Memoirs are all about facts and histories, but they’re also about people. Indeed, award-winning Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie once wrote that in “nonfiction, and in particular the literary memoir, the stylised recollection of personal experience, is often as much about character and story and emotion as fiction is”.
For that reason, memoirs lend themselves brilliantly to being read aloud, offering personal yet universal tales of hardship or happiness, or maybe both. They can be captivatingly recounted by their well-known authors, who get another chance to put their own spin on a story they’ve lived and chronicled. Alternatively, they can draw you into an extraordinary but less-publicised life.
Either way, there’s something about the warmth and human connection of hearing these stories read aloud as audiobooks that makes them a cut above a bingeable boxset. Here are seven of the most smart and uplifting audio memoirs to try this summer.
Believe Me by Eddie Izzard
“This is not me reading this book, Keith Richards is reading the book, just in my style …” From the opening seconds of the eccentric standup’s self-narrated autobiography, subtitled A Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens, it’s clear that Eddie Izzard’s going to be putting a lot of his own personality into proceedings. Indeed, he frequently adds extra asides and footnotes – and even song – as he presents his unique story. Its themes include the tragic death of his mother when he was just six years old; life as a transgender person and performer; his sporting glory by means of a series of charity marathons; and of course his comedy career, which has seen him perform shows in several languages, including French and Spanish. It’s an energetic, touching and above all riotous listen for fans of comedy and confessionals.
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein
This audiobook has drawn comparisons with hit podcast S-Town – and with good reason. While S-Town homed in on the strange life of a conspiracy-obsessed watchmaker from small-town Alabama, this memoir offers a window into the life of an equally fascinating character, Melbourne’s Sandra Pankhurst – a “husband, father, drag queen, sex worker [and] wife”. Pankhurst’s trauma-cleaning business – working in the “dark homes” of everyone from pet hoarders to drug addicts and fire victims – piqued writer Krasnostein’s interest after a chance encounter at a conference. As the writer finds out more about Pankhurst’s own difficult past and confused timeline, this story unfolds into something singular and moving.
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Rock legend, poet and author Patti Smith creates a striking picture of 60s and 70s New York in this self-narrated audiobook. Just Kids centres around her close friendship with cult photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, and their rise from a frugal existence to an extended stay at the place Smith dubs the “doll’s house in the Twilight Zone” (AKA the Chelsea Hotel), during which they became friends and associates with similarly mythic figures of the era. Smith’s voice is evocative as she recalls the people, places and perils that become the stuff of legend, while the focus on a loving, life-changing friendship makes for a memoir with universal resonance. Even if you don’t know all the words to Horses, this story is sure to draw you in.
Hunger by Roxane Gay
Famed US feminist Roxane Gay has written extensively about race, gender, sexuality and her relationship with herself, and Hunger continues this work. An exploration of the author’s own traumas and experiences around her body – she once weighed more than 500 pounds – as well as how society and the media treats those who are overweight, this is a personal-meets-political sort of work. While its themes are often difficult, it feels more vital than ever. That sense is only bolstered by the author’s own knowing, yet emotive, narration.
I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Malala’s name is synonymous with hope. Injured in a Taliban attack in her home country of Pakistan, the then-teenage blogger’s story of building a new life and advocating for peace and education made headlines across the world and inspired the award-winning film He Named Me Malala. In this audio version of her bestselling memoir, Yousafzai – the youngest recipient of a Nobel peace prize and now a student at Oxford University – offers the prologue to her inspiring story with humility and flair. Actor Archie Panjabi narrates the rest of her tale, conveying the author’s warmth, ambition and conviction.
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Comedian and Daily Show host Trevor Noah’s life story intersects with the history of late-apartheid South Africa in this wonderful, culturally rich memoir, which the author delivers here with the requisite mix of lightness and depth. All Born a Crime’s varied characters and their respective cultures are conveyed with ease, but the one with the clearest presence is his mother Patricia – god-fearing but fearless, with a desire to protect her son at all costs from a dangerous existence where being mixed race was the marker of an illegal union.
Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood
With her viral 2013 prose poem Rape Joke, author and poet Patricia Lockwood reached the masses. In Priestdaddy, she reveals once more her talent for combining humour and tragedy as she tells the story of moving home to her father’s Kansas rectory. Lockwood’s sometimes theatrical, but often deadpan reading adds to the surreal highs and dull lows she and husband Jason face in returning to her Catholic adolescence to understand her newly Catholic present. There is also a wonderfully awkward episode involving her mother and a hotel bedsheet.
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