Audiobooks Like The Things They Carried

10 audiobooks for fans of The Things They Carried

1. 1

   

   The Correspondent

   by Virginia Evans

   Narrated by Maggi-Meg Reed, Jane Oppenheimer, Carly Robins, Jeff Ebner, David Pittu, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Mark Bramhall, Petrea Burchard, Robert Petkoff, Kimberly Farr, Cerris Morgan-Moyer, Peter Ganim, Jade Wheeler, Various

   ★ 4.81 ABR Score (383.3K ratings)

   ★ 4.53 Goodreads (364.9K) ★ 4.8 Audible (18.3K)

   8h 36m listening time • Released 2025

   Through discovered letters, the life story of a remarkable woman unfolds across decades of love, loss, war, and artistic passion. This epistolary novel examines how written words preserve and transform our understanding of both ordinary and extraordinary lives.

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   Through discovered letters, the life story of a remarkable woman unfolds across decades of love, loss, war, and artistic passion. This epistolary novel examines how written words preserve and transform our understanding of both ordinary and extraordinary lives.

   Start Listening → Get the Book →
   Start Listening → Get the Book →
2. 2

   

   James

   by Percival Everett

   Narrated by Dominic Hoffman

   ★ 4.76 ABR Score (552.1K ratings)

   ★ 4.42 Goodreads (533.5K) ★ 4.77 Audible (18.6K)

   7h 49m listening time • Released 2024

   Jim's perspective on the Huckleberry Finn story reveals the brutal realities of slavery through brilliant code-switching between dialects. Dominic Hoffman's performance captures every nuanced layer of survival and dignity.

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   Jim's perspective on the Huckleberry Finn story reveals the brutal realities of slavery through brilliant code-switching between dialects. Dominic Hoffman's performance captures every nuanced layer of survival and dignity.

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   Start Listening → Get the Book →
3. 3

   

   I Must Betray You

   by Ruta Sepetys

   Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini, Ruta Sepetys

   ★ 4.56 ABR Score (103.0K ratings)

   ★ 4.4 Goodreads (101.3K) ★ 4.77 Audible (1.7K)

   7h 10m listening time • Released 2022

   Ballerini's dual narration captures the suffocating paranoia of Cold War Romania so viscerally you'll feel the weight of every impossible choice Cristian makes. A gripping true-stakes thriller about resistance that refuses easy heroics.

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   Ballerini's dual narration captures the suffocating paranoia of Cold War Romania so viscerally you'll feel the weight of every impossible choice Cristian makes. A gripping true-stakes thriller about resistance that refuses easy heroics.

   Start Listening → Get the Book →
   Start Listening → Get the Book →
4. 4

   

   The Body

   by Robin Waterfield, Stephen King

   Narrated by Wil Wheaton

   ★ 4.52 ABR Score (45.7K ratings)

   ★ 4.3 Goodreads (45.7K)

   6h 38m listening time • Released 2026

   King's coming-of-age tale about four boys searching for a dead body captures the raw terror and wonder of childhood friendships on the brink of dissolving.

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   King's coming-of-age tale about four boys searching for a dead body captures the raw terror and wonder of childhood friendships on the brink of dissolving.

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   Start Listening → Get the Book →
5. 5

   

   The Color Purple

   The Color Purple Collection • Book 1

   by Alice Walker

   Narrated by Alice Walker

   ★ 4.68 ABR Score (764.1K ratings)

   ★ 4.28 Goodreads (758.4K) ★ 4.81 Audible (5.7K)

   7h 58m listening time • Released 2018

   Celie's letters to God chronicle brutal abuse and gradual empowerment in rural Georgia. Walker herself reads this Pulitzer winner, adding an intimacy that matches the epistolary format.

   More about this pick

   Celie's letters to God chronicle brutal abuse and gradual empowerment in rural Georgia. Walker herself reads this Pulitzer winner, adding an intimacy that matches the epistolary format.

   Start Listening → Get the Book →
   Start Listening → Get the Book →
6. 6

   

   Their Eyes Were Watching God

   by Zora Neale Hurston

   Narrated by Ruby Dee

   ★ 4.47 ABR Score (402.9K ratings)

   ★ 3.99 Goodreads (390.8K) ★ 4.66 Audible (12.1K)

   6h 44m listening time • Released 2004

   Janie Crawford searches for love and independence across three marriages in 1930s Florida. Ruby Dee's luminous performance captures both Hurston's rich dialect and Janie's evolving voice as she claims her own story.

   More about this pick

   Janie Crawford searches for love and independence across three marriages in 1930s Florida. Ruby Dee's luminous performance captures both Hurston's rich dialect and Janie's evolving voice as she claims her own story.

   Start Listening → Get the Book →
   Start Listening → Get the Book →
7. 7

   

   The Picture of Dorian Gray Novel

   by Oscar Wilde

   Narrated by Russell Tovey

   ★ 4.46 ABR Score (1.9M ratings)

   ★ 4.14 Goodreads (1.9M) ★ 4.54 Audible (9.0K)

   8h 35m listening time • Released 2017

   Wilde's only novel follows a beautiful young man whose portrait ages while he remains untouched by decades of moral corruption.

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   Wilde's only novel follows a beautiful young man whose portrait ages while he remains untouched by decades of moral corruption.

   Start Listening → Get the Book →
   Start Listening → Get the Book →
8. 8

   

   If Beale Street Could Talk (Vintage International)

   by James Baldwin

   Narrated by Bahni Turpin

   ★ 4.37 ABR Score (88.1K ratings)

   ★ 4.27 Goodreads (84.2K) ★ 4.51 Audible (3.8K)

   7h 7m listening time • Released 2016

   Nineteen-year-old Tish fights to free her imprisoned fiancé Fonny while pregnant with his child in 1970s Harlem. Bahni Turpin's performance captures Baldwin's lyrical prose and the characters' deep emotional bonds.

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   Nineteen-year-old Tish fights to free her imprisoned fiancé Fonny while pregnant with his child in 1970s Harlem. Bahni Turpin's performance captures Baldwin's lyrical prose and the characters' deep emotional bonds.

   Start Listening → Get the Book →
   Start Listening → Get the Book →
9. 9

   

   A Thousand Ships

   by Natalie Haynes

   Narrated by Natalie Haynes

   ★ 4.33 ABR Score (96.2K ratings)

   ★ 4.04 Goodreads (93.5K) ★ 4.6 Audible (2.7K)

   8h 34m listening time • Released 2021

   The Trojan War unfolds through women's voices—from Cassandra's prophecies to Penelope's waiting, from Helen's guilt to the grief of mothers losing sons. Haynes, narrating her own work, brings intimate authority to these mythological perspectives.

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   The Trojan War unfolds through women's voices—from Cassandra's prophecies to Penelope's waiting, from Helen's guilt to the grief of mothers losing sons. Haynes, narrating her own work, brings intimate authority to these mythological perspectives.

   Start Listening → Get the Book →
   Start Listening → Get the Book →
10. 10

    

    The Bell Jar

    by Sylvia Plath

    Narrated by Maggie Gyllenhaal

    ★ 4.31 ABR Score (1.3M ratings)

    ★ 4.04 Goodreads (1.3M) ★ 4.41 Audible (9.4K)

    7h 24m listening time • Released 2016

    Maggie Gyllenhaal's intimate reading perfectly matches Plath's precise, devastating prose about a young woman's psychological breakdown in 1950s New York.

    More about this pick

    Maggie Gyllenhaal's intimate reading perfectly matches Plath's precise, devastating prose about a young woman's psychological breakdown in 1950s New York.

    Start Listening → Get the Book →
    Start Listening → Get the Book →