Hi there! My name is Michael Lesley.

Once upon a time, I was working at farm in Maine. I was growing so dreadfully bored of all the repetition during harvest time. On a day off, I happened to stumble upon a book-on-tape at the local library (it was Larry Mcmurtry’s Buffalo Girls, narrated by Betty Buckley). I bought a walkman, popped those buds into my little eardrums and instantly fell in love with a craft that gave me the ultimate liberty, a freedom I didn’t know about until then: utter immersion.

The thing that blew me away the most was the theatricality: the voices, the acting, the dramatic pauses and the tension. I got hooked on the form, devouring character-rich stories as hungrily as my open ears could eat them. Years later, when I discovered an opportunity to narrate stories myself, I was singularly devoted from the first day to making every book i read a spectacle. I want the reader to inhabit the space. I want the performance and the atmosphere to be so electric and alive that you can forget where you are and just indulge in the intimate fantasy of a story becoming your own.

It has been 15 years. I’ve only been growing. I engage with each text as richly and wondrously as any of the great works I’ve ever consumed. Because I believe a story is its voices and I hear it come to life when it starts talking to you. I let this happen through me, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to bring stories to life.

You can check out more of my samples through my Audible profile here