> Skip to content
Play sample
  • Published: 7 September 2006
  • ISBN: 9781407001296
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 6 hr 41 min
  • Narrators: Joan Walker, Nina Sosanya, John Hasler

Noughts & Crosses




Perfect for fans of The Handmaid's Tale and The Power, Noughts & Crosses is the incredible first novel in iconic author Malorie Blackman's ground-breaking four-part YA series.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman.
'Stop it! You're all behaving like animals! Worse than animals - like blankers!'

Sephy is a Cross: dark-skinned and beautiful, she lives a life of privilege and power. But she's lonely, and burns with injustice at the world she sees around her.

Callum is a nought: pale-skinned and poor, he's considered to be less than nothing - a blanker, there to serve Crosses - but he dreams of a better life.

They've been friends since they were children, and they both know that's as far as it can ever go. Noughts and Crosses are fated to be bitter enemies - love is out of the question.

Then - in spite of a world that is fiercely against them - these star-crossed lovers choose each other.

But this is love story that will lead both of them into terrible danger . . . and which will have shocking repercussions for generations to come.

Voted as one of the UK's best-loved books, Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses is a seminal piece of YA fiction; a true modern classic.

'The Noughts & Crosses series are still my favourite books of all time and showed me just how amazing story-telling could be' - Stormzy

'Unforgettable' Guardian

'The most original book I've ever read' Benjamin Zephaniah

  • Published: 7 September 2006
  • ISBN: 9781407001296
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 6 hr 41 min
  • Narrators: Joan Walker, Nina Sosanya, John Hasler

About the author

Malorie Blackman

Malorie Blackman has written over seventy books for children and young adults, including the Noughts & Crosses series, Thief and a science-fiction thriller, Chasing the Stars. Many of her books have also been adapted for stage and television, including a BAFTA-award-winning BBC production of Pig-Heart Boy and a Pilot Theatre stage adaptation by Sabrina Mahfouz of Noughts & Crosses. There is also a major BBC production of Noughts & Crosses, with Roc Nation (Jay-Z’s entertainment company) curating the soundtrack as executive music producer. In 2005 Malorie was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her distinguished contribution to the world of children’s books. In 2008 she received an OBE for her services to children’s literature, and between 2013 and 2015 she was the Children’s Laureate. Most recently Malorie wrote for the Doctor Who series on BBC One, and the fifth novel in her Noughts & Crosses series, Crossfire, was published by Penguin Random House Children’s in summer 2019.

Also by Malorie Blackman

See all

Praise for Noughts & Crosses

Blackman's absorbing but alarming novel deals with themes of racism and prejudice . . . Unforgettable

Independent

Stimulating and emotionally satisfying

Financial Times

A gritty read for older children . . . At times this is a beautiful love story; at other times it is a harrowing and moral tale...

Bookseller

Packs some powerful political punches...But Blackman never compromises the story, which is dramatic, moving and brave

Guardian

Inter-racial teenage love has never been more painful

Amanda Craig, The Times