Get Your Free Audiobook
-
The Tolstoy Estate
- Narrated by: Ross Dwyer
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Historical Fiction
Non-member price: $31.78
People who bought this also bought...
-
Snow
- By: John Banville
- Narrated by: Stanley Townsend
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following the discovery of the body of a well-loved parish priest at Ballyglass House - the Co Wexford family seat of the aristocratic, secretive Osborne family - Detective Inspector St John Strafford is called in from Dublin to investigate. Facing obstruction from all angles, Strafford is determined to identify the murderer. But, as the snow continues to fall over this ever expanding mystery, the people of Ballyglass are equally determined to keep their secrets.
-
-
So disappointed it’s finished
- By elizabeth b. on 01-10-2020
-
Lucky's
- By: Andrew Pippos
- Narrated by: Artemis Ioannides, Zoy Frangos
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucky's is a story of family. It is also about a man called Lucky. His restaurant chain. A fire that changed everything. A New Yorker article which might save a career. The mystery of a missing father. An impostor who got the girl. An unthinkable tragedy. A roll of the dice. And a story of love, lost, sought and won again (at last).
-
Mayflies
- By: Andrew O'Hagan
- Narrated by: Andrew O'Hagan
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life. In the summer of 1986, in a small Scottish town, James and Tully ignite a brilliant friendship based on music, films and the rebel spirit. With school over and the locked world of their fathers before them, they rush towards the climax of their youth: a magical weekend in Manchester, the epicentre of everything that inspires them in working-class Britain. There, against the greatest soundtrack ever recorded, a vow is made: to go at life differently. Thirty years on, half a life away, the phone rings. Tully has news.
-
-
reality bites
- By Lauren on 23-01-2021
-
War and Peace
- Penguin Classics
- By: Leo Tolstoy, Anthony Briggs - translator
- Narrated by: Chloe Pirrie, Sam Woolf, Michael Fox, and others
- Length: 67 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon's army marches on Russia and the lives of three young people are changed forever. The stories of quixotic Pierre, cynical Andrey and impetuous Natasha interweave with a huge cast, from aristocrats and peasants, to soldiers and Napoleon himself.
-
-
Interesting, but not the greatest Novel written
- By Richard on 28-05-2020
-
Infinite Splendours
- By: Sofie Laguna
- Narrated by: Matthew Backer
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lawrence is a bright, caring, curious boy with a gift for painting. He lives at home with his mother and younger brother and the future is laid out before him, full of promise. But when he is 10, an experience of betrayal takes it all away, and Lawrence is left to deal with the aftermath. As he grows into a man, how will he make sense of what he has suffered? He cannot rewrite history, but must he be condemned to repeat it?
-
-
Sensitive writing with claustrophic atmosphere
- By Rodney Wetherell on 02-02-2021
-
Honeybee
- By: Craig Silvey
- Narrated by: Harvey Zielinski
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Late in the night, 14-year-old Sam Watson steps onto a quiet overpass, climbs over the rail and looks down at the road far below. At the other end of the same bridge, an old man, Vic, smokes his last cigarette. The two see each other across the void. A fateful connection is made, and an unlikely friendship blooms. Slowly, we learn what led Sam and Vic to the bridge that night. Bonded by their suffering, each privately commits to the impossible task of saving the other.
-
-
Simply glorious
- By Jane h. on 03-10-2020
-
Snow
- By: John Banville
- Narrated by: Stanley Townsend
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following the discovery of the body of a well-loved parish priest at Ballyglass House - the Co Wexford family seat of the aristocratic, secretive Osborne family - Detective Inspector St John Strafford is called in from Dublin to investigate. Facing obstruction from all angles, Strafford is determined to identify the murderer. But, as the snow continues to fall over this ever expanding mystery, the people of Ballyglass are equally determined to keep their secrets.
-
-
So disappointed it’s finished
- By elizabeth b. on 01-10-2020
-
Lucky's
- By: Andrew Pippos
- Narrated by: Artemis Ioannides, Zoy Frangos
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucky's is a story of family. It is also about a man called Lucky. His restaurant chain. A fire that changed everything. A New Yorker article which might save a career. The mystery of a missing father. An impostor who got the girl. An unthinkable tragedy. A roll of the dice. And a story of love, lost, sought and won again (at last).
-
Mayflies
- By: Andrew O'Hagan
- Narrated by: Andrew O'Hagan
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life. In the summer of 1986, in a small Scottish town, James and Tully ignite a brilliant friendship based on music, films and the rebel spirit. With school over and the locked world of their fathers before them, they rush towards the climax of their youth: a magical weekend in Manchester, the epicentre of everything that inspires them in working-class Britain. There, against the greatest soundtrack ever recorded, a vow is made: to go at life differently. Thirty years on, half a life away, the phone rings. Tully has news.
-
-
reality bites
- By Lauren on 23-01-2021
-
War and Peace
- Penguin Classics
- By: Leo Tolstoy, Anthony Briggs - translator
- Narrated by: Chloe Pirrie, Sam Woolf, Michael Fox, and others
- Length: 67 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon's army marches on Russia and the lives of three young people are changed forever. The stories of quixotic Pierre, cynical Andrey and impetuous Natasha interweave with a huge cast, from aristocrats and peasants, to soldiers and Napoleon himself.
-
-
Interesting, but not the greatest Novel written
- By Richard on 28-05-2020
-
Infinite Splendours
- By: Sofie Laguna
- Narrated by: Matthew Backer
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lawrence is a bright, caring, curious boy with a gift for painting. He lives at home with his mother and younger brother and the future is laid out before him, full of promise. But when he is 10, an experience of betrayal takes it all away, and Lawrence is left to deal with the aftermath. As he grows into a man, how will he make sense of what he has suffered? He cannot rewrite history, but must he be condemned to repeat it?
-
-
Sensitive writing with claustrophic atmosphere
- By Rodney Wetherell on 02-02-2021
-
Honeybee
- By: Craig Silvey
- Narrated by: Harvey Zielinski
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Late in the night, 14-year-old Sam Watson steps onto a quiet overpass, climbs over the rail and looks down at the road far below. At the other end of the same bridge, an old man, Vic, smokes his last cigarette. The two see each other across the void. A fateful connection is made, and an unlikely friendship blooms. Slowly, we learn what led Sam and Vic to the bridge that night. Bonded by their suffering, each privately commits to the impossible task of saving the other.
-
-
Simply glorious
- By Jane h. on 03-10-2020
-
The Lying Life of Adults
- By: Elena Ferrante, Ann Goldstein - translator
- Narrated by: Marisa Tomei
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Giovanna’s pretty face is changing, turning ugly, at least so her father thinks. Giovanna, he says, is looking more like her Aunt Vittoria every day. But can it be true? Is she really changing? Will she turn out like her despised Aunt Vittoria, a woman she hardly knows but whom her mother and father have spent their whole lives avoiding and deriding? There must be a mirror somewhere in which she can see herself as she truly is.
-
-
Why?
- By Anonymous User on 15-09-2020
-
The Dressmaker's Secret
- By: Rosalie Ham
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1953, and Melbourne society is looking forward to coronation season, the grand balls and celebrations for the young queen-to-be. Tilly Dunnage is, however, working for a pittance in a second-rate Collins Street salon. Her talents go unappreciated, and the madame is a bully and a cheat, but Tilly has a past she is desperate to escape and good reason to prefer anonymity.
-
-
Not for me. A struggle from start to finish.
- By Amazon Customer on 02-03-2021
-
Shuggie Bain
- By: Douglas Stuart
- Narrated by: Angus King
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1981. Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive. Agnes Bain has always expected more from life. She dreams of greater things: a house with its own front door and a life bought and paid for outright (like her perfect, but false, teeth). But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and soon she and her three children find themselves trapped in a decimated mining town. As she descends deeper into drink, the children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves. It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest.
-
-
depressing even though it was obviously well writt
- By Cameron on 29-12-2020
-
The Living Sea of Waking Dreams
- By: Richard Flanagan
- Narrated by: Essie Davis
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a world of perennial fire and growing extinctions, Anna’s aged mother is dying - if her three children would just allow it. Condemned by their pity to living she increasingly escapes through her hospital window into visions of horror and delight. When Anna’s finger vanishes and a few months later her knee disappears, Anna too feels the pull of the window.
-
-
Wow, just fantastic
- By Anonymous User on 10-10-2020
-
Sorrow and Bliss
- By: Meg Mason
- Narrated by: Hannah Monson
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This novel is about a woman called Martha. She knows there is something wrong with her but she doesn't know what it is. Her husband Patrick thinks she is fine. He says everyone has something, the thing is just to keep going. Martha told Patrick before they got married that she didn't want to have children. He said he didn't mind either way because he has loved her since he was 14 and making her happy is all that matters, although he does not seem able to do it.
-
-
I was 100% consumed, involved and personally reflective and affected.
- By lucy aris on 17-10-2020
-
The Dictionary of Lost Words
- By: Pip Williams
- Narrated by: Imogen Sage
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day, she sees a slip containing the word bondmaid flutter to the floor unclaimed. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men.
-
-
An Engrossing Story, A Thinkpiece on Words
- By KerryJ on 08-06-2020
-
The Nickel Boys
- By: Colson Whitehead
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Colson Whitehead
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Nickel Boys is Colson Whitehead's follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning best seller The Underground Railroad, in which he dramatises another strand of United States history, this time through the story of two boys sentenced to a stretch in a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. Elwood Curtis has taken the words of Dr Martin Luther King to heart: he is as good as anyone. Abandoned by his parents, brought up by his loving, strict and clear-sighted grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college.
-
-
READ the book
- By milorad topic on 29-11-2019
-
A Room Made of Leaves
- By: Kate Grenville
- Narrated by: Valerie Bader
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if Elizabeth Macarthur – wife of the notorious John Macarthur, wool baron in early Sydney – had written a shockingly frank secret memoir? In her introduction Kate Grenville tells, tongue firmly in cheek, of discovering a long-hidden box containing that memoir. What follows is a playful dance of possibilities between the real and the invented. Grenville's Elizabeth Macarthur is a passionate woman managing her complicated life-marriage to a ruthless bully, the impulses of her own heart and the search for power in a society that gave her none - with spirit, cunning and sly wit.
-
-
Not what I was expecting
- By Julie Orton on 03-08-2020
-
The Yield
- By: Tara June Winch
- Narrated by: Tony Briggs
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Knowing that he will soon die, Albert 'Poppy' Gondiwindi takes pen to paper. His life has been spent on the banks of the Murrumby River at Prosperous House, on Massacre Plains. Albert is determined to pass on the language of his people and everything that was ever remembered. He finds the words on the wind. August Gondiwindi has been living on the other side of the world for 10 years when she learns of her grandfather's death.
-
-
Heartbreaking
- By Anonymous User on 21-12-2019
-
The Evening and the Morning
- By: Ken Follett
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
International number-one best seller Ken Follett returns with The Evening and the Morning, a thrilling and addictive novel from the master of historical fiction. It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages, and in England one man's ambition to make his abbey a centre of learning will take the listener on an epic journey into a historical past rich with ambition and rivalry, death and birth, love and hate. Thirty years ago, Ken Follett published his most popular novel, The Pillars of the Earth, which has sold more than 27 million copies worldwide.
-
-
Enjoyed this prequel to the Pillars of the Earth
- By Leesa F on 28-09-2020
-
The Hunted
- By: Gabriel Bergmoser
- Narrated by: Toby Truslove
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Frank is a service station owner on a little-used highway who just wants a quiet life. His granddaughter has been sent to stay with him to fix her attitude, but they don't talk a lot. When a badly injured young woman arrives at Frank's service station with several cars in pursuit, Frank and a handful of unsuspecting customers are thrust into a life-or-death standoff. But who are this group of men and women who will go to any lengths for revenge? And what do they want? Other than no survivors...?
-
-
So much violence
- By Anonymous User on 06-12-2020
-
The Pull of the Stars
- By: Emma Donoghue
- Narrated by: Emma Lowe
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dublin, 1918. In a country doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city centre, where expectant mothers who have come down with an unfamiliar flu are quarantined together. Into Julia's regimented world step two outsiders: Doctor Kathleen Lynn, on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney. In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over the course of three days, these women change each other’s lives in unexpected ways.
-
-
A must read in the Ireland of today.
- By Amazon Customer on 20-01-2021
Publisher's Summary
Epic in scope, ambitious and astonishingly good, The Tolstoy Estate proclaims Steven Conte as one of Australia's finest writers.
From the winner of the inaugural Prime Minister's Literary Award, Steven Conte, comes a powerful, densely rich and deeply affecting novel of love, war and literature
"Grave, moving, engaging....full of the flash and fire of dramatic incident, but also full of real feeling, humor and poignancy, and equipped with plenty of panache...It deserves the widest possible readership." (The Saturday Paper)
In the first year of the doomed German invasion of Russia in WWII, a German military doctor, Paul Bauer, is assigned to establish a field hospital at Yasnaya Polyana - the former grand estate of Count Leo Tolstoy, the author of the classic War and Peace. There he encounters a hostile aristocratic Russian woman, Katerina Trubetzkaya, a writer who has been left in charge of the estate. But even as a tentative friendship develops between them, Bauer's hostile and arrogant commanding officer, Julius Metz, becomes erratic and unhinged as the war turns against the Germans. Over the course of six weeks, in the terrible winter of 1941, everything starts to unravel....
From the critically acclaimed and award-winning author, Steven Conte, The Tolstoy Estate is ambitious, accomplished and astonishingly good: an engrossing, intense and compelling exploration of the horror and brutality of conflict, and the moral, emotional, physical and intellectual limits that people reach in war time. It is also a poignant, bittersweet love story - and, most movingly, a novel that explores the notion that literature can still be a potent force for good in our world.
"Breathtaking...an intelligent, cinematic blockbuster, celebrating the power of literature to dissolve barriers and forge connections." (The West Australian)
"Reading a book that is such a complete world, evoked in such fine detail, is almost wickedly satisfying.... Elegant, intelligent, utterly engrossing and immersive.... He reminds us that travel is always possible in the imagination even when reality goes dark and that literature always leads us towards the light." (Caroline Baum)
"Steven Conte has written a sweeping historical saga spanning the second world WAR and the frigid decades of PEACE that followed; an essential novel about essential things - love's triumphs and failures, the redoubtable human spirit, and the power of literary art itself. Tolstoy, of course, is at the novel's heart, and in its very soul." (Luke Slattery, author, journalist, Books Editor of Australian Financial Review)
"A riveting story of war, love and literature - Conte's prose does not miss a beat." (Jane Gleeson-White, award-winning author of Classics and Double Entry)
More from the same
What listeners say about The Tolstoy Estate
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
20 Best Fantasy Audiobooks
This genre is so full of talent, it can be difficult to know what to listen to next — so look no further than this list to get you started.



20 Best Nonfiction Audiobooks
From the entire history of humanity to astrophysics, to our gut and mental health, dig into this list and learn something new.



Best Australian Podcasts on Audible
Audible Original Podcasts are free for Audible members. Check out this list of home-grown content, from binge-worthy true crime to self-help.


