Piranesi Audiobook by Susanna Clarke— narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor

Why the audiobook wins

Chiwetel Ejiofor narrates Piranesi with a hushed, wondering calm that turns out to be the whole key to the book: his voice makes the narrator's innocence feel earned rather than naive, so you trust him completely even as the story quietly signals you shouldn't. Ejiofor never tips his hand. He lets the House's beauty and danger sit in the same even tone, which is exactly how a man who has cataloged every tide and statue in his world would sound.

This is a slim, dreamlike puzzle of a novel, and audio is arguably the ideal way in: Ejiofor's pacing mirrors the narrator's own patient, meditative relationship with his strange home, so you settle into its rhythms rather than racing to solve it. It rewards a quiet, uninterrupted sitting, headphones on, nothing else competing for your attention.

This recording won Audiobook of the Year at the 2021 Audies, with judges Jennifer Egan, Tommy Orange, and David Sedaris singling out Ejiofor's reading as a rare triumph of tone. At under seven hours, it's a short trip into an endless house, and one credit is all it costs to get lost in it.