Celebrating 10 Years of Audible’s Service for Italy at Turin Book Fair

We were thrilled to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Audible’s Italian-language service at the Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino (Turin Book Fair) with immersive performances of beloved titles, interactive experiences for all ages, and some of Italy’s most celebrated creators, voices and publishers.

Over the last decade, audiobooks in Italy have transformed from a niche tool to a popular way to enjoy beloved stories, an evolution described by Audible’s Chief Content Officer, Rachel Ghiazza, in a conversation with journalist Sabina Minardi. The number of audiobook listeners in Italy has grown by sixteen percent over the last five years, driven largely by a catalog that has grown to more than 400,000 titles, including over 20,000 in the Italian language. Ghiazza described this as the result of a collective effort between Audible and Italian publishers, literary agents, authors, as well as thousands of audiovisual professionals including production studios, directors, actors, sound designers and musicians.

Ghiazza shared some fascinating trends in Italian listening. Citing our Compass and NielsenIQ market research, which confirmed Italy’s extraordinary appetite for literary fiction, she reflected on the country's deep literary culture and tradition of valuing narrative quality and authorial voice. A telling example: last year’s most-listened-to audiobook on Audible’s Italian service was L'anniversario by Andrea Bajani, winner of the prestigious Premio Strega award.

Our research also discovered that Italy shows one of the strongest affinities between reading and listening, with 86 percent of Italian audiobook listeners — the highest percentage in Europe — also reading print and digital books. This underscores what we’ve long known, that when a story resonates people enjoy experiencing it across multiple formats. When the movie version of Project Hail Mary came out, the audiobook topped Audible’s charts for weeks in several countries, including Italy.

The panel ended with a live performance of the all-time most-listened-to title in Audible’s Italian catalog, Harry Potter: La saga complete, by the iconic Italian actor Francesco Pannofino. Pannofino also talked about the art of bringing characters to life through audio-only performances, including memorable anecdotes from his time recording the Harry Potter books.

In a spectacular demonstration of our continued investment in world-class original Italian content with top-tier talent, we publicly launched our audio adaptation of Giorgio Faletti’s masterpiece thriller, Io uccido, with a star-studded panel featuring Marco D'Amore, Filippo Nigro and Barbara Ronchi, who delighted the audience with an immersive reading. Afterward, Audible was joined by Faletti’s wife and agent in honoring the legendary author. The fun continued with an interactive mystery experience around the Audible release of Agatha Christie’s La serie infernale, with stars Claudio Santamaria and Alberto Boubakar Malanchino reprising their roles as Poirot and Hastings.

Throughout the fair, visitors found respite from the hustle and bustle at the AudiBar, a unique experience with listening stations. There they escaped into stories from Audible’s Italian catalog and took photos in staged romance, fantasy and true crime settings.

And reflecting our commitment to promoting literacy and inspiring the next generation of audiobook listeners, we held a series of educational workshops in collaboration with Operatori Doppiaggio Spettacolo (O.D.S.) for young readers, led by narrator Gian Andrea Muià, where kids learned the craft of audiobook creation. This is a continuation of our work with O.D.S. where we help provide workshops for their graduates on the art of narration and offer a three-year training scholarship to their voice acting and dubbing school for aspiring talent.

Here’s to many more decades of listening, Italy!