Books published by publisher Beacon Audiobooks

Fans of Margaret Atwood's fiction can now experience The Handmaid's Tale as a gripping audio dramatization. Starring Emma Campbell as Offred, William B. Davis as the Commander, and Donna Goodhand as the Commander's barren wife Serena Joy, this stunning production of Atwood's Booker Prize-nominated work of speculative fiction was an instant hit when it first aired in 2002. A feminist Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Handmaid's Tale portrays the future as a chilling dystopia in which religious extremists rule the United States and birth rates are plunging. Assigned to a member of the Gilead elite as an official breeder, the handmaid Offred mingles memories of her old life in the 1980s with dangerous thoughts of rebellion and escape. Audaciously imaginative, The Handmaid's Tale combines the suspence of a psychological thriller with a bittersweet love story.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of 18th Abduction by James Patterson, read by January LaVoy. Detective Lindsay Boxer fights to protect the streets of San Francisco from an international war criminal in the latest Women's Murder Club thriller.When three female schoolteachers go missing in San Francisco, Detective Lindsay Boxer must unravel the mystery of their disappearance. But what starts as a missing person case quickly escalates to a troubling murder investigation. As pressure at work mounts, Lindsay must rely on her husband Joe to support her at home. Yet Joe is pursuing a mysterious case himself, as a woman running from her past brings him terrifying information – the notorious war criminal from her Eastern European home country has appeared on the streets of San Francisco.As Lindsay searches for the three missing women, a frightening new twist forces her and Joe's investigations to collide. His mystery informant has gone missing, and all four abducted women are in grave danger. As shocking revelations emerge, Lindsay and Joe find themselves caught up in an international crime operation unlike anything they've seen before. With the help of her fierce and courageous friends in the Women's Murder Club, Lindsay and Joe fight to save their city from the corrupt clutches of a monster.

Alone on a desert island — everything and everyone he knows and loves has been washed away in a storm — Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He’s completely alone — or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird, and gives him a stick that can make fire.Daphne, sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy, almost immediately regrets trying to shoot the native boy. Thank goodness the powder was wet and the gun only produced a spark. She’s certain her father, distant cousin of the Royal family, will come and rescue her but it seems, for now, that all she has for company is the boy and the foul-mouthed ship’s parrot, until other survivors arrive to take refuge on the island. Together, Mau and Daphne discover some remarkable things (including how to milk a pig, and why spitting in beer is a good thing), and start to forge a new nation.Encompassing themes of death and nationhood, Terry Pratchett’s new novel is, as can be expected, extremely funny, witty and wise. Mau’s ancestors have something to teach us all. Mau just wishes they would shut up about it and let him get on with saving everyone’s lives!

The Stone Diaries is Carol Shields’s most celebrated work and one of the most critically acclaimed and successful novels of the past two decades. A fictional autobiography of an ordinary woman, this multi-award-winning book (Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Governor-General’s Award) serves as a record of the last century. Daisy Goodwill is on a journey of self-discovery. From her last days in a Florida nursing home she looks back in an attempt to make sense of her life story. It is a life like any other, filled with the richness of human relations and the sting of disappointments both big and small. The beauty of this work lies in the details, the tiny brushstrokes of character and setting, at which Carol Shields is the undisputed master. This engrossing abridged recording was first broadcast on CBC Radio in 1995. Carol Shields both reviewed and approved the abridgement and the recording.

International BestsellerWhen Will There Be Good News? is the brilliant new novel from the acclaimed author of Case Histories and One Good Turn, once again featuring private investigator Jackson Brodie. Thirty years ago, six-year-old Joanna witnessed the brutal murders of her mother, brother and sister, before escaping into a field, and running for her life. Now, the man convicted of the crime is being released from prison, meaning Dr. Joanna Hunter has one more reason to dwell on the pain of that day, especially with her own infant son to protect. Sixteen-year-old Reggie, recently orphaned and wise beyond her years, works as a nanny for Joanna Hunter, but has no idea of the woman’s horrific past. All Reggie knows is that Dr. Hunter cares more about her baby than life itself, and that the two of them make up just the sort of family Reggie wished she had: that unbreakable bond, that safe port in the storm. When Dr. Hunter goes missing, Reggie seems to be the only person who is worried, despite the decidedly shifty business interests of Joanna’s husband, Neil, and the unknown whereabouts of the newly freed murderer, Andrew Decker.Across town, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe is looking for a missing person of her own, murderer David Needler, whose family lives in terror that he will return to finish the job he started. So it’s not surprising that she listens to Reggie’s outrageous thoughts on Dr. Hunter’s disappearance with only mild attention. But when ex-police officer and Private Investigator, Jackson Brodie arrives on the scene, with connections to Reggie and Joanna Hunter of his own, the details begin to snap into place. And, as Louise knows, once Jackson is involved there’s no telling how many criminal threads he will be able to pull together — or how many could potentially end up wrapped around his own neck.In an extraordinary virtuoso display, Kate Atkinson has produced one of the most engrossing, masterful, and piercingly insightful novels of this or any year. It is also as hilarious as it is heartbreaking, as Atkinson weaves in and out of the lives of her eccentric, grief-plagued, and often all-too-human cast. Yet out of the excesses of her characters and extreme events that shake their worlds comes a relatively simple message, about being good, loyal, and true. When Will There Be Good News? shows us what it means to survive the past and the present, and to have the strength to just keep on keeping on.From the Hardcover edition.

A new critical edition to celebrate the 50th anniversary of A Clockwork Orange -- one of the most influential books of the twentieth century.First published by William Heinemann in 1962, A Clockwork Orange is the best known of Anthony Burgess's thirty-three remarkable novels, and is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. For more than twenty years A Clockwork Orange circulated in two distinct editions with two different endings. This special edition to mark the 50th Anniversary of first publication restores the text of the novel as Burgess originally wrote it, along with a selection of interviews, articles, reviews and other previously unpublished material.Featuring a biographical introduction by Andrew Biswell, Burgess's biographer -- examining the background to the novel's composition and its subsequent editorial and publication history -- this new edition also includes the full novel, newly edited from the 1961 typescript with the restoration of illustrations and music and a previously unpublished dramatic prologue from the Burgess archive in Austin, Texas.This new edition places the novel within its immediate historical and cultural contexts and will be the definitive edition to excite critics and readers alike.

Amazon.com Here is a very special edition of the book that started it all: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Shortly after publication, J.K. Rowling's debut became a runaway bestselling award winner, and each new title in the sequence has all but created riots in the streets, as delirious fans chomp at the bit for the latest escapades of Harry Potter and his cohorts. For the true devotee of the series, this collector's edition is a must. Gold foil stamping on an embossed leather cover marks the book as a bona fide treasure. Most exciting of all is a previously unpublished sketch of Harry by Rowling herself! Don't miss this opportunity to collect a beautiful version of a modern classic. (Ages 9 and older) --Emilie Coulter

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Berlin, 1942: When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move to a new house far, far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people in the distance. But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different from his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

Amazon.com Here is a very special edition of the book that started it all: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Shortly after publication, J.K. Rowling's debut became a runaway bestselling award winner, and each new title in the sequence has all but created riots in the streets, as delirious fans chomp at the bit for the latest escapades of Harry Potter and his cohorts. For the true devotee of the series, this collector's edition is a must. Gold foil stamping on an embossed leather cover marks the book as a bona fide treasure. Most exciting of all is a previously unpublished sketch of Harry by Rowling herself! Don't miss this opportunity to collect a beautiful version of a modern classic. (Ages 9 and older) --Emilie Coulter