People have long been fascinated by fairytales and folklore. From television and film to the stage and books, fairytales and folklore have been adapted, modernized, and used as the source of inspiration for original content. Here are five enchanting audiobooks that will add a little magic to your day:
At the edge of the Russian wilderness, Vasilisa spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. After Vasilisa’s mother dies, however, her new stepmother brings danger that seems to have stepped out of her nurse’s tales. Vasilisa must call on long-concealed gifts to protect those she loves.
Listen to an excerpt THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE
Inspired in part by Scottish myths and fairytales, The Gracekeepers tells the story of North, a circus performer, and Callanish, a gracekeeper. Their world is divided between those inhabiting the mainland (“landlockers”) and those who float on the sea (“damplings”). One day, a sudden storm offshore brings change to both of their lives.
Listen to an excerpt THE GRACEKEEPERS
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests, and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power. Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: a young woman handed over to serve him for ten years. And the next choosing is fast approaching.
Listen to an excerpt UPROOTED
The Brothers Grimm credited Giambattista Basile, a seventeenth-century poet from Naples, with recording the first national collection of fairy tales. In The Tale of Tales, Princess Zoza is cursed. The prince she is destined to marry will not be hers. To win the prince back, Zoza contrives a storytelling extravaganza: fifty fairy tales to be told by ten sharp-tongued women (including Zoza in disguise) over five days.
Listen to an excerpt THE TALE OF TALES
George Duncan is an American living and working in London. At forty-eight, he owns a small print shop, is divorced, and is lonelier than he realizes. One night he finds a great white crane shot through the wing with an arrow in his backyard and saves it. The next morning, a woman, Kumiko, enters his shop. He begins to fall in love with her, but who is she really?
Listen to an excerpt THE CRANE WIFE