Audible Charts: Michelle Obama returns to the top

Michelle Obama's Becoming was Audible's most downloaded audiobook for the week ending 12th April, with the self-narrated autobiography continuing on from its success across 2018 and 2019. Released in late 2018, the audio edition of Becoming reigned for six months in the Audible monthly number one spot and was so popular last year it became the seventh most-downloaded title of the decade. Last week, perhaps it offered UK self-isolators an escape to the less chaotic days of, er, four years ago, when the Obamas were in office.

Audio fans under lockdown really wanted to hear authors narrating their own books—not only were Obama's dulcet tones floating down headphone wires across the nation, the ever-present Stephen Fry made his voice heard too, with both his self-authored Mythos (Penguin) and Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection (Audible) hitting the top three. Marian Keyes' Grown Ups, narrated by the author herself, also scored a place in the chart.

Though the Audible charts are usually non-fiction-heavy, the weekly chart saw eight fiction titles hit the top 10. Michelle Paver's gothic thriller Wakenhyrst (Head of Zeus), Rosanna Ley's Italian Riviera-set romance The Lemon Tree Hotel (Quercus) and David Baldacci's hardboiled detective title Redemption (Macmillan) all flew the flag for fiction.

Some older Audible favourites also made their way in, with Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens (Vintage)—always a presence when the book-buying public needs reassurance about the state of the world—hitting 10th place.