The Odyssey by Homer audiobook review, a truly fantastic journey

Game of Thrones actor Anton Lesser brings poise and depth to this classic adaptation, conjuring monsters, heroes and Gods

W ith its gods, monsters and dizzying scale, Homer’s the Odyssey is deemed by many to be unfilmable, though it hasn’t stopped directors from having a go, including Christopher Nolan, whose blockbuster adaptation comes to cinemas next week. An audiobook would seem a smart choice, allowing listeners to deploy their imaginations to conjure dark sorcery, supernatural beasts and epic storms rather than leaning on CGI.

Back in Ithaca, Odysseus’s wife Penelope, who doesn’t know if her husband is dead or alive, is being besieged by suitors, while their adult son Telemachus, who hasn’t seen his father since he was an infant, struggles to maintain order and embarks on various sojourns to track down him down. Then we’re with the gods on Olympus as they sit around arguing about which mortals they will aid and on which they will rain down hell and damnation. Will Odysseus make it home and, if he does, will he be welcome?

Music as Medicine Daniel Levitin, Penguin, 12hr 17min A paean to the healing properties of music, Levitin’s book investigates the connections between music and the human body and brain and tests the argument for the use of music as medicine. Read by the author.

Butcher Joyce Carol Oates, 4th Estate, 13hr 11min A cast including Edoardo Ballerini, Cassandra Campbell and Amy Shiels star in this chilling fictional biography of a doctor who experiments on the female patients of a New Jersey lunatic asylum and becomes a leading light in gyno-psychiatry.