
The Names
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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By:
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Florence Knapp
About this listen
“A magnificent novel, thrumming with life in all its pain and precariousness, yet suffused with the glorious possibilities of love and redemption.”—Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Horse
“The Names is a truly gorgeous, heart-opening novel. I couldn’t put it down, and I’m grateful to have Cora and her children living inside my heart now. What a wonderful book!”—Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful
“Magnificent. A stunning, hopeful, bitterly beautiful novel....Read it. It’s very special.”—Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of All the Colors of the Dark
The extraordinary novel that asks: Can a name change the course of a life?
In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him. But when the registrar asks what she'd like to call the child, Cora hesitates...
Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of Cora's and her young son's lives, shaped by her choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family, and the possibilities of autonomy and healing.
With exceptional sensitivity and depth, Knapp draws us into the story of one family, told through a prism of what-ifs, causing us to consider the "one . . . precious life" we are given. The book’s brilliantly imaginative structure, propulsive storytelling, and emotional, gut-wrenching power are certain to make The Names a modern classic.
©2025 Florence Knapp (P)2025 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“A tour de force. . . truly mesmerizing and profound. Knapp crafts a world where names are keys that can unlock the truth about who we are and who we can become. At once haunting and revelatory, The Names is a brilliant exploration of the choices that define our lives.”—Alison Espach, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding People
“Beautiful, heart-wrenching, utterly original.”—Miranda Cowley Heller, international #1 bestselling author of The Paper Palace
“Magnificent. A stunning, hopeful, bitterly beautiful novel. The Names is a story of decisions, both grand and miniature, of how each is sewn into the tapestry of what makes us uniquely us. And how a single change can be our making and unraveling. Read it. It’s very special.”—Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of All The Colors of the Dark
“I'm left haunted by this book, and I can’t wait to read whatever comes next for Florence Knapp. What a remarkable debut.”—Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes
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Story
One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak.
By: Ocean Vuong
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The Eights
- By: Joanna Miller
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its one-thousand-year history, Oxford University officially admits female students. Burning with dreams of equality, four young women move into neighboring rooms in Corridor 8. Beatrice, Dora, Marianne, and Otto—collectively known as The Eights—come from all walks of life, each driven by their own motives, each holding tight to their secrets, and are thrown into an unlikely, unshakable friendship.
By: Joanna Miller
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Sleep
- A Novel
- By: Honor Jones
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From a dazzling new talent, the story of a newly divorced young mother forced to reckon with the secrets of her own childhood when she brings her daughters back to the big house where she was raised.
By: Honor Jones
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Great Black Hope
- A Novel
- By: Rob Franklin
- Narrated by: Justice Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An arrest for cocaine possession on the last day of a sweltering New York summer leaves Smith, a queer Black Stanford graduate, in a state of turmoil. Pulled into the court system and mandated treatment, he finds himself in an absurd but dangerous situation: his class protects him, but his race does not. It’s just weeks after the death of his beloved roommate Elle, the daughter of a famous soul singer, and he’s still reeling from the tabloid spectacle—as well as lingering questions around how well he really knew his closest friend.
By: Rob Franklin
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The Bright Years
- By: Sarah Damoff
- Narrated by: Ferdelle Capistrano, Joy Osmanski, Lee Osorio
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Told from three intimate points of view, The Bright Years is a tender, true-to-life novel that explores the impact of each generation in a family torn apart by tragedy but, over time, restored by the power of grace and love.
By: Sarah Damoff
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The Wardrobe Department
- By: Elaine Garvey
- Narrated by: Denise Gough
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Mairéad works all hours in a run-down West End theatre’s wardrobe department, her whole existence made up of threads and needles, running errands to mend shoes, fixing broken zips and handwashing underwear. She must also do her best to avoid groping hands backstage and the terrible bullying of the show’s producer. But, despite her skill and growing experience, half of Mairéad remains in her windy, hedge-filled home in Ireland, and the life she abandoned there. In noughties London, she has the potential to be somebody completely new – why, then, does she feel so stuck?
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My review of the wardrobe department
- By iggynut on 02-28-25
By: Elaine Garvey
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The Emperor of Gladness
- A Novel
- By: Ocean Vuong
- Narrated by: James Aaron Oh
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak.
By: Ocean Vuong
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The Eights
- By: Joanna Miller
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its one-thousand-year history, Oxford University officially admits female students. Burning with dreams of equality, four young women move into neighboring rooms in Corridor 8. Beatrice, Dora, Marianne, and Otto—collectively known as The Eights—come from all walks of life, each driven by their own motives, each holding tight to their secrets, and are thrown into an unlikely, unshakable friendship.
By: Joanna Miller
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The Original Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Jemimah Wei
- Narrated by: Eunice Wong
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Before Arin, Genevieve Yang was an only child. Living with her parents and grandmother in a single-room flat in working-class Bedok, Genevieve is saddled with an unexpected sibling when Arin appears, the shameful legacy of a grandfather long believed to be dead. As the two girls grow closer, they must navigate the intensity of life in a place where the urgent insistence on achievement demands constant sacrifice. As the two girls grow closer, they must navigate the intensity of life in a place where the urgent insistence on achievement demands constant sacrifice.
By: Jemimah Wei
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Atmosphere
- A Love Story
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The new novel by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six.
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Julie Chan Is Dead
- A Novel
- By: Liann Zhang
- Narrated by: Yu-Li Alice Shen
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this razor-sharp, diabolical debut thriller, a young woman steps into her deceased twin’s influencer life, only to discover dark secrets hidden behind her social media façade.
By: Liann Zhang
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Open, Heaven
- A Novel
- By: Seán Hewitt
- Narrated by: Sebastian Croft
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Set in a remote village in the north of England, Open, Heaven unfolds over the course of one year in which two teenage boys meet and transform each other’s lives. James—a sheltered, shy sixteen-year-old—is alone in his newly discovered sexuality, full of an unruly desire but entirely inexperienced. As he is beginning to understand himself and his longings, he also realizes how his feelings threaten to separate him from his family and the rural community he has grown up in. He dreams of another life, fantasizing about what lies beyond the village’s leaf-ribboned boundaries.
By: Seán Hewitt
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Good Girl
- A Novel
- By: Aria Aber
- Narrated by: Mozhan Navabi
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Berlin’s artistic underground, where techno and drugs fill warehouses still pockmarked from the wars of the twentieth century, nineteen-year-old Nila at last finds her tribe. Born in Germany to Afghan parents, raised in public housing graffitied with swastikas, drawn to philosophy, photography, and sex, Nila has spent her adolescence disappointing her family while searching for her voice as a young woman and artist. Then in the haze of Berlin’s legendary nightlife, Nila meets Marlowe, an American writer whose fading literary celebrity opens her eyes to a life of freedom.
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The Realism
- By elizabeth on 02-20-25
By: Aria Aber
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Rabbit Moon
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Haigh
- Narrated by: Katharine Chin, Yu-Li Alice Shen
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Four years after their bitter divorce, Claire and Aaron Litvak get a phone call no parent is prepared for: their 22-year-old daughter Lindsey, teaching English in China during a college gap year, has been critically injured in a hit and run accident. At a Shanghai hospital they wait at her bedside, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.
By: Jennifer Haigh
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Tilt
- A Novel
- By: Emma Pattee
- Narrated by: Ariel Blake
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. With no way to reach her husband, no phone or money, and a city left in chaos, there’s nothing to do but walk.
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Don’t waste your time
- By Bonnielupine on 03-27-25
By: Emma Pattee
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The Man Made of Smoke
- A Novel
- By: Alex North
- Narrated by: Shane Zaza
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Dan Garvie’s life has been haunted by the crime he witnessed as a child—narrowly escaping an encounter with a notorious serial killer. He has dedicated his life since to becoming a criminal profiler, eager to seek justice for innocent victims. So when his father passes away under suspicious circumstances, Dan revisits his small island community, determined to uncover the truth about his death. Is it possible that the monster he remembers from his childhood nightmares has returned after all these years?
By: Alex North
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Deep Cuts
- A Novel
- By: Holly Brickley
- Narrated by: Jayme Mattler
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It’s a Friday night in a campus bar in Berkeley, fall of 2000, and Percy Marks is pontificating about music again. Hall and Oates is on the jukebox, and Percy—who has no talent for music, just lots of opinions about it—can’t stop herself from overanalyzing the song, indulging what she knows to be her most annoying habit. But something is different tonight. The guy beside her at the bar, fellow student Joe Morrow, is a songwriter. And he could listen to Percy talk all night. Joe asks Percy for feedback on one of his songs—and the results kick off a partnership that will span years.
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Boring and drawn out
- By Andrea Simmons on 03-19-25
By: Holly Brickley
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The Memory Collectors
- A Novel
- By: Dete Meserve
- Narrated by: uncredited
- Length: Not Yet Known
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
What would you do if you could spend an hour in your past? Four strangers in the beach town of Ventura, California are about to find out. Elizabeth aches for one more precious hour with her son who died in a senseless accident. Andy is desperate to find his first love who vanished after a whirlwind romance. Logan craves the rush of surfing and mountain climbing, yearning to reclaim the freedom he lost after a misstep landed him in a wheelchair. Brooke is looking for an hour of relief from the guilt of an unforgivable mistake.
By: Dete Meserve
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The Boy from the Sea
- A Novel
- By: Garrett Carr
- Narrated by: Stanley Townsend
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ireland 1973, a baby boy is found on the beach of a close-knit fishing village. Fisherman Ambrose Bonnar offers to bring the child into his own family: his son, Declan, wife, Christine, and up the lane, Christine's sister and aging father. The townspeople remain fascinated by the baby, now named Brendan, as he grows into a strange yet charismatic young man.
By: Garrett Carr
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The Manor of Dreams
- By: Christina Li
- Narrated by: Catherine Ho
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Vivian Yin is dead. The first Chinese actress to win an Oscar, the trailblazing ingénue rose to fame in the eighties, only to disappear from the spotlight at the height of her career to live out the rest of her life as a recluse. Now her remaining family members are gathered for the reading of her will, and her daughters expect to inherit their childhood home: Vivian’s grand, sprawling, Southern California garden estate. But due to a last-minute change to the will, the house is passed on to another family instead—one that has suddenly returned after decades of estrangement.
By: Christina Li