Suzanne brings a distinguishing warmth and power to her narrations. Her talents extend to both fiction and nonfiction, and in her recording career of 30-plus years she has given listeners heart-wrenching memoirs, lively history, engaging light fiction, and involving mysteries. Her skill with European and Middle Eastern languages and a degree in French literature also help her provide an essential believability to the characters she portrays.
We've admired Suzanne's work on A MIGHTY HEART by Mariane Pearl, Queen Noor's LEAP OF FAITH, and Margaret MacMillan's PARIS 1919. We were delighted with the smart narration and character portrayal in Julia Spencer Fleming's latest mystery, TO DARKNESS AND TO DEATH. And we look forward to her recording of Doris Kearns Goodwin's latest history, TEAM OF RIVALS, about Lincoln's political genius. In preparing for recording, Suzanne looks for clues in the text, seeing them as "stage directions" that allow her to intuitively follow the author's intent, to stay attuned to psychological subtleties, and to give emotional shadings to the characters. Says producer Claudia Howard: "She has the remarkable ability of living in every single sentence as it comes off the page. At that very moment in time, she sees and feels what the author is seeing and feeling. And when she sees it, we do, too." Suzanne raises text to a high level of intimacy and immediacy, providing a most compelling listening experience. --2005 Narrator Yearbook
Suzanne Toren's enticing storytelling style has served her well in a 30-year career of recording audiobooks. We have celebrated Suzanne for her variety of work--from the contemporary social comedy LE DIVORCE to the literary STORIES OF I.L. PERETZ to the kid-friendly Henry & Mudge series. Daily recording has not diminished what she calls her "sense of adventure" as she begins each new book, and she particularly enjoys the many roles she gets to play--the Mexican-American mineworkers of Barbara Kingsolver's HOLDING THE LINE; the Lower East Side Jewish family in Sydney Taylor's ALL-OF-A-KIND FAMILY; the orphan twins in RUBY HOLLER by Sharon Creech. She tells us that while allowing the story to emerge, she discovers something new and different in each project. She loves to "enter the universe of the author," and we, as listeners, are treated to her astute understanding of the text. Suzanne's ability to intuit an author's intent brings listeners to the heart of a character and the setting--as in her performance of Queen Noor's autobiography, LEAP OF FAITH, which thoughtfully creates an absorbing listen. In preparing, Suzanne says she follows advice she heard years ago: "Allow what you receive to land in your heart and then come out of your mouth." Honored by the American Foundation for the Blind's Scourby Award for Narrator of the Year in 1988, Suzanne is indeed a narrator whose intelligent voice is one all listeners should know. --2003 Narrator Yearbook
Listen to Suzanne Toren