THE WAY THE CROW FLIES

Madeleine McCarthy is 8 years old when her family moves to a quiet air force base in Ontario in the early '60s. Madeleine's personal life of new school friends, Brownies, unusual neighbors, and a sexually abusive teacher is set amidst the political environment of the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis, and the space race. Ann-Marie MacDonald reads her own work, successfully evoking the wonder and imagination of a child. Her calm, dulcet tones deepen the tragedy of a local murder and corresponding miscarriage of justice. The truth is devastating. MacDonald's male British accents are slightly wobbly, but Madeleine's mother, Mimi, has a pitch-perfect French-Canadian accent. A.B. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 04]