THURSDAY'S CHILD

This sullen story of the Great Depression, many troubles, and the human condition is told in a correspondingly quiet, slow voice. Harper, a 7-year-old girl who feels trapped by her dysfunctional family, narrates this bizarre story of survival and peculiar happenings. Her younger brother, Tin, lives under the shack they call home and digs tunnels beneath the earth. He becomes a wild being, and the family accepts this as his fate. They live through horrors of losing a baby, alcoholism, poverty, and abuse. Melissa Eccleston finds a way to bring Australia's mining community to life through her haunting narration while telling this surreal tale, which mires the listener in heartache for this pitiful girl. D.L.M. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 04]