Robert Joy reading an excerpt from "The Big Why" by Michael Winter.

In this clip the artist Rockwell Kent meets Captain Bob Bartlett at a cocktail party benefit for the Peary Polar Club in New York City.

The Big Why is Michael Winter's faux memoir of American artist Rockwell Kent, centered on Kent's time in Brigus, Newfoundland.

This sample is from the unabridged audiobook edition published by Rattling Books.  The full audiobook is available for purchase as an MP3 CD or DD at rattlingbooks.com.  Also available to libraries through Overdrive.

The Big Why was originally published in print in Canada by House of Anansi Press and in the US by Bloomsbury.


The Big Why by Michael Winter, narrated by Robert Joy, fiction audiobook excerpt 01

In this excerpt from Vikings of the Ice by George Allan England we hear the story of an unusual use of hard tack in the engine room followed by a painterly description of what the icefields and seals looked like from the Terra Nova while hunting for seals in the early twentieth century.

"Vikings of the Ice: being the log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt" first published in 1924 in print form, was read for Rattling Books by Frank Holden. The audiobook edition was shortlisted for an Audie award.

The unabridged audiobook is available for sale from Rattling Books as an MP3 CD or digital download. It is also available to libraries through Overdrive.com

Vikings of the Ice by George Allan England narrated by Frank Holden - non-fiction audiobook excerpt

This poem is from the audio book collection Songs for the Songs of Birds by Don McKay.

Songs for the Songs of Birds was produced by Rattling Books and is available as a digital download from rattlingbooks.com or as an audiobook CD from Fred's Records store in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Gynaecology, a poem By Don McKay, a poetry audiobook excerpt

Death on the Ice
(Cassie Brown, Harold Horwood)
The Great Newfoundland Sealing Disaster of 1914
unabridged non-fiction audiobook
by Cassie Brown , Harold Horwood  

Narrated by Ron Hynes


Cassie Brown’s account of the 1914 sealing disaster is a classic. A tale of greed, callousness, suffering and heroism, it paints a grim portrait of the expendability of “swilers,” Newfoundland fishermen who endured deplorable conditions on board ship and off as they supplemented a subsistence living by killing seals for the colony’s merchants.

For two days and nights in the winter of 1914, 132 men were stranded without food and shelter on an ice field. Two thirds of them died before one of the nearby ships came to their aid. 

Death on the Ice by Cassie Brown - Read by Ron Hynes - Listening Sample 1

The True Meaning of Crumbfest by David Weale, performed by Antonia Francis for Rattling Books

An audiobook recording of a Children's Christmas classic that manages never to mention Christmas.

Winner AudioFile Earphones Award

Audio Book Reviews:

From AudioFile Magazine:

Are you ready for a special treat? Not only is this a quaint tale of the joy that is Christmas, it also offers a remarkable narration. Ignoring his grandfather's advice to let well enough alone, Eckhart, a new mouse born in the summer, is on a quest to find out more about the special winter day when delectable crumbs abound in the house. The story's narrator is 5-year-old Antonia Francis, who recorded it for her mother's radio program. How refreshing her narration is! Miss Francis's enthusiasm abounds as she elongates words and hesitantly approaches "big" words in the tale. Her voice rises and falls with exaggerated suspense and wonder. The combination of Francis's heartfelt empathy for Eckhart and her youthful, earnest presentation captivates. A.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award



From the Ottawa Citizen:

.... One of the most engaging such recordings is the work of a small company in Tors Cove, N.L., a short drive out of St. John's. Rattling Books produces a variety of engagingly unusual Canadian titles, many of them with a Newfoundland-Labrador connection, in unabridged audio format. (And unapologetically, too. Says founder Janet Russell to anyone who thinks audiobooks "are some form of cheating: If you want to be like that about it, writing it down in the first place was cheating. What's wrong with you, can't tell a story or what? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was Spoken.") One of the most engagingly unusual of its titles is a kids' audiobook with a festive-season theme. And it has recently been honoured with an Earphones Award from the U.S. magazine AudioFile. The True Meaning of Crumbfest (22 minutes unabridged/1 CD, $9.95) Written by Prince Edward Island history professor and storyteller David Weale, this story has become very popular since it first appeared in print seven years ago. It is the adventure of a small mouse who tries to discover why something wonderful happens once a year, after the extended mouse family moves from their beloved Outside to the between-walls darkness of the Inside. Sweet and delightfully tart at the same time, and perfect for kids four to nine, the story is narrated by Antonia Francis. And that's one of the surprising appeals of the recording. At the time the story was recorded -- in 2001, for her mother's community radio show -- Antonia was only five years old. Young Antonia turns her little voice to a genuinely impressive range. She is as cheery, apprehensive, sad or triumphant as the narrative occasion demands, and she is eminently listenable. The 22-minute recording is the original radio presentation, rough around the edges, but still a joy. AudioFile called Crumbfest a "special treat." And so it is.
Janice Kennedy

The True Meaning of Crumbfest by David Weale, performed by Antonia Francis

Florida short fiction single (Mavis Gallant)
Narrated by Margot Dionne

"Florida" is from Montreal Stories, a collection of short stories by Mavis Gallant, available as an MP3 audio book CD and an MP3 download from Rattling Books.

"Florida" appeared in The New Yorker, August 26, 1985. 

Florida a short story By Mavis Gallant, Narrated by Margot Dionne

Say Nothing, Saw Wood is a short work of fiction by Joel Thomas Hynes. Narrated by the author this story first appeared in the short fiction audio anthology EarLit Shorts 1 published by Rattling Books.

A good old murder story.

It is also available in print from Running the Goat Books and Broadsides.

EarLit Shorts 1

Say Nothing, Saw Wood

Say Nothing Saw Wood by Joel Thomas Hynes; read by Joel Thomas Hynes; Listening Clip

Jig's Dinner is a prose poem from the audiobook collection by Michael Crummey entitlted Hard Light: 32 Little Stories.

Read by Deidre Gillard-Rowlings this piece lovingly depicts the making of a traditional Newfoundland dish.

This Canadian audiobook recording was produced by Rattling Books in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Hard Light: 32 Little Stories

Jig's Dinner

HardLight: by Michael Crummey; narrator Deidre Gillard-Rowlings; sample poem Jig's Dinner

This poem "In the Snapshot" is a sample from the poetry audiobook "In the Old Country of My Heart" written and read by Agnes Walsh.

The complete collection also includesmusic by George Morgan and unaccompanied ballads sung by Simone Savard-Walsh.

Audio Book Reviews:

The tones and timbre of Agnes Walsh's voice seem to emanate from the heart of North America--from the most ancient parts of the continent. She reads her poetry with maturity, wisdom, and assurance. Like so many good poets, Walsh draws from her native soil, in this case the Placentia Bay area of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula, to discover universal and personal truths. In her final selection, "Oderin," Walsh laments, "There is not enough time to understand all I need to know." Isn't that always the way it is? A number of musical selections for voice and pump organ round out this haunting volume of contemporary poetry.

- Audiofile Magazine

In the Old Country of My Heart

In the Snapshot

In the Old Country of My Heart by Agnes Walsh; Sample Poem - InTheSnapshot

Lure of the Labrador Wild by Dillon Wallace
unabridged audio book edition; originally published in 1905 by Fleming H. Revell, New York
Narrated by Jody Richardson
Listening Time: roughly 9 hours

By a campfire in southern New York in 1901, Leonidas Hubbard Jr. put the question to his friend: “How would you like to go to Labrador, Wallace?” By 1903 the plans were laid and Hubbard confided: “It will be a big thing, Wallace. It ought to make my reputation.” The two set out with their guide, George Elson, to canoe up the Nascapi River to Lake Michikamau in the interior of Labrador and make new maps, meet Indians, and run with caribou – all fodder for famous magazine articles Hubbard would write. But alas, they took the wrong river and Hubbard’s reputation was made instead through his death by starvation on the Susan River. A hundred years later the tale of his folly is no less poignant.

Audio Reviews:

Read clearly and faithfully by Jody Richardson, this is a straightforward reading of Wallace's first book. It tells the tale of Wallace, Hubbard and legendary guide George Elson's futile attempt to cross Labrador after taking the wrong river. Though quite familiar with the work it seemed to have had fresh air pumped into it and was more eloquent than I recall from my own, silent, reading. There is something more searing about the words when read aloud. The brutal weather and unrelenting hard work is sobering to say the least.

--Che-Mun: The Journal of Canadian Wilderness Canoeing

This Audiobook Listening Clip is taken from chapter 8.

Lure of the Labrador Wild

Lure of the Labrador Wild audiobook listening clip

Lure of the Labrador Wild by Dillon Wallace, narrator Jody Richardson - Listening Clip

They are Married, a short story by Claire Wilkshire appears in the audiobook anthology of short fiction series EarLit Shorts from Rattling Books.  A download of the story can be purchased separately as a short fiction single.

EarLit Shorts 2

They are Married

They are Married by Claire Wilkshire, narrator Claire Wilkshire - Listening Clip

This listening clip from Tooth and Nail is from Down to the Dirt, a work of fiction by Joel Thomas Hynes, narrated by Jonny Harris, Joel Thomas Hynes and Sherry White.

In this clip you hear the voice of Joel Thomas Hynes.

Down to the Dirt

Tooth and Nail

Tooth and Nail by Joel Thomas Hynes, narrator Joel Thomas Hynes - listening clip

Listening Sample from the short story The Way to Get Home by Susan Rendell

Narrated by Deidre Gillard-Rowlings

The Way to Get Home is drawn from the collection of short fiction by Susan Rendell entitled In the Chambers of the Sea.   It is available either as part of the collection or as an EarLit Single.

This Canadian audiobook recording was produced by Rattling Books in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In the Chambers of the Sea

The Way to Get Home

The Way to Get Home by Susan Rendell, narrator Deidre Gillard-Rowlings, listening clip

This audiobook listening sample is from "Judge Prowse Presiding," a one man stage play written and performed by Frank Holden.

Set somewhere in outport Newfoundland in the 1890's, written and first performed in the mid 1980's by Frank Holden, Judge Prowse Presiding brings a vital character and a near-forgotten frontier world back to life.

Daniel Woodley Prowse (1834-1914), police magistrate, journalist, sportsman, historian and champion of the common man, was a "cross between Dr Samuel Johnson and Falstaff." As he rails at both plaintiffs and felons in his jokes and yarns he revives the excitement and the agonies of his time.

Judge Prowse Presiding

Judge Prowse Presiding (Frank Holden) audiobook listening clip

This audiobook listening clip is from the short story "The Stylist" by Lisa Moore. It is from Moore's collection of short fiction entitled "Open" and is read by Holly Hogan.

Open

The Stylist

The Stylist, a short story by Lisa Moore, narrated by Holly Hogan - listening clip - diving

This listening sample is from My Future in Insurance, a short story by Richard Cumyn, narrated by Charles Tomlinson and produced by Rattling Books.

This short fiction appears in the audiobook anthology of short fiction EarLit Shorts 3.

Earlit Shorts 3

My Future in Insurance

This audiobook listening sample is from Below the Bridge by Helen Porter, narrated by Mary Barry,.

Below the Bridge is an evocative memoir of growing up on the south side of St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the 1930s and ’40s. With a poet’s eye for the telling detail and a novelist’s flair for dialogue, Porter deftly evokes the lost community of her childhood—lost to time and the bulldozers of “progress.” 

REVIEWS

Barry’s well-honed skills . . . are obvious and welcome from the opening notes. Her vibrancy rings truer than a bell, as words wistfully wind and weave their way through a myriad of the mind’s many frequencies. Like the seasoned musician who understands that music exists in the spaces between the notes, the chanteuse extraordinaire knows just when to lean into the microphone and when to lay back. . . . Once the curtain has fallen, listeners will be hard pressed to explain where they have been during the previous hours.
— Atlantic Books Today

Below the Bridge

Below the Bridge by Helen Porter narrated by Mary Barry, Sample Chapter One

Fogo Listening Sample from "Coasting Trade"  
by Robin McGrath
An audio book Performance for three voices, narrated (in order of appearance) by Robert Joy, Rick Boland and Anita Best;
produced with soundscape recordings by Chris Brookes.

Audiofile Magazine Review

In a performance of less than an hour, producer Chris Brookes and poet Robin McGrath transport the listener to a Yankee schooner circling Newfoundland in the late nineteenth century. The production, a Canadian tapestry for the ears, is beautifully embellished with sound effects that capture the waves, ship sounds, and local fauna. Robert Joy, Rick Boland, and Anita Best bring a lyrical beauty to this "Performance for Three Voices." McGrath provides fleeting glimpses into the lives of an immigrant, a biologist, a smuggler, and Newfoundland locals scratching a life out of the rugged terrain. The short performance is superb, with the rich voices of Joy, Boland, and Best meshing into a melody against the harmony of background sounds.

—AudioFile magazine

Coasting Trade

Coasting Trade Listening Sample - Fogo

Rattling Books is a Canadian Audio Book publisher based in Newfoundland and Labrador. Our catalogue of Canadian audiobooks includes Earphones award winning titles, an Audie shortlisted title and one selected by Audiofile Magazine as one of the 10 Best Fiction audiobooks of the year. Literature to listen to from a catalogue that is not just small but fine.

Rattling Books / Canadian audiobooks

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