ANTIQUITIES

Edoardo Ballerini's subtle, fluent narration is perfect for Ozick's subtle, exquisitely fluent narrative voice. The revered storyteller seems to transcend time and place in this long story set in the late 1940s but rooted in the customs and prejudices of an even earlier era. Her aging narrator looks back on his time at a privileged boys' school, where he befriended an outcast boy and himself became an outcast. The narrative hinges not on events, but on shades and degrees of tone and emotion, and on the point-counterpoint of two different stages in the narrator's life. Ozick, our most Jamesian writer, has found her ideal narrator in Ballerini, who shares her grace, sensitivity, and intelligence. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2021]