Audiobooks Like The Great Believers

Read more

If you loved The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai, these audiobooks share similar qualities — same genre, sometimes the same narrator, comparable length, and the kind of ratings that signal a great listen. Fans of Michael Crouch's narration will find familiar voices here too.

10 audiobooks for fans of The Great Believers

  1. 1
    Buckeye: A Read with Jenna Pick cover

    Buckeye: A Read with Jenna Pick

    by Patrick Ryan

    Narrated by Michael Crouch

    4.10 ABR Score (2.2K ratings)
    ★ 4.45 Audible (2.2K)
  2. 2
    Demon Copperhead cover

    Demon Copperhead

    by Barbara Kingsolver

    Narrated by Charlie Thurston

    4.81 ABR Score (858.9K ratings)
    ★ 4.46 Goodreads (824.6K) ★ 4.77 Audible (34.3K)
    More about this pick

    A David Copperfield retelling set in Appalachian poverty, following a boy through foster care and opioid addiction. Charlie Thurston's authentic narration captures Demon's resilient voice and mountain dialect beautifully.

  3. 3
    The Great Alone cover

    The Great Alone

    by Kristin Hannah

    Narrated by Julia Whelan

    4.79 ABR Score (1.3M ratings)
    ★ 4.46 Goodreads (1.2M) ★ 4.7 Audible (58.5K)
    More about this pick

    Julia Whelan captures both Alaska's brutal beauty and a family's desperate struggle when a volatile Vietnam vet moves them off-grid in 1974.

  4. 4
    Small Great Things cover

    Small Great Things

    Ruth Jefferson • Book 1

    by Jodi Picoult

    Narrated by Audra McDonald, Cassandra Campbell, Ari Fliakos

    4.74 ABR Score (478.4K ratings)
    ★ 4.36 Goodreads (444.3K) ★ 4.75 Audible (34.1K)
    More about this pick

    Three stellar narrators handle this explosive story of a Black nurse forbidden from touching a white supremacist couple's newborn with devastating emotional precision.

  5. 5
    The Darkest Child cover

    The Darkest Child

    by Delores Phillips

    Narrated by Bahni Turpin

    4.59 ABR Score (24.3K ratings)
    ★ 4.38 Goodreads (17.8K) ★ 4.76 Audible (6.5K)
    More about this pick

    Set in 1958 Georgia, this devastating story follows thirteen-year-old Tangy Mae as she endures her violent, colorist mother's abuse while fighting for education and escape.

  6. 6
    The Storyteller cover

    The Storyteller

    by Jodi Picoult

    Narrated by Mozhan Marno, Jennifer Ikeda, Edoardo Ballerini, Suzanne Toren, Fred Berman

    4.57 ABR Score (299.1K ratings)
    ★ 4.3 Goodreads (278.1K) ★ 4.61 Audible (21.0K)
    More about this pick

    When an elderly man asks baker Sage to help him die as penance for his Nazi past, she must confront family history and impossible moral choices. Multiple narrators handle the interconnected timelines skillfully, from modern grief support groups to Holocaust survival stories.

  7. 7
    The River cover

    The River

    by Wally Lamb

    Narrated by Jeremy Sisto

    4.47 ABR Score (159.0K ratings)
    ★ 4.3 Goodreads (155.0K) ★ 4.61 Audible (4.0K)
    More about this pick

    Jeremy Sisto voices Corby Ledbetter's journey from addiction and tragedy through prison brutality toward possible redemption in Lamb's latest.

  8. 8
    The House of the Spirits cover

    The House of the Spirits

    Trilogía Involuntaria • Book 3

    by Isabel Allende, Magda Bogin

    Narrated by Thom Rivera, Marisol Ramirez

    4.35 ABR Score (328.3K ratings)
    ★ 4.3 Goodreads (325.3K) ★ 4.45 Audible (3.0K)
    More about this pick

    Three generations of the Trueba family navigate love, politics, and supernatural forces in an unnamed Latin American country. The magical realist epic spans decades of political upheaval while exploring how personal relationships intersect with larger historical forces in unforgettable ways.

  9. 9
    The Godfather cover

    The Godfather

    The Godfather • Book 1

    by Mario Puzo

    Narrated by Joe Mantegna

    4.35 ABR Score (468.1K ratings)
    ★ 4.4 Goodreads (468.0K) ★ 4.88 Audible (128)
    More about this pick

    Joe Mantegna's performance captures both the intimacy of family dinners and the brutality of Corleone business dealings. His narration honors Puzo's epic scope while highlighting the personal costs of power, tradition, and revenge in America's most infamous crime family.

  10. 10
    North Woods cover

    North Woods

    by Daniel Mason

    Narrated by Mark Bramhall, Michael Crouch, Jason Culp, Mark Deakins, Jayne Entwistle, Billie Fulford-Brown, Arthur Morey, George Newbern, Kirsten Potter, Simon Vance

    4.26 ABR Score (120.3K ratings)
    ★ 4.1 Goodreads (117.0K) ★ 4.46 Audible (3.4K)
    More about this pick

    A single New England house witnesses centuries of human drama—Puritan lovers, a Revolutionary War soldier, a 19th-century naturalist, and many others across 400 years. Ten different narrators bring distinct voices to each historical period, creating an immersive journey through American history.

How We Rank Audiobooks

Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.

Unlike most book lists, we weight audiobook-specific factors: narrator performance, production quality, and how well a story translates to audio. A great book with a poor narration isn't a great audiobook.

We don't accept paid placements or prioritize new releases. These rankings reflect what listeners actually enjoy, not what's being promoted.

Rankings update periodically as new ratings come in and new titles are added to the collection.

Read our full ranking methodology →