20 must-read audiobook books like The Ensemble by Aja Gabel

Cover of The Ensemble by Aja Gabel

The Ensemble

By: Aja Gabel

3.48

Format: 352 pages, Paperback

"Pitch-perfect." — People "You won’t be able to quit these characters."  —goop The addictive …

"… you misunderstand ‘ease.’ I think whoever said that means joy, not the quality of being easy. And difficult things can bring joy. And joy can bring ease."

-Aja Gabel, The Ensemble

"… you misunderstand ‘ease.’ I think whoever said that means joy, not the quality of being easy. And difficult things can bring joy. And joy can bring ease."

-Aja Gabel, The Ensemble

"The story spanned the distance between their past and their future, and suddenly, briefly, they were two versions of themselves. And if they were two versions of themselves, they were also all the versions in between, and their entire shared life unfolded before them."

-Aja Gabel, The Ensemble

"The story spanned the distance between their past and their future, and suddenly, briefly, they were two versions of themselves. And if they were two versions of themselves, they were also all the versions in between, and their entire shared life unfolded before them."

-Aja Gabel, The Ensemble

If you liked the audiobook plot in The Ensemble by Aja Gabel , here is a list of 20 books like this:

1. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk

By: Kathleen Rooney

4.14

Format: None pages, Hardcover

It's the last day of 1984, and 85-year-old Lillian Boxfish is about to take a walk. As she traverse… read more

Similar categories in Kathleen Rooney's Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

Cover of Happiness Falls by Angie  Kim

2. Happiness Falls

By: Angie Kim

3.75

Format: 387 pages, Hardcover

When a father goes missing, his family's desperate search leads them to question everything they kn… read more

Similar categories in Angie Kim's Happiness Falls book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"I lost a World - the other day! Has Anybody found? - Emily Dickinson, 1896"

-Angie Kim, Happiness Falls

Cover of When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash

3. When Ghosts Come Home

By: Wiley Cash

3.69

Format: 290 pages, Hardcover

A tender and haunting story of a father and daughter, crime and forgiveness, race and memory. Wh… read more

Similar categories in Wiley Cash's When Ghosts Come Home book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • adult
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told by Harrison Scott Key

4. How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told

By: Harrison Scott Key

4.07

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

From Harrison Scott Key, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, How to Stay Married tells … read more

Similar categories in Harrison Scott Key's How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • audiobook
"He was "as deep as bro country and possessed all the charm of an unsalted potato."

-Harrison Scott Key, How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told

"I play the drums, an instrument that has caused more divorces than any other musical instrument in history, after the banjo."

-Harrison Scott Key, How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told

"The memories do not dissolve. They cohere into captivating art films that play endlessly in the International Infidelity Film Festival of my mind."

-Harrison Scott Key, How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told

"Coco will be gone in less than two years and Pippi and Ginsburg not long after, and then it'll just be the two of us again and this weird-ass marriage."

-Harrison Scott Key, How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told

Cover of The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

5. The Husbands

By: Holly Gramazio

3.53

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

An exuberant debut, The Husbands delights in how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world … read more

Similar categories in Holly Gramazio's The Husbands book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • adult fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Family Family by Laurie Frankel

6. Family Family

By: Laurie Frankel

4.00

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

“Not all stories of adoption are stories of pain and regret. Not even most of them. Why don’t we ev… read more

Similar categories in Laurie Frankel's Family Family book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • realistic fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"When people thought of mothers, they smelled cookies baking and chocolate melting. But actual mothers got shit for giving their kids too much sugar. When people thought of mothers, they thought soft …"

-Laurie Frankel, Family Family

Cover of The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

7. The Rachel Incident

By: Caroline O'Donoghue

4.09

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

A brilliantly funny novel about friends, lovers, Ireland in chaos, and a young woman desperately tr… read more

Similar categories in Caroline O'Donoghue's The Rachel Incident book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"I was twenty and I needed two things: to be in love and to be taken seriously."

-Caroline O'Donoghue, The Rachel Incident

"He was a doctor and I was supposed to take what he said seriously; but he was a dentist and my dad so I didn’t."

-Caroline O'Donoghue, The Rachel Incident

"It's not that we weren't capable of warmth as a family. But we were regularly seduced by the concept of being wronged."

-Caroline O'Donoghue, The Rachel Incident

"I thought of my parents as heads on Easter Island, and it took moving two miles away to realise they had been people all along."

-Caroline O'Donoghue, The Rachel Incident

Cover of Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

8. Come and Get It

By: Kiley Reid

3.38

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

A fresh and provocative story about a residential assistant and her messy entanglement with a profe… read more

Similar categories in Kiley Reid's Come and Get It book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Kennedy hadn't considered it before, that to write something beautiful you just do it regular, and then you pull out a red pen."

-Kiley Reid, Come and Get It

"Washing her sheets was another thing she'd failed to do. She washed her clothes—every weekend—but when it came to the bedsheets, she'd get stressed out or she'd forget. And then there was too much ti…"

-Kiley Reid, Come and Get It

"Okay, sometimes—just being honest— Millie can be . . . a little ghetto." On the word little, Tyler held two fingers an inch apart. "Nooo. Don't say that. Ah love Millie." "But I'm not saying it like …"

-Kiley Reid, Come and Get It

Cover of Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me by Ada Calhoun

9. Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me

By: Ada Calhoun

4.02

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

A staggering memoir from New York Times bestselling author Ada Calhoun tracing her fraught relation… read more

Similar categories in Ada Calhoun's Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • audiobook
Cover of No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister

10. No Two Persons

By: Erica Bauermeister

4.09

Format: 314 pages, Hardcover

One book. Nine readers. Ten changed lives. New York Times bestselling author Erica Bauermeister’s N… read more

Similar categories in Erica Bauermeister's No Two Persons book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • realistic fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"All that matters is that we try. pg. 79"

-Erica Bauermeister, No Two Persons

"Guilt is easier to drown in than any sorrow. pg. 245"

-Erica Bauermeister, No Two Persons

"Always start with words. Words last. Tell me a secret from your day."

-Erica Bauermeister, No Two Persons

"Did you know that otters sleep holding hands? All night long, so they don't lose each other."

-Erica Bauermeister, No Two Persons

Cover of Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang

11. Joan Is Okay

By: Weike Wang

3.67

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

A witty, moving, piercingly insightful new novel about a marvelously complicated woman who can’t be… read more

Similar categories in Weike Wang's Joan Is Okay book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"I wasn't a genius in the end, but a girl could still hope."

-Weike Wang, Joan Is Okay

"A woman who twirls her hair while speaking is a woman never to be taken seriously"

-Weike Wang, Joan Is Okay

"The average Joe in America is expected to move 11.3 times in his life. Who knows about Average Jane."

-Weike Wang, Joan Is Okay

"Proud to be an American, a feeling that I lacked but also a phrase that I didn't think applied to me."

-Weike Wang, Joan Is Okay

Cover of Dayswork by Chris Bachelder

12. Dayswork

By: Chris Bachelder

3.83

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

In wry, epigrammatic prose, Dayswork tells the story of a woman who spends the endless days of the … read more

Similar categories in Chris Bachelder's Dayswork book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
Cover of The Road to Dalton (Dalton, Maine, #1) by Shannon Bowring

13. The Road to Dalton (Dalton, Maine, #1)

By: Shannon Bowring

4.04

Format: 250 pages, Paperback

From debut author Shannon Bowring comes a novel of small town America that Pulitzer-winner Richard … read more

Similar categories in Shannon Bowring's The Road to Dalton (Dalton, Maine, #1) book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
Cover of Sandwich by Catherine Newman

14. Sandwich

By: Catherine Newman

3.75

Format: 229 pages, Hardcover

From the beloved author of We All Want Impossible Things, a moving, hilarious story of a family sum… read more

Similar categories in Catherine Newman's Sandwich book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"What does loss look like, in your body? Where is it? It feels like an air bubble stuck in your psyche. It feels like peering down into a deep hole. The vertigo of that. The potential for obliteration…"

-Catherine Newman, Sandwich

"We're just ruined by sex, women---our bodies, our psyches. We're sexually assaulted every five minutes. We're infected with everything. Traumatized by conceiving, by not conceiving. But let's keep at…"

-Catherine Newman, Sandwich

Cover of One Woman Show by Christine Coulson

15. One Woman Show

By: Christine Coulson

3.92

Format: 208 pages, Hardcover

A sly and stylish novel—remarkably told through museum wall labels—about a twentieth-century woman … read more

Similar categories in Christine Coulson's One Woman Show book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
Cover of Mercury by Amy Jo Burns

16. Mercury

By: Amy Jo Burns

3.83

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

A roofing family’s bonds of loyalty are tested when they uncover a long-hidden secret at the heart … read more

Similar categories in Amy Jo Burns's Mercury book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of April May June July by Alison B.  Hart

17. April May June July

By: Alison B. Hart

3.47

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

A triumphant family story and sharply observed exploration of privilege, identity, and love in all … read more

Similar categories in Alison B. Hart's April May June July book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • audiobook
  • adult
  • fiction
  • contemporary
Cover of Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel

18. Musical Chairs

By: Amy Poeppel

3.81

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

The “quick-witted and razor-sharp” (Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy… read more

Similar categories in Amy Poeppel's Musical Chairs book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • music
  • adult fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Congratulations, the Best is Over! by R. Eric Thomas

19. Congratulations, the Best is Over!

By: R. Eric Thomas

4.07

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

The beloved bestselling author of Here for It presents a collection of heartening, thoughtful, and … read more

Similar categories in R. Eric Thomas's Congratulations, the Best is Over! book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • audiobook
"If I'm not heading toward a place where I can feel joy, then hope in the present has nothing to hold on to."

-R. Eric Thomas, Congratulations, the Best is Over!

Cover of The Ensemble by Aja Gabel

20. The Ensemble

By: Aja Gabel

3.48

Format: 352 pages, Paperback

"Pitch-perfect." — People "You won’t be able to quit these characters."  —goop The addictive … read more

Similar categories in Aja Gabel's The Ensemble book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • music
  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • realistic fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"… you misunderstand ‘ease.’ I think whoever said that means joy, not the quality of being easy. And difficult things can bring joy. And joy can bring ease."

-Aja Gabel, The Ensemble

"The story spanned the distance between their past and their future, and suddenly, briefly, they were two versions of themselves. And if they were two versions of themselves, they were also all the ve…"

-Aja Gabel, The Ensemble

"She was sad, and she was angry with herself for being sad. She didn’t like wanting what she hadn’t intended to want as much as she didn’t like being denied what she hadn’t really wanted in the first …"

-Aja Gabel, The Ensemble

Cover of Girls and Their Horses by Eliza Jane Brazier

21. Girls and Their Horses

By: Eliza Jane Brazier

3.72

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

Set in the glamorous, competitive world of showjumping, a novel about the girls who ride, their cut… read more

Similar categories in Eliza Jane Brazier's Girls and Their Horses book and Aja Gabel's The Ensemble

  • audiobook
  • adult
  • fiction
  • contemporary

17 must-read fiction books like The Ensemble by Aja Gabel

Transform Your Habits

Happiness Falls

Angie Kim

3.75

Transform Your Habits

When Ghosts Come Home

Wiley Cash

3.69

Transform Your Habits

The Husbands

Holly Gramazio

3.53

Transform Your Habits

Family Family

Laurie Frankel

4.00

View all the books

19 best-selling fiction books like Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang

Transform Your Habits

The Swimmers

Julie Otsuka

3.67

Transform Your Habits

Happiness Falls

Angie Kim

3.75

Transform Your Habits

Tom Lake

Ann Patchett

3.99

Transform Your Habits

Disorientation

Elaine Hsieh Chou

3.84

View all the books

Never miss a story from us, get weekly updates in your inbox.