LIGHT A PENNY CANDLE

Shipped out of WWII-battered London by her mother, 10-year-old evacuee Elizabeth White moves in with friends, the O'Connors, in Ireland. In a book that spans three decades, author Maeve Binchy follows pale, timid Elizabeth and her red-haired, Irish-Catholic "sister," Aisling, through first loves, weddings, drunken brawls, funerals, and births. Reader Kate Binchy, the author's cousin, nimbly carries the listener from England to Ireland and back again. She casts a warm spell as she makes each character come alive, from Elizabeth's staid father, to her roguish lover, to the Polish merchant who teaches her about valuing herself. Like the title's "penny candle," Binchy's personalities glow lingeringly in the listener's mind. E.V. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 01]