Audiobooks Like Anna Karenina

Davina Porter's approach to this 37-hour Tolstoy is unhurried and emotionally precise — her range across the sprawling cast finds the right register for everyone from aristocratic salons to the countryside, and she never lets the philosophical digressions lose their human texture. Three of the recommendations feature Porter herself, and the rest share that same scope and literary seriousness, so if you finished this wanting something with a similar sense of scale and weight, these are built to the same standard.

10 audiobooks for fans of Anna Karenina

  1. 1
    The Kreutzer Sonata cover

    The Kreutzer Sonata

    by Leo Tolstoy, Benj. R. Tucker

    Narrated by Simon Prebble

    4.08 ABR Score (36.9K ratings)
    ★ 3.86 Goodreads (36.2K) ★ 4.49 Audible (743)
    3h 30m listening time • Released 2012

    Simon Prebble's measured intensity transforms Tolstoy's psychological thriller into something unbearably intimate—a confession that feels like it's happening in real time, just for you.

  2. 2
    Los hermanos Karam??zov / The Brothers Karamazov cover

    Los hermanos Karam??zov / The Brothers Karamazov

    by Fyodor Dostoevsky

    Narrated by Luke Thompson

    4.49 ABR Score (395.0K ratings)
    ★ 4.39 Goodreads (394.3K) ★ 4.75 Audible (638)
    43h 6m listening time • Released 2021
  3. 3
    The Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe cover

    The Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

    by Edgar Allan Poe

    Narrated by Jonathan Keeble, Peter Noble

    4.13 ABR Score (297.3K ratings)
    ★ 4.4 Goodreads (297.3K) ★ 4.59 Audible (29)
    36h 34m listening time • Released 2022

    Poe's complete works — the inventor of the detective story, the master of gothic horror, all in one essential collection.

  4. 4
    Madame Bovary cover

    Madame Bovary

    by Gustave Flaubert

    Narrated by Davina Porter

    3.74 ABR Score (379.2K ratings)
    ★ 3.71 Goodreads (378.9K) ★ 3.95 Audible (370)
    13h 5m listening time • Released 1999

    Davina Porter's narration transforms Flaubert's obsessive prose into something hypnotic—you hear the suffocation of provincial life in every perfectly measured pause and inflection.

  5. 5
    Shantaram cover

    Shantaram

    Shantaram • Book 1

    by Gregory David Roberts

    Narrated by Humphrey Bower

    4.60 ABR Score (253.4K ratings)
    ★ 4.28 Goodreads (242.1K) ★ 4.7 Audible (11.3K)
    42h 59m listening time • Released 2013
  6. 6
    DON QUIXOTE. Translated cover

    DON QUIXOTE. Translated

    Don Quijote de la Mancha #1-2

    by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

    Narrated by George Guidall

    4.31 ABR Score (314.6K ratings)
    ★ 3.91 Goodreads (308.1K) ★ 4.54 Audible (6.5K)
    39h 42m listening time • Released 2012
  7. 7
    The Goldfinch cover

    The Goldfinch

    by Donna Tartt

    Narrated by David Pittu

    4.28 ABR Score (1.1M ratings)
    ★ 3.97 Goodreads (1.1M) ★ 4.33 Audible (42.4K)
    32h 24m listening time • Released 2013
  8. 8
    The Charles Dickens BBC Radio Drama Collection: The Early Years cover

    The Charles Dickens BBC Radio Drama Collection: The Early Years

    by Charles Dickens, Alex Jennings, Anna Massey, Bill Nighy, Julia McKenzie, Pam Ferris, Phil Daniels, Robert Glenister, Sandi Toksvig, Tim McInnerny

    Narrated by Full Cast, Anna Massey, Alex Jennings, Phil Daniels, Julia McKenzie, Tim McInnerny, Robert Glenister

    3.64 ABR Score (69 ratings)
    ★ 4.47 Goodreads (15) ★ 4.5 Audible (54)
    35h 7m listening time • Released 2018
  9. 9
    Kathleen Glasgow Three-Audiobook Collection: Girl in Pieces; How to Make Friends with the Dark; You'd Be Home Now cover

    Kathleen Glasgow Three-Audiobook Collection: Girl in Pieces; How to Make Friends with the Dark; You'd Be Home Now

    by Kathleen Glasgow

    Narrated by Julia Whelan, Jorjeana Marie, Julia Knippen, Kathleen Glasgow

    3.56 ABR Score (33 ratings)
    ★ 4.81 Goodreads (26) ★ 4.71 Audible (7)
    35h 38m listening time • Released 2025

    Glasgow's trilogy hits harder in audio form, where multiple narrators bring raw emotional specificity to each character's trauma and recovery. 35 hours of unsparing, necessary stories about survival.

  10. 10
    The Geometry of Holding Hands cover

    The Geometry of Holding Hands

    Isabel Dalhousie • Book 13

    by Alexander McCall Smith

    Narrated by Davina Porter

    4.07 ABR Score (3.9K ratings)
    ★ 4.12 Goodreads (3.6K) ★ 4.63 Audible (238)
    6h 59m listening time • Released 2020

How We Rank Audiobooks

Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.

Unlike most book lists, we weight audiobook-specific factors: narrator performance, production quality, and how well a story translates to audio. A great book with a poor narration isn't a great audiobook.

We don't accept paid placements or prioritize new releases. These rankings reflect what listeners actually enjoy, not what's being promoted.

Rankings update periodically as new ratings come in and new titles are added to the collection.

Read our full ranking methodology →