Throughout the month of May, Spotify is celebrating Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by amplifying the many artists, creators, and authors who share the richness of their heritage through music, podcasts, and audiobooks.
For authors in particular, we’re showcasing the diverse range of voices, themes, and experiences with a dedicated audiobook shelf in our Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month hub. The hub features a curated collection of titles where you can find works from some of the literary world’s biggest names.
We tapped our editors to share six top picks to get you started.
Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder
By Asako Yuzuki
Narrated by Hanako Footman
Inspired by true events, Asako Yuzuki’s bestseller explores misogyny, romance, and the transgressive pleasure of food through the story of a female gourmet cook/serial killer, and the journalist intent on cracking her case.
Gifted & Talented
By Olivie Blake
Narrated by Eunice Wong
Olivie Blake, bestselling author of The Atlas Six, tells the story of three siblings reckoning with long-festering rivalries and dangerous abilities. When their CEO father dies, any one of the telepathically and electrokinetically gifted siblings could inherit the Wrenfare throne.
Pachinko
By Min Jin Lee
Narrated by Sandra Oh, Min Jin Lee
In Pachinko, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan. In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger. When she discovers she is pregnant—and that her lover is married—she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son’s powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning
By Cathy Park Hong
Narrated by Cathy Park Hong
Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong blends memoir, cultural criticism and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. As the daughter of Korean immigrants, the author grew up steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy. She would later understand that so-called “minor feelings” occur when American optimism contradicts one’s own reality.
Shanghailanders: A Novel
By Juli Min
Narrated by Mei Mei Macleod
Juli Min’s debut novel follows a cosmopolitan Shanghai household backward in time—from 2040 and through the present and recent past—exploring their secrets, their losses, and the ways a family makes and remakes itself across the years.
The Emperor of Gladness
By Ocean Vuong
Narrated by James Aaron Oh
Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul.
For much more content celebrating API artists—including playlists, podcasts, artist spotlights, and more—visit our special Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month hub on Spotify.
Recent Comments