THE WIND WHISTLING IN THE CRANES

As one might expect, this eighteen-hour audiobook reveals its story slowly. The premise is an interesting one. It tells the stories of the people whose lives are centered around a factory building in Portugal. That said, those stories are revealed with painstaking slowness and frequent repetition. Campbell employs her usual skill with the narration, but the action is still difficult to lose oneself in. Campbell's voice is as competent and clear as always, her phrasing and pace steady and easy to follow. The content and structure, though, are inconsistent and perhaps not well suited to the audio format. The characters remain one-dimensional and distant. Overall, the audiobook fails to gain enough momentum to keep the listener engaged. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2022]