THE BEADWORKERS Stories

This compelling audiobook introduces Piatote's debut collection of stories in prose and verse. It's sprinkled with the Nez Perce language and concludes with a reimagining of Antigone as Antikone. Piatote has a fine conversational style. Hers is a storyteller's voice, and her delivery has striking transparency. When her narrator is an 11-year-old, she sounds 11. In "Beading Lesson," she provides a spellbinding portrayal of a native speaker, inhabiting her in tone, diction, and cadence and performing a remarkable dramatic monologue. She splendidly does the roles of the Aunties in "Antikone," the play that ends the collection. A Nez Perce tribal member and a Native American studies professor at UC Berkeley, Piatote has crafted an exceptional work in multiple genres. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2020]