In the National Book Award-winning work, Coates coaches him through the dangers and blessings, highs and lows, mythologies and realities of the African-American experience.

Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading”, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me reads aloud his own deeply personal letter to his 15-year-old son. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, narrated by the author Tackling a range of complex subjects from race and mental health to consent and class, it is all beautifully narrated by actor Shvorne Marks. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams, narrated by Shvorne MarksĪ Sunday Times bestseller, Candice Carty-Williams’s phenomenal debut follows the titular Queenie, struggling with low self esteem, as she navigates the end of a toxic relationship a complicated family dynamic and a soul-destroying job at a major newspaper. What could be more powerful than hearing Maya Angelou speak the poetic words of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings? Or Ta-Nehisi Coates expressing his own feelings about race in America in Between the World and Me? Below, Vogue shares its guide to the best audiobooks available now. Then, of course, there are authors reading their own works to savour. Listen to Diane Keaton reading Joan Didion’s seminal essay “Goodbye To All That”, or a full cast bringing to life the many graveyard spirits depicted in George Saunders’s masterful Lincoln in the Bardo.

The wealth of fiction and non-fiction options on Spotify and Audible now go beyond straightforward narration – adding another dimension to moving texts. If you don’t have the time or attention span to read a novel, consider an audiobook.

Best audio books