diff --git a/internal/scanner/audiobook.go b/internal/scanner/audiobook.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..09dab4c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/scanner/audiobook.go
@@ -0,0 +1,137 @@
+package scanner
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"sort"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+// parsedAudiobook is the structured output of parseAudiobookFolder.
+// The scanner write path (Task 8) converts this into media_items +
+// media_files + item_people rows.
+type parsedAudiobook struct {
+	Title    string
+	Author   string
+	Narrator string
+	Series   string
+	Year     int
+	Files    []parsedAudiobookFile
+}
+
+// parsedAudiobookFile is one audio file belonging to a parsed audiobook.
+// For single-file .m4b audiobooks there is exactly one entry; for
+// multi-file folders (Task 7) there is one per file.
+type parsedAudiobookFile struct {
+	Path     string
+	Chapters []ChapterInfo
+}
+
+// parseAudiobookFolder reads a single audiobook folder and returns its
+// structured representation. Recognized layouts:
+//   - one .m4b (or other audio file) in the folder, optionally with
+//     embedded chapters
+//   - multiple audio files in the folder (Task 7 — currently returns an
+//     error for this case)
+//
+// Returns an error wrapping os.ErrNotExist when the folder contains zero
+// audio files, so the caller can skip it.
+func parseAudiobookFolder(ctx context.Context, ffprobePath string, folderPath string) (*parsedAudiobook, error) {
+	entries, err := os.ReadDir(folderPath)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("read audiobook folder %s: %w", folderPath, err)
+	}
+
+	var audioFiles []string
+	for _, entry := range entries {
+		if entry.IsDir() {
+			continue
+		}
+		if SupportsAudioFile(entry.Name()) {
+			audioFiles = append(audioFiles, filepath.Join(folderPath, entry.Name()))
+		}
+	}
+	if len(audioFiles) == 0 {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("audiobook folder %s: %w", folderPath, os.ErrNotExist)
+	}
+	sort.Strings(audioFiles)
+
+	book := &parsedAudiobook{}
+
+	if len(audioFiles) == 1 {
+		probed, err := ProbeFile(ctx, ffprobePath, audioFiles[0])
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("probe audiobook file %s: %w", audioFiles[0], err)
+		}
+		book.populateFromTags(probed.FormatTags)
+		book.Files = []parsedAudiobookFile{{
+			Path:     audioFiles[0],
+			Chapters: probed.Chapters,
+		}}
+		return book, nil
+	}
+
+	// Multi-file case is Task 7.
+	return nil, errors.New("multi-file audiobook folders not yet supported")
+}
+
+// populateFromTags fills the audiobook's header fields (Title, Author,
+// Narrator, Series, Year) from the ffprobe format tags. Tags are
+// lower-cased by normalizeFormatTags upstream.
+func (b *parsedAudiobook) populateFromTags(tags map[string]string) {
+	b.Title = pickFirstNonEmpty(tags["title"], tags["album"])
+	b.Author = pickFirstNonEmpty(tags["artist"], tags["album_artist"], tags["composer"])
+	b.Narrator = pickFirstNonEmpty(tags["narrator"], tags["performer"])
+	b.Series = pickFirstNonEmpty(tags["album"], tags["series"], tags["mvnm"])
+	if year := pickFirstNonEmpty(tags["date"], tags["year"]); year != "" {
+		if y := parseTagYear(year); y > 0 {
+			b.Year = y
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// pickFirstNonEmpty returns the first non-empty trimmed value from the
+// supplied candidates.
+func pickFirstNonEmpty(values ...string) string {
+	for _, v := range values {
+		if trimmed := strings.TrimSpace(v); trimmed != "" {
+			return trimmed
+		}
+	}
+	return ""
+}
+
+// parseTagYear extracts a 4-digit year (e.g. 1900-9999) from a tag value
+// that may be a bare year ("2024"), an ISO date ("2024-05-23"), or a
+// padded form ("(2024)"). Returns 0 if no plausible year is found.
+func parseTagYear(s string) int {
+	s = strings.TrimSpace(s)
+	for i := 0; i+4 <= len(s); i++ {
+		candidate := s[i : i+4]
+		if isAllDigits(candidate) {
+			year := 0
+			for _, c := range candidate {
+				year = year*10 + int(c-'0')
+			}
+			if year >= 1900 && year <= 9999 {
+				return year
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	return 0
+}
+
+func isAllDigits(s string) bool {
+	if s == "" {
+		return false
+	}
+	for _, c := range s {
+		if c < '0' || c > '9' {
+			return false
+		}
+	}
+	return true
+}
diff --git a/internal/scanner/audiobook_test.go b/internal/scanner/audiobook_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4801b010
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/scanner/audiobook_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+package scanner
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"os/exec"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func TestParseAudiobookFolderSingleM4B(t *testing.T) {
+	ffprobePath := FFprobePathFromFFmpeg("ffmpeg")
+	if _, err := exec.LookPath(ffprobePath); err != nil {
+		ffprobePath = "ffprobe"
+		if _, err := exec.LookPath(ffprobePath); err != nil {
+			t.Skip("ffprobe not available")
+		}
+	}
+
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	got, err := parseAudiobookFolder(ctx, ffprobePath, "testdata/audiobook_fixtures/single_book")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("parseAudiobookFolder: %v", err)
+	}
+	if got.Title != "Test Audiobook" {
+		t.Errorf("Title = %q, want %q", got.Title, "Test Audiobook")
+	}
+	if got.Author != "Test Author" {
+		t.Errorf("Author = %q, want %q", got.Author, "Test Author")
+	}
+	if got.Series != "Test Series" {
+		t.Errorf("Series = %q, want %q", got.Series, "Test Series")
+	}
+	if got.Year != 2024 {
+		t.Errorf("Year = %d, want 2024", got.Year)
+	}
+	if len(got.Files) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("got %d files, want 1", len(got.Files))
+	}
+	if len(got.Files[0].Chapters) != 2 {
+		t.Errorf("file 0 chapters = %d, want 2", len(got.Files[0].Chapters))
+	}
+}