Narrator Vikas Adam joined us on our Behind the Mic Podcast to discuss Abdi Nazemian’s ONLY THIS BEAUTIFUL MOMENT, which he co-narrated along with Fajer Al-Kaisi and Iman Nazemzadeh. It’s one of AudioFile’s 2023 Best Young Adult Audiobooks, and each narrator gives a transcendent performance. It explores three generations of an Iranian family and is full of joy and anguish alike. Adam tells listeners about the preparation that went into recording this moving audiobook, working with his co-narrators, and what has stayed with him about narrating this work. Listen to the podcast.

Carlotta Brentan infuses this audio with all the emotional intensity it deserves. It recounts the childhood experiences of the author’s grandmother, Rieke, in Holocaust-era Romania. Brentan’s narration does full justice to the heroine’s reactions to the complex personal and political upheavals she encountered. Brentan anchors us firmly in Rieke’s feelings toward her family — her deep love for Opa, her beloved grandfather, and her impatience with her mother’s many headaches and concerns about Astra, Rieke’s elder sister.  

AudioFile Earphones Award

This funny and sweet queer retelling of Jane Austen’s EMMA is set in a wealthy Southern California high school. Narrator Drew Caiden is pitch perfect as smart, handsome, popular Emmett. He prides himself on being nice and, as one of his acts of niceness, attempts to find a boyfriend for his former hookup. Caiden ably animates the friends and adults in Emmett’s life, but his performance of Emmett is the heart of the audiobook.

Karissa Vacker shines brightly as she immerses listeners in the world of professional chess. Mallory Greenleaf once loved chess but put it aside to help support her mother and sisters. Agreeing to play in one last tournament, she unknowingly defeats the current world chess champion, the infamous “Kingkiller,” Nolan Sawyer. Nolan is intrigued and wants to cross pawns with Mallory again.

AudioFile Earphones Award

In calm, reflective tones, Monique Gray Smith shares botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer’s insights as an Indigenous scientist, highlighting how all living things — from strawberries to witch hazel to lichen — offer everyday gifts and lessons and connections. The audiobook invites listeners to contemplate a wider definition of family that includes the natural world, and to find kinship and connection within it.