Cherrypicker
Get in the listening habit

If you’re not in the mood for reading, why not try taking pleasure in listening? More recent audiobooks deal with special family relationships and the magic of music.

By Marit Borcherding

People usually make a few resolutions for the new year: less junk food, less screentime, less impulse shopping. Or: more sport, more sleep, more tidiness. “Listen to more audiobooks” is also a great option since it has only positive effects. Here are some recommendations for the start of the year.

Mothers, aunts and other family

© Argon Books by Zagreb-born actress, director and author Adriana Altaras promise lively and very personal examinations of family constellations that are always written with a great sense for everyday humour and absurd situations. In the book wonderfully titled Besser allein als in schlechter Gesellschaft (Better Alone Than in Bad Company), elderly Aunt Jelka, who’s experienced pretty much everything the last hundred years had to offer, meets her niece Adriana, who is also at a turning point in her life: the breakup of her marriage. Then Covid-19 rages, so the two women talk on the phone and give each other support. The audiobook places Adriana Altaras alongside the glorious actress Angela Winkler. Both read “the monologues and dialogues wonderfully and touchingly: one of them wired, the other thoughtful,” according to a review on Hessischer Rundfunk.

© Hörbuch Hamburg If you don’t know the actor Samuel Finzi from the stage, you have certainly seen him in crime dramas or comedies on television. Samuel Finzi’s path led him from the Bulgarian capital Sofia via France to Berlin, where he has lived for a long time, with engagements throughout Germany and Austria. In Samuels Buch (Samuel’s Book), the actor, who was born in 1966, looks back on his youth in socialist Bulgaria, but as part of an artistic family. In affectionate anecdotes, he portrays his ever-elegant grandfather, his unflappable grandmother, his mother – a pianist with a penchant for la dolce vita – and his father, who also pursued the acting profession. The actor himself reads his autobiographical novel “about a successful life in the wrong system”, says the publisher's blurb. (hr2).

© Osterwold Angelika Klüssendorf’s autobiographical work Risse (Rifts) tells of a different kind of childhood in a socialist state: much sadder and more abysmal. The setting is East Germany in the 1960s and 1970s. The main character, “the girl,” is devastated by the death of her beloved grandmother and is now at the mercy of her parents: her father a violent drunk, her mother an unstable person. The girl also sees herself as her sister’s protector. Fortunately, they have books. Reading is an escape from even the most miserable situations. The girl’s life, full of rifts and abysses, is read by Corinna Harfouch. The well-known actress reads “directly, clearly, almost coolly ... yet always with great vulnerability and sensitivity. An audio book that resonates” (wdr5).

Start the new year with music

© Der Hörverlag You need momentum to face the challenges of a new year and music can provide this – especially beautiful music. In his work Das Schöne. 59 Begeisterungen, Austrian author Michael Köhlmeier recounts how enchanted he was when he heard Mozart’s penultimate symphony, practically inhaled it and tried to get closer to it: “I got to know the piece down to every note; I knew all four movements by heart, but I didn’t understand them. This music was the substrate of the incomprehensible that we encounter in all art.” Michael Köhlmeier is just as enamoured with encounters with The Odyssey, Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky as he is with Mozart, but also with Agatha Christie, Keith Richards and Johann Mario Simmel. Hessischer Rundfunk was also enthusiastic about the book, placing the work read by the author himself at number 2 on the hr2 best audiobook list in November 2023.

© Der Diwan Hörbuchverlag Road movies and music have always belonged together. In Nach vorn, nach Süden (Forwards, Southwards) by Sarah Jäger, the journey begins in the backyard of a discounter. Temps Lena, Marie, Can and Jo regularly hang out there. Then Jo suddenly disappears and the others decide to look for him. They get in a car and head south, through shimmering hot summer days, until they finally end up at a big music festival. The website Hörspiegel writes approvingly: “The reading, which Rebecca Madita Hundt performs with a pleasant voice and good voice acting, conveys the atmosphere of the story well. In addition, there are musical recordings that round off the whole thing.” Although the work is labelled as an audio book for young people aged 14 and over, adults will also enjoy listening to it.

© cc-live Finally, some noise at the end. The popular sociologist Hartmut Rosa devotes himself to a genre of music that is hard on the ears: heavy metal. When monsters roar and angels sing, more than 10 million Germans apparently listen. Why do they do it? What do metal fans experience when they listen to their music? What is heavy metal really about? The “little sociology of heavy metal” by avowed fan Hartmut Rosa answers these and many other questions. The book is read by Axel Wostry, an accomplished artistic speaker and excerpts from various song lyrics are presented by entertainer Ron Williams. With its vinyl look, the packaging also makes quite an impression. Altogether, the work earned first place on the hr2 best audiobook list in September 2023. The angels are singing for joy!