A thoroughly marvellous Moor

. The Moor's Last Sigh, by Salman Rushdie (Random House, 4 tapes, 6 hrs, £12.99 in UK)

Either this is the Salman Rushdie's of Midnight's Children - pulsating, vibrant, wickedly funny, compellingly readable - or Art Malik's brilliantly inventive reading makes it seem so, for this, folks, is six hours of untrammelled bliss. The Moor himself is a shadowy type, glimpsed now in oils on the teeming canvases of his painter mother, now putting his deformed fist forward in illicit boxing matches, now incarcerated with particular brutality for something he didn't do - ah yes, there are unkind cuts, and moments of unforgettable poignancy, like the night the Moor's newly married uncle climbs into his wife's newly discarded wedding dress and takes off down the moonlit river in a rowing boat. It, as a character, the Moor is somewhat blurred at the edges, the same can hardly be said of the rest of his kaleidoscopic family, over whose multi hued fortunes Rushdie presides with sure footed ease, sardonic wit and deep affection. Malik, meanwhile, brings the whole bizarre shooting gallery to life, allowing the listener neither to lose sight of the bigger picture nor to let the mind wander for a second from the merciless onslaught of zoomlens detail. Will The Moor's Last Sigh win this year's Whitbread award, to be announced in just over two weeks time? After listening to this, I certainly hope so.

. Living Proof, by John Harvey, read by Keith Barron (Reed Audio, 2 tapes, 3 hrs, £7.99 in UK)

This unattractive thriller about thriller writers and prostitutes - not a heart of gold in sight, alas - struck me as being saddled with ideas above its station, and a nasty cast of characters to boot. Even Keith Barron's rich baritone couldn't induce me to warm to it, so its twists and turns were left to seem more tedious than tantalising.

. Enigma, by Robert Harris, read by Alan Howard (Random House, 4 tapes, 6 hrs, £12.99 in UK)

Now here's a rarity an old fashioned spy romp in which the chaps, led by a jolly decent mathematician by the name of Tom Jericho, slave away night and day in an effort to break the codes of the nasty Nazis. Alan Howard's unhurried calm sets exactly the right tone for what is essentially the audiobook equivalent of a comfort blanket.

. Pemberley/An Unequal Marriage, by Emma Tennant, read by Juliet Stevenson (Hodder, each 2 tapes, 3 hrs, £7.99 in UK)

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that the desire to know what happens after happy ever after leads to some extremely scandalous behaviour - such as the writing of, not one, but two sequels to Pride and Prejudice. Emma Tennant makes an amusing fist of her impossible task, and Juliet Stevenson reads it all with the same decorum she brought to Jane Austen's original so much so that you have to keep pinching yourself sharply in case it all gets too serious. As to the plotline, it should be sufficient to point out that when Elizabeth married Mr Darcy she got his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and the awful Caroline Bingley now, of course, her sister in law - into the bargain.

. Geraldine McEwan's Jane Austen read by Geraldine McEwan (Hodder, 2 tapes, 2 hrs, £7.99 in UK)

Even at its most vitriolic, Emma Tennant's pen doesn't come within a million miles of the acerbic Austen implement, as this series of satisfyingly over the top readings from Austen's novels amply demonstrates. Rarely will you hear a slimier Mr Collins, a breathier Miss Bates, a more dastardly pair of Dashwoods; and as if Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Sense and Sensibility weren't enough, McEwan gives us a taste of Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park and Persuasion as well. A brief taste, of course, and with a heavily comic flavour only the latter's Captain Frederick Wentworth is allowed to show a bit of Darcy like stiff upper lip - but still, it's enough to encourage extensive rereading, not to mention adding considerable weight to Lord. David Cecil's argument that the novels of Jane Austen represent "artistic achievements of a Mozartian perfection".

. The Lost World, by Michael Crichton, read by Anthony Heald (Random House, 4 tapes, 4 hrs, £12.99 in UK)

Anyone foolish enough to believe that the Wagnerian scale of the destruction of the dinosaur theme park at the end of Jurassic Park meant the disappearance of dinosaurs forever from the surface of popular culture will be relieved - or horrified - to discover that a few special effects specialists and their scaly pets still lurk in the jungles of Costa Rica, waiting to be discovered by Steven Spielberg and a film crew. In the meantime Anthony Heald's enthusiastic delivery almost manages to breathe life into an essentially fossilised piece off writing.

. Timebends, by Arthur Miller, read by the author (Reed Audio, 2 tapes, 3 hrs, £7.99 in UK)

Gravelly? You ain't heard gravelly until you hear Arthur Miller read his life story, a voyage from grim and gritty Jewish childhood in Mitteleuropa to the dizzy New World glamour of marriage to Marilyn Monroe - not to mention fame, fortune and critical acclaim. The voice is, I have to admit, hard to take in anything resembling large doses, but if you hang in there, the occasional writerly touches are worth waiting for and there are some unexpected, to say the least, revelations concerning the second Mrs Miller. Apparently when she entered a room Marilyn Monroe could instantly "spot anyone there who had lost parents as a child, or who had spent time in orphanages And then some.