Readers’ emotional engagement with fiction is a busy research area situated at the intersection of cognitive, affective and narrative theory. Perspective taking is a feature that cuts across the disciplines since the narrative situation is crucial for communicating experiences of narrators and characters in literary texts. However, what has been explored in less detail is how the vocalisation of print text facilitates an empathetic response due to the expressive impact of the human voice so that narratives may be visualised and experienced in a variety of ways. Within audionarratology, the concept of voice is undergoing a redefinition since it ceases to be textually mediated and can be experienced directly. Audiobook narration is a case in point. In the present study it is argued that empathy is a mediating agency that resides in the vocalisation of text rather than in the text itself. For the purpose of exploring this phenomenon, a pilot study was carried out. Three canonical English texts that had previously been studied in their entirety in print by a group of students were accessed in part in a remediated audio format. The listening experiment showed that the individual voice profile of each of the narrating actors had a significant impact on perspective taking and emotional engagement. © 2020 IJLS; Printed in the USA by Lulu Press Inc.