Arminta Wallace reviews the latest audiobooks.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas By John Boyne, read by Michael Maloney Random House Audio, four CDs, 4½ hours, £12.99
Publishers seem, at last, to be getting the message that the majority of us prefer audiobooks unabridged, even if we have to fork out a little bit more for them. Having the full text of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas is a definite plus. It allows the listener to settle in with the two boys, Bruno and Schmuel, as they embark on their improbable Auschwitz adventure; and it delivers a series of smiles and sharp intakes of breath right up to its final, unforgettable sentence. Michael Maloney does more than read Bruno: he is Bruno, and the effect is devastating.
A Wild Sheep Chase By Haruki Murakami, read by Rupert Degas Naxos Audiobooks, eight CDs, 9½ hours, £29.99
A young advertising executive gets involved in the hunt for a wild sheep, which takes him far from his consumerist Toyko lifestyle and into the wilds of Japan's northernmost island, Hokkaido. It sounds dreadful, but actually A Wild Sheep Chase's weirdness is oddly appealing. This is Japanese culture wrapped in David Lynch-type imagery and the staccato rhythms of hardboiled detective fiction, and it's read with impressive fearlessness by Rupert Degas - it's not easy doing the half-man, half-sheep thing. More Murakami is on the way from Naxos which, happily, plans to release all of his novels on unabridged audio.
Twelve Books that Changed the World By Melvyn Bragg, read by Patricia Hodge, Hugh Ross, Robert Powell and Bill Bingham Hodder & Stoughton, two CDs, two hours, £14.99
If there's a book-lover in your life who didn't catch this quirky little series when it was on the telly, do them a favour and buy them this potted audio version for Christmas. The choice of books is very Bragg-ish, of course - but that's all part of the fun. Should Marie Stopes get into the mix for her weirdly wise volume Married Love? Can books be said to change the world anyhow? Is Magna Carta a book? Yes, yes and, well, maybe . . . great stuff altogether.
The Naming of the Dead By Ian Rankin, read by James MacPherson Orion Audio, six CDs, seven hours 10 minutes, £14.99
See, now: here's the "to cut or not to cut?" argument in a nutshell. The Naming of the Dead, the 16th in his bestselling Edinburgh-based crime series, finds both Rankin and his anti-hero, DI John Rebus, in sparkling form, taking on ecopolitics, ecoterrorism and eek-oh-thuggery with panache and wry humour. As always, James MacPherson is the reader, and puts in a flawless performance. But the best bits of the Rebus books - the sotto voce conversations in grotty pubs and the details of the Edinburgh setting - are always the bits that are left out of the abridged audio versions. Can we have the whole thing now, please, Orion?
The Lighthouse By PD James, read by Michael Jayston Chivers/BBC Audiobooks 10 CDs, 12½ hours, £22.99
Compare and contrast the above with this BBC production of The Lighthouse. An isolated island; high seas and higher emotions; dark deeds in the lighthouse. It's all vintage James; and more to the point, it's all here, and superbly packaged in a proper box to boot. Pricier, but classier. BBC audio books are published by Chivers and are available from www.audiobookcollection.com
The Seafaring Irish: a Life of John de Courcy Ireland Earth Productions, various voices, two CDs, two hours, €17.95
Who better to remind us of the heroes and villains of our seafaring past than the late John de Courcy Ireland, tireless chronicler of pirates and petty officers, and stalwart supporter of socialist principles? Earth Productions' two-CD set features interviews with the man himself, anecdotes, bits of autobiography, scraps of music and - sonorously read by Barry McGovern - excerpts from his written accounts of Irish maritime history. It is, perhaps, more of a radio programme than an audiobook: whatever it is, though, it's an absolute joy to listen to.