16 Best audiobook books like Milkman by Anna Burns

Cover of Milkman by Anna Burns

Milkman

By: Anna Burns

3.53

Format: 352 pages, Kindle Edition

In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attem…

"how much I’d been thwarted into a carefully constructed nothingness by that man"

-Anna Burns, Milkman

"It’s not about being happy,’ he said, which was, and still is, the saddest remark I’ve ever heard."

-Anna Burns, Milkman

"also found the situation unworkable. Not just unworkable – ridiculous. Not just ridiculous – perturbing."

-Anna Burns, Milkman

"even though it was weird to talk on the telephone. Only eight times, seven, maybe six, ever had I done so."

-Anna Burns, Milkman

If you liked the audiobook plot in Milkman by Anna Burns , here is a list of 16 books like this:

Cover of The Gathering by Anne Enright

1. The Gathering

By: Anne Enright

3.13

Format: 261 pages, Paperback

Anne Enright is a dazzling writer of international stature and one of Ireland’s most singular voice… read more

Similar categories in Anne Enright's The Gathering book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • ireland
  • irish literature
  • audiobook
"A drinker does not exist. Whatever they say, it is just the drink talking"

-Anne Enright, The Gathering

"I must console him for the distance we have moved from the place where he stopped."

-Anne Enright, The Gathering

"the kind of person took milk in his tea on one day and decided against it on the next."

-Anne Enright, The Gathering

"Jej błękit zajął miejsce w szarych zakamarkach jego mózgu i pozostał tam do końca życia"

-Anne Enright, The Gathering

Cover of Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

2. Lincoln in the Bardo

By: George Saunders

4.17

Format: None pages, Hardcover

In his long-awaited first novel, American master George Saunders delivers his most original, transc… read more

Similar categories in George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook

3. The Sellout

By: Paul Beatty

4.17

Format: None pages, Hardcover

The Sellout is the first book by an American author to win the UK's prestigious Man Booker Prize. A… read more

Similar categories in Paul Beatty's The Sellout book and Anna Burns's Milkman

4. The Land of Spices

By: Kate O'Brien

3.83

Format: 432 pages, Paperback

Mere Marie-Helene once turned her back on life, sealing up her heart in order to devote herself to … read more

Similar categories in Kate O'Brien's The Land of Spices book and Anna Burns's Milkman

5. The Narrow Road to the Deep North

By: Richard Flanagan

3.96

Format: 464 pages, Paperback

A novel of the cruelty of war, and tenuousness of life and the impossibility of love. Richard Flana… read more

Similar categories in Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North book and Anna Burns's Milkman

6. A Brief History of Seven Killings

By: Marlon James

4.60

Format: None pages, Hardcover

WINNER OF THE 2015 MAN BOOKER PRIZE FOR FICTION From the acclaimed author of The Book of Night Wome… read more

Similar categories in Marlon James's A Brief History of Seven Killings book and Anna Burns's Milkman

Cover of Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

7. Small Things Like These

By: Claire Keegan

4.18

Format: 128 pages, Hardcover

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal me… read more

Similar categories in Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • ireland
  • irish literature
  • audiobook
"Always, Christmas brought out the best and the worst in people."

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

"for people were bound, he knew, to reveal not only themselves, but what they knew, in conversation"

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

"And then the nights came on and the frosts took hold again, and blades of cold slid under doors and cut the knees off those who still knelt to say the rosary."

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

"When he reached the yard gate and found the padlock seized with frost, he felt the strain of being alive and wished he had stayed in bed, but he made himself carry on and crossed to a neighbour’s hou…"

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

Cover of Prophet Song by Paul    Lynch

8. Prophet Song

By: Paul Lynch

4.10

Format: 259 pages, Kindle Edition

A fearless portrait of a society on the brink as a mother faces a terrible choice, from an internat… read more

Similar categories in Paul Lynch's Prophet Song book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • ireland
  • irish literature
  • audiobook
"people are entitled to some small moment of peace."

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

"the child absorbing the mother’s trauma and storing it in his body for later use,"

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

"... time is at once addition and subtraction, time adds one day to the next and always takes away from what's left..."

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

"...knowing how it is so that all boys grow up and pull away from home to unmake the world in the guise of making it, nature decrees it so."

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

Cover of Shuggie Bain by Douglas   Stuart

9. Shuggie Bain

By: Douglas Stuart

4.31

Format: 430 pages, Hardcover

Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who sp… read more

Similar categories in Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
"Rain was a natural state of Glasgow. It kept the grass green and the people pale and bronchial."

-Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

"Opposite the gates was a low concrete building. Dozens of men were spilling out of its windowless structure and stood in dark clumps on the Pit Road. At first it looked like they were leaving chapel,…"

-Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

Cover of The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright

10. The Wren, the Wren

By: Anne Enright

3.55

Format: 278 pages, Hardcover

An incandescent novel about the inheritance of trauma, wonder, and love across three generations of… read more

Similar categories in Anne Enright's The Wren, the Wren book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • ireland
  • irish literature
  • audiobook
"It's not that I think about him constantly, he is my way of thinking. His mind is my compass, his eyes my only mirror."

-Anne Enright, The Wren, the Wren

"We don’t walk down the same street as the person walking beside us. All we can do is tell the other person what we see. We can point at things and try to name them. If we do this well, our friend can…"

-Anne Enright, The Wren, the Wren

"We don't walk down the same street as the person walking beside us. All we can do is tell the other person what we see. We can point at things and try to name them. If we do this well, our friend can…"

-Anne Enright, The Wren, the Wren

Cover of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

11. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

By: Shehan Karunatilaka

3.92

Format: 386 pages, Hardcover

Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida—war photographer, gambler, and closet queen—has woken up dead in what … read more

Similar categories in Shehan Karunatilaka's The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
"Even suicide requires perseverance."

-Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

"Why should a Creator watch over you? Wasn't creating you enough?"

-Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

"You were simply a handsome man who enjoyed beautiful boys. Nothing more, nothing less and no one's business."

-Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

"Despair always begins as a snack that you nibble on when bored and then becomes a meal that you have thrice a day."

-Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Cover of Close to Home by Michael  Magee

12. Close to Home

By: Michael Magee

4.06

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

While growing up in West Belfast, Sean does every­thing he's supposed to do. He works hard, he stud… read more

Similar categories in Michael Magee's Close to Home book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • ireland
  • irish literature
  • audiobook
Cover of So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan

13. So Late in the Day

By: Claire Keegan

4.00

Format: 47 pages, Hardcover

After an uneventful Friday at the Dublin office, Cathal faces into the long weekend and takes the b… read more

Similar categories in Claire Keegan's So Late in the Day book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • ireland
  • irish literature
  • audiobook
Cover of The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

14. The Bee Sting

By: Paul Murray

3.96

Format: 656 pages, Hardcover

From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and … read more

Similar categories in Paul Murray's The Bee Sting book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • ireland
  • irish literature
  • audiobook
"It is for love. You are doing this for love."

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

"We all have problems. But often instead of accepting the truth about ourselves, we cover it up. We try to make ourselves the way we think we’re expected to be."

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

"Maybe every era has an atrocity woven into its fabric. Maybe every society is complicit in terrible things and only afterwards gets around to pretending they didn’t know. When the kids ask, tell them…"

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

"Maybe that’s how it will go – instead of one definitive cataclysm, a series of ‘anomalies’, each time lasting longer, with the stretches of what you call normal life becoming further and further apar…"

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

Cover of Milkman by Anna Burns

15. Milkman

By: Anna Burns

3.53

Format: 352 pages, Kindle Edition

In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attem… read more

Similar categories in Anna Burns's Milkman book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • unfinished
  • historical
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • historical fiction
  • novels
  • ireland
  • irish literature
  • audiobook
"how much I’d been thwarted into a carefully constructed nothingness by that man"

-Anna Burns, Milkman

"It’s not about being happy,’ he said, which was, and still is, the saddest remark I’ve ever heard."

-Anna Burns, Milkman

"also found the situation unworkable. Not just unworkable – ridiculous. Not just ridiculous – perturbing."

-Anna Burns, Milkman

"even though it was weird to talk on the telephone. Only eight times, seven, maybe six, ever had I done so."

-Anna Burns, Milkman

Cover of Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy

16. Soldier Sailor

By: Claire Kilroy

4.10

Format: 256 pages, ebook

Well, Sailor. Here we are once more, you and me in one another's arms. The Earth rotates beneath us… read more

Similar categories in Claire Kilroy's Soldier Sailor book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • ireland
  • irish literature
  • audiobook
"I laughed and then we were doing that thing again, our thing: laughing into one another's eyes. All that time I had thought I was jollying you along when all that time you were jollying along me."

-Claire Kilroy, Soldier Sailor

"I tell my husband about my childhood and he tells me about his but it isn't the same. We can never know each other as we were then. But I know you. I will see the child you were in the man you will b…"

-Claire Kilroy, Soldier Sailor

"Hated cling film. Hated it more than I hated kinetic sand. Defeated by something that lacked a third dimension. While I'd been off tinkering on the cerebral plane, the smart money has been mastering …"

-Claire Kilroy, Soldier Sailor

"I knelt down to pick up the hatchling to . . . . what? Give it back to its mother? Here is your dying chick? Just before I made contact with it, she dive-bombed me. The mother actually dive-bombed me…"

-Claire Kilroy, Soldier Sailor

Cover of Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

17. Trespasses

By: Louise Kennedy

4.00

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

Set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a shattering novel about a young woman caught between … read more

Similar categories in Louise Kennedy's Trespasses book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • contemporary
  • ireland
  • irish literature
  • audiobook
Cover of The Promise by Damon Galgut

18. The Promise

By: Damon Galgut

3.86

Format: 293 pages, Hardcover

The Promise , winner of the 2021 Booker Prize, charts the crash and burn of a white South African f… read more

Similar categories in Damon Galgut's The Promise book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • contemporary
"A smile quickly cut his face and then healed up."

-Damon Galgut, The Promise

"Give him a taboo and he feels the need to break it."

-Damon Galgut, The Promise

"Children still, on the verge of not being children any more."

-Damon Galgut, The Promise

"Her own voice sounds echoey, as if somebody else is speaking."

-Damon Galgut, The Promise

Cover of Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein

19. Study for Obedience

By: Sarah Bernstein

3.05

Format: 192 pages, Hardcover

A haunting, compressed masterwork from an extraordinary new voice in Canadian fiction. A young w… read more

Similar categories in Sarah Bernstein's Study for Obedience book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
"I try always to be good."

-Sarah Bernstein, Study for Obedience

"How, I wondered, might a person, a people, take root, roots and rootlessness, the preservation of what little remains of the past, such were thoughts that blew through me on any given morning, standi…"

-Sarah Bernstein, Study for Obedience

"In taking a side, I thought uneasily, perhaps I ought to take the long view, the survival of the species as a whole. That was my problem, I thought, I was always thinking at the level of the individu…"

-Sarah Bernstein, Study for Obedience

"I had hoped that here in the country I would experience the turn of the seasons differently, with less apprehension, I might come to see the form and plan of the world. Not to frame it within systems…"

-Sarah Bernstein, Study for Obedience

Cover of Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

20. Girl, Woman, Other

By: Bernardine Evaristo

4.28

Format: 453 pages, Kindle Edition

Teeming with life and crackling with energy — a love song to modern Britain and black womanhood … read more

Similar categories in Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"she's got what she needs, not the same as what she wants"

-Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other

"Life is about taking risks, not about burying your head in the sand"

-Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other

"Who needs enemies when your life partner undermines you on a regular basis?"

-Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other

"very small children don’t care about skin colour, Rachel, until they’re brainwashed by their parents"

-Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other

Cover of Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel

21. Headshot

By: Rita Bullwinkel

3.63

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

An electrifying debut novel from an “unusually gifted writer” (Lorrie Moore) about the radical inti… read more

Similar categories in Rita Bullwinkel's Headshot book and Anna Burns's Milkman

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
"The desire to please people is the desire to not be singular."

-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot

"Tanya Maw's sister is two years older, the perfect age gap for wisdom transmission."

-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot

"It can be intoxicating to play a sport that requires one to look in their opponent's eyes."

-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot

"It's a warmth that she'll feel again very few times in her life. It's almost like love, but it has a surer, less desperate edge to it."

-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot

17 Top fiction books like Milkman by Anna Burns

Transform Your Habits

The Gathering

Anne Enright

3.13

Transform Your Habits

Lincoln in the Bardo

George Saunders

4.17

Transform Your Habits

Small Things Like These

Claire Keegan

4.18

Transform Your Habits

Prophet Song

Paul Lynch

4.10

View all the books

21 Top fiction books like Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Transform Your Habits

I Who Have Never Known Men

Ros Schwartz , Jacqueline Harpman

4.22

Transform Your Habits

Trust

Hernan Diaz

3.83

Transform Your Habits

Small Things Like These

Claire Keegan

4.18

Transform Your Habits

Prophet Song

Paul Lynch

4.10

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