An audio makeover

KOCHI: On April 23, World Book Day, 400 audiobooks of creations by Malayalam authors were launched by Storytel, the world’s leading audiobook and e-book streaming app. Hard copies of Rebecca, a novel by journalist Rajeev Sivasankar and Kadalneelam, memoirs by Jayachandran Mokeri, will be added soon. Jayachandran Mokeri’s Kadalneelam’s audiobook was released on April 16 while Rajeev’s were released on Friday.

Mokeri was in news sometime back when he was wrongly jailed in the Maldives where he was employed as a teacher, His memoirs titled ‘Takkijja’ had even won Sahithya Akademi Award. In Kadalneelam, his new book, only available in audio form, for the time being, Mokeri writes about his life after he was freed. For Storytel, well-known Carnatic musician Rajeev Nair has made a reading of the novel. 

A journalist by profession, Rajeev Sivasankar is an established novelist now with titles including Thamovedam, Maraporul, Praanasancharam, Nagaphanam, Deivamaratthile Ila, Pennarash, Kalpramanam and Kunjalithira.  Rebecca is a thriller spun around an actual incident that shocked Kerala sometime back. The protagonist of the novel is named after, a twice-widowed septuagenarian, who lives in a remote hamlet of Punchakurinji, in her Pathekkar house flanked by high-walls with a pack of mysteries around her.

Storytel is an audiobook and eBook app streaming service launched in India on 27th Nov 2017. The company is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, and is currently present in 22 markets across the globe with a subscriber base of over 1.5 millio. It hosts titles for every age group in personality development, history, business, romance, thriller, spirituality, horror, drama and adventure.