NEWS FROM PARAGUAY

In 1854, Irish courtesan Ella Lynch becomes mistress of Franco Lopez, future dictator of Paraguay. She bears him five sons and encourages the megalomania that will be his country's downfall. This evocative blend of fact and fiction is lush with the scents and sights of a country of beauty and cruelty. Lisette Lecat reads with a measured pace that highlights Tuck's elegiac tone. While the pauses between sentences may seem excessive, the relaxed rhythm helps set the book's atmosphere. Lecat's characterizations are superb--from Ella's diary entries, read in a lilting Irish accent, to disapproving American ambassadors, to Franco himself, whose guttural Spanish makes him sounds like the macho bully he is. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/ MAY 06]