BEFORE WE WERE FREE

Twelve-year-old Anita is growing up in the Dominican Republic. It is a bounteous tropical paradise replete with a loving extended family and many friends. Yet, as Anita tells her diary, she is increasingly aware of her world’s dangers for adults who disagree with the island’s dictatorial leader. When her own family escapes to safety in New York, the situation of those left behind becomes even more perilous. Julia Alvarez offers an informative, personal introduction at the beginning of the audiobook, and goes on to do a fine job narrating her own fact-based young adult novel, which is an involving book for adults as well as young adults. She doesn’t try to create many different voices but does make the men sound different from the women and the old different from the young. She reads with emotion and clarity, and her warm Latin accent is a pleasure to listen to. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 04]