diff --git a/AUTHORS.rst b/AUTHORS.rst
index ea363fd118f..812f5b52b69 100644
--- a/AUTHORS.rst
+++ b/AUTHORS.rst
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ Contributors
 * Etienne Desautels -- apidoc module
 * Ezio Melotti -- collapsible sidebar JavaScript
 * Filip Vavera -- napoleon todo directive
+* Florian Best -- log improvements
 * Glenn Matthews -- python domain signature improvements
 * Gregory Szorc -- performance improvements
 * Henrique Bastos -- SVG support for graphviz extension
diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index 792f6ce2201..c263389b753 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -132,6 +132,8 @@ Bugs fixed
   directly defined in certain cases, depending on autodoc processing
   order.
   Patch by Jeremy Maitin-Shepard.
+* #13944: autodoc: show traceback during import in human readable representation.
+  Patch by Florian Best.
 
 
 Testing
diff --git a/sphinx/ext/autodoc/importer.py b/sphinx/ext/autodoc/importer.py
index 099450b084e..843c8a66585 100644
--- a/sphinx/ext/autodoc/importer.py
+++ b/sphinx/ext/autodoc/importer.py
@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ def _import_from_module_and_path(
             # import_module() raises ImportError having real exception obj and
             # traceback
             real_exc = exc.args[0]
-            traceback_msg = traceback.format_exception(exc)
+            traceback_msg = ''.join(traceback.format_exception(exc))
             if isinstance(real_exc, SystemExit):
                 err_parts.append(
                     'the module executes module level statement '