklyssnarsadeln och håller vackert naturmystisk, bitvis ohämmat förnumstig historielektion om hemön Irland i sviterna av 1840-talets svältkatastrof.