New Reviews: Fiction

Gilli Messer delivers a tender, emotional performance of a family in grief in this contemporary novel. When vibrant and funny Annie Brown suddenly dies, her young family struggles to adapt to life without her. Messer's pleasant, expressive voice lends itself well to the Brown family, as well as their friends, and neighbors; she portrays children, adults, and the elderly with... Read More

Narrator Angela Lin's restrained pace and understated delivery channel the heartrending emotion of this literary family saga. In the devastating Tangshan earthquake of 1976, a seven-year-old girl, Xiaodeng, becomes separated from her twin brother, Xiaoda, and their mother, Li Yuanni. Xiaodeng, who grows up to become a successful writer in Canada thirty years later, continues to... Read More

Robert Fass narrates this intriguing novel about one man's journey through his many lives. Eugene Miles is an elderly curmudgeon living in a retirement community in California. He is befriended by a housekeeper named Angel, to whom he recounts the tales of his past incarnations as a street urchin in medieval Spain, an explorer with the Lewis and Clark expedition, and Oscar... Read More

Vaneh Assadourian delivers this novel about a dysfunctional Armenian American family in a knowing style and understanding tone. She adroitly captures the clipped angry tone of the indomitable harridan Takouhi, matriarch and mother of three daughters. Author Zilelian presents the three daughters' struggles. Kohar, the eldest, had trouble with fertility; Lucine's husband takes... Read More

At a moment when stories across genres are interrogating how AI and humanity will coexist, Jennifer Jill Araya's performance in this robot-led tale is a standout. Annie is a Cuddle Bunny, a sentient AI in a near-perfect human body designed to meet her owner Doug's every need. But as she reads, learns, and experiences new things, she becomes increasingly aware of her potential... Read More

Andi Arndt narrates a peculiar and poignant coming-of-age story. Born the same day VOYAGER 1 was launched in 1977, Adina Giorno has always felt different from those around her. Could she be an alien sent to observe life on earth? Arndt's detached tone deftly manages the balancing act required of an omniscient narrator who is sympathetic to Adina's plight while merely an... Read More

Ali Nasser and Rasha Zamamiri take turns narrating this novel-in-stories centered on the lives of Palestinian Americans in Baltimore. Nasser takes on the stories from the men's perspectives and Zamamiri from the women's. Both narrators voice characters of various ages, from teenagers to elders, with grace and ease. Zamamiri is especially good at her portrayal of teenage girls.... Read More

Alisha Bailey moves easily between English and Jamaican Patois in this debut novel about grief, family, and coming home. After her younger brother dies, 20-year-old Akúa returns to Jamaica to visit the sister she hasn't seen in years. Longing for reconnection and to make sense of their fraught past, she finds home a lot more complicated than she remembered. The story switches... Read More

Listeners will enjoy this deliciously twisted tale dynamically narrated by the author. Lozada-Oliva explores intergenerational trauma as three generations of women find themselves caught up in a zombie apocalypse. Elderly Guatemalan immigrant Candelaria kills her octogenarian boyfriend. Surrounded by chaos in Boston, she desperately and inexplicably tries to get to the Old... Read More

Mara Wilson does a wonderful job narrating the complex and sweeping story of Shiva Margolin, a young queer woman who finds herself mired in generations of family secrets and pain. Full of Jewish folklore, with flashes back to eighteenth-century Ropshitz, Poland, then known as the City of Laughter, this story could potentially be confusing for the listener. Using tone,... Read More

Charlie Thurston's narration engages whether in flashbacks of Colton Gentry's high school years or accounts of his present-day return to his hometown. Thurston's fluid transitions transcend leaps in time and credibly illuminate Colton's ongoing affection for Luann, his first love. While Colton speaks in a neutral tone, Thurston's expressions of his interior reveal his struggles... Read More

Karen Chilton's performance brings listeners close to the lives detailed in this story collection. Sanders's works are linked by the friction that emerges when family members and co-workers encounter each other in various shared spaces, sometimes begrudgingly. The stories revolve around a Black family, primarily in the Washington, DC, area, where a cross section of affluence,... Read More

With her beautiful British accent, Naomi Frederick narrates this story of two couples whose lives unravel. Lucy and Adam, and Cora and Scott are practically a blended family. Adam, Cora, and Scott were friends at university; their past is deep and rife with secrets unknown to Lucy. One day, Lucy sees a compromising picture of Scott with another woman. As she tries to piece... Read More

As the voice of Mona, Ellie Moon performs appropriately. A young playwright, Mona should be an engaging character, but we don't hear much about her creative process. Rather, she struggles with family, friends, and herself throughout the novel. The simple structure of the story and the journalistic style of the prose are distracting in the audiobook format. Multiple narrators... Read More

James Meunier convincingly portrays the confusion and terror of Alex Dean, a Londoner who wakes up one morning in a place and time he doesn't recognize. Alex's most recent memory is spending a delightful evening with his girlfriend. They were celebrating his acceptance to Cambridge--until they were interrupted by a violent confrontation with Alex's childhood nemesis. Meunier... Read More

Stephanie Willing, Xe Sands, and Steve Quinn work together beautifully to bring forth the emotional vibrancy, complicated family dynamics, and romantic entanglements in Leavitt's latest novel. With a youthful, textured intonation, Willing captures what it feels like to be Ella, a young woman who is coming out of a fraught situation in search of a fresh start. Sands's low,... Read More

Precious Mustapha and Tara Tijani invite listeners into an extraordinary story based on West African mythology. On the day her uncle dies, Ozoemena becomes the unwitting heir to a supernatural family legacy. After her father's death leaves Treasure and her mother destitute, she strikes up a bargain with a strange man in the market. Mustapha voices Ozoemena as a girl who is... Read More

This first-person recollection of a love affair, first published in 1930, is given a splendid narration by Derek Perkins. The title refers to the main character's responses to his love interest's seeming lack of transparency. The author, born Nikolai Freudenstein in Saint Petersburg, was a well-known writer of the Russian diaspora in Paris after the Russian Revolution. He died... Read More

Christina Wong is a multidisciplinary artist who wrote and now narrates this slice-of-life novel. It's about an elderly Chinese Canadian widow who pushes a cart through Toronto's Chinatown, gathering bottles, cans, and reliving memories. David Innes's outstanding pen-and-ink illustrations, available on an accompanying pdf, are described by the narrator as the story proceeds.... Read More

The much-anticipated sequel to IN EVERY MIRROR SHE'S BLACK, this audiobook is a compelling listen that begins where the previous book ended. The story is told from the perspectives of Brittany-Rae von Lundin, voiced by Mela Lee, and Kemi Adeyemi, voiced by Dele Ogundiran. The two Black women live in Sweden, having moved there from the U.S. Palmira Koukkari Mbenga voices... Read More

Golden Voice Narrator Julia Whelan creates an intimate and immediate listening experience in this contemporary audiobook featuring the California landscape. Thirty-three-year-old Daphne, an assistant to a movie producer, is searching for love. Whelan takes listeners through Daphne's romantic history with one unusual twist: At the start of each relationship, Daphne mysteriously... Read More

Those who listen to this audiobook will learn that Tolstoy was wrong when he said happy families are all alike. There are many kinds of happy families, and they appear in all sorts of configurations here. The novel's focus is on adoption and how it is a positive, uplifting choice for those concerned. The liquid, uplifting voice of Patti Murin tells the story of actress India... Read More

George Newbern narrates Elinor Lipman's entertaining comedy with zest and an appreciation of its mix of improbability and realism. The blend of screwball and social humor focuses on Henry, a sympathetic retired lawyer who came out as gay late in life. His comfortable life on New York's Upper West Side is upended by a needy ex-wife, a handsome home design expert who lives with a... Read More

This posthumously published novel, a meditation on death, has a dark side, but Eunice Wong's performance balances its undercurrent of grief with buoyant energy that will have listeners rooting for its antiheroes. A comatose Korean cello aficionado named Alma has ambivalent memories of her relationship with Daniel, a white violinist. Daniel, meanwhile, finds himself locked in a... Read More

While narrator Jennifer Pickens wrings all the passion she can out of this novelized life of Henry David Thoreau, the audiobook keeps its focus firmly on Thoreau's inner world, especially his relationship with nature. Although that relationship is active, it is not dramatic. Thoreau may have been thrilled to discover a climbing fern, but few listeners will share his excitement.... Read More

Shayna Small delivers a variety of accents as a group of New Yorkers gather on the rooftop of their dilapidated building during the COVID-19 pandemic, telling stories to pass the time. The audiobook features a "pots-and-pans symphony" that applauds the healthcare workers who risk their lives to treat the sick. Small shines in this reboot of another plague novel, Boccaccio's... Read More

Author and narrator Yangsze Choo gently narrates this fantasy audiobook about foxes that can transform into dazzlingly beautiful humans. Bao has the ability to tell truths from lies and has been tasked with solving a murder mystery that might involve foxes. Meanwhile, Snow has taken human form and gets a job as a servant, all to aid her in avenging the death of her child. Choo... Read More

Thérèse Plummer narrates the stories of four women in various stages of their lives who have built a strong friendship together. Marnie is a single celebrity cook whose daughter Bella is pregnant. Working for Marnie is her friend Ellen and an intern, Sophia. Plummer depicts the emotional ups and downs of Bella's pregnancy. As Marnie becomes involved in a romance with Sophia's... Read More

Carlotta Brentan and Joy Osmanski, both talented and experienced narrators, are a fantastic match for this updated and very American retelling of the myth of Persephone and Demeter. It's set in New York and on a private island over the course of one summer. Brentan voices Cory Ansel, an aimless 18-year-old. Alternate chapters feature the perspective of Cory's mother, Emer, who... Read More

Listeners meet Glory, voiced by Bahni Turpin with all the sass, spark, and cantankerousness written into this story. Glory is a hoarder (or maybe not?) and a bookie (definitely). Now her daughter has arrived to help her sort through her house and her life. Together they seek to solve the untimely and mysterious death of Glory's friend, a local nun. Turpin's narration is... Read More

Hillary Huber narrates the story of Lacey and Edith, former friends from different worlds who come together to face and heal their forty-year estrangement. Hummel's powerful prose is brought to life by Huber's lyrical voice. Lacey, the child of immigrants who escaped from Germany in the 1930s as Hitler came into power and found success in California, befriended Edith, daughter... Read More

Risa Mei reprises her hilarious character performances in this third book of the Aunties trilogy. Meddy and her husband return from their honeymoon to spend Chinese New Year with her mother and aunties. A former suitor of Second Aunt brings extravagant gifts to the celebration, and, when an important red envelope goes to the wrong person, chaos ensues. As she did in the first... Read More

Aaron Goodson has a pleasing narrative style. He performs this coming-of-age novel in a conversational manner. His pensive tone works for narrator/protagonist David Hammons, the well-read but adrift young man who finds himself working as a fundraising assistant in the 2008 presidential election for the unnamed African American senator from Illinois. This clearly... Read More

Narrator Sasha Simon gives voice to 20-something Hera as she figures out who she is in this new audiobook. After exhausting her options at art school, Hera enters the workforce as a content moderator for a news website. Every day she monitors the bad behavior of others, but when she finds herself in an affair with a married colleague, she has to justify her own bad behavior.... Read More

Narrators Natalie Beran and Jackson Bliss portray queer Russian-Maori siblings Greta and Valdin in this wise, hilarious novel about a loving and chaotic New Zealand family. Beran depicts Greta, a 20-something PhD student who is navigating various relationship messes, in a perky, wry tone that is dripping with millennial angst. Bliss narrates Valdin's sections with a mix of... Read More

The eight performances here provide depth to the settings of these evocative short stories. Themes of race and class are covered, offering fascinating windows into lives on the fringe. Among the standout moments: Alan Carlson exquisitely conveys the violence and ethical dilemmas a professor faces when his daughter is attacked and the police do nothing. Gary Furlong captures a... Read More

Devon Sorvari brings this contemporary urban fairy tale to life with her portrayal of Rose and Cecilia. The two sisters, who live in New York City, are struggling to find their way in the world. In doing so, they must navigate their relationships with each other and with a mystical and mysterious cabaret troupe called Avalon. Sorvari's narration morphs during the book, giving a... Read More

Ayse Babahan thoughtfully narrates this coming-of-age story. Ada feels forever suspended between two states of being. She is one person during the school year in California and another during summers spent with her mother and grandmother in a holiday villa along the Turkish coast. In her nineteenth year, when a chance encounter occurs and an old romance rekindles, all the... Read More

Narrator Ariel Blake captures the climate-devastated, AI-driven world of this novel. From the opening scene, Phillips raises the stakes continually as May, a desperate mother, sells her face to be used in an experiment. The city is run by intelligent robots called "hums," and without her face, May is unrecognizable by them. Blake's steady voices for the hums add a sense of cool... Read More

Marni Penning narrates one woman's personal takedown of the art world. After stealing a famous portrait painted of her more than 20 years earlier, Johanna Porter must come to terms with her past, present, and future as an artist. Penning deftly navigates all the complex emotions Johanna feels when coming face-to-face with both her former mentor/lover and the famous portrait of... Read More

Paul Bellantoni impeccably presents a small village and its superstitious inhabitants in this look at WWII from an Italian perspective. Listeners join Ezio, who's dedicated to his job as a policeman despite needing a cane. Bellantoni conveys life as Mussolini's Fascists and the Nazis terrify everyone. When Ezio arrests a longtime Jewish resident, his conscience requires him to... Read More

Four narrators work together in this multigenerational story of migration, love, and loss. Janet Song, Intae Kim, Greta Jung, and Raymond J. Lee create balance to this lyrical story set amid the making of the two Koreas. They bring to life the struggles of Insuk and her turbulent romance and then marriage to Sungho. The female and male narrators trade a wide variety of... Read More

Set in New York City and French Polynesia in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, this mesmerizing audiobook is flawlessly narrated by Rebecca Lowman. Pia is the 15-year-old daughter of Stephen, a cardiologist at a New York City hospital, and Natalie, a marine biologist. Hoping to attend high school in person, Pia relocates from the island where Natalie is conducting... Read More

Moniqua Plante and Jacob York narrate this contemporary romance, which salutes southwestern cuisine, the entrepreneurial spirit, and love. Plante creates a memorable heroine in Elena, a Latina who is about to become head chef of the Orange Bear, a new upscale restaurant in Aspen. Despite her natural reserve, Elena finds herself falling in love with Julian, a Hollywood director... Read More

It's no exaggeration to call narrator Dorothy Dillingham Blue's performance of this audiobook a Southern charmer. Putting her Vanderbilt PhD on hold, PJ Spoon becomes Pennywhistle, Tennessee's, Chickie Shak chef. She competes with her co-workers--the button-cute Boof and the frighteningly efficient Linda--in a no-holds-barred chicken pageant. Blue's voice weaves and dips... Read More

Nicholas Boulton delights in this story of passionate lovers. It's told from the perspective of a detective who is determined to charge the lovers with a crime following their torrid night of lovemaking in Spain's Guggenheim Museum. Boulton speaks brusquely as Detective Larramendi separately interviews the couple, who both offer the same explanation. Boulton uses pacing to... Read More

Thérèse Plummer offers a rich narration of this audiobook, a modernized LITTLE WOMEN meets PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. The Benedettos were a once beloved family on a popular reality show. Now they've blown through all their TV money and are close to bankruptcy. With her eldest sister courting a new neighbor, Lilly is stuck with Darcy--who proves to be a lot more than meets the eye.... Read More

Narrator Maria Liatis is superb at portraying both the characters in this novel and the rural environment they inhabit. It's 1990, not far from Interstate 80. Marly and her mother arrive in the Pennsylvania town and soon encounter two brothers, one of which Marly will marry at a young age. But she remains close to both. The discovery of a skeleton in the church attic threatens... Read More

Guy Gunaratne narrates his audiobook, which is centered on the fractured life of its Syrian protagonist, Yayha Bas. We listeners are flies on the wall as Yayha's interrogator asks him to recount the actions that brought him to the present moment. Gunaratne delivers this wending tale about a poet turned revolutionary and then prisoner in a tender voice that makes us draw near.... Read More

Cree actor Billy Merasty's authentic inflection evokes the rhythm of Indigenous storytellers in this heart-stopping sequel to MOON OF THE CRUSTED SNOW (2018). The story begins 12 years after a catastrophic power grid failure forces a small group of First Nations people in northern Ontario to live off the land, following their Anishinaabe customs. As resources diminish, four... Read More

This near-future dystopian novel is set in a time of ecological disaster in the mostly underwater community of Island City. Carlotta Brentan portrays the cast of characters smartly by subtly shifting tone, cadence, and timbre. She smoothly portrays the protagonist, who begins as a gangly 11-year-old named Sylvia. Brentan contrasts Sylvia's size and temperament with those of her... Read More

Humphrey Bower narrates the Australian fugitive Lin's further adventures in Bombay. Part autobiography and part fiction, the story brims with action and romance centered on the dashing hero. Bower delivers another mesmerizing performance. The large cast of characters crackle with individuality and Lin's confidence, giving believability to high action. Bower complements the... Read More

Martin's latest audiobook takes place in 1954 on Verona, a tropical island near an unspecified mainland, where Mrs. Gulliver runs a discreet legal bordello. Cassandra Campbell narrates as Lila Gulliver telling her story in an intelligent and determined voice. Campbell employs minor adjustments in tone as she delivers the dialogue of the other characters in the audiobook.... Read More

Narrating his novel, Hisham Matar gives the story of love, loss, and exile during political turmoil a melancholy undertone and a delicate cadence. Khaled is a young Libyan man whose love of the written word takes him to the UK for further studies. But even far from home, he cannot remain unaffected by the rumblings of the Arab Spring. This is a lyrical journey into the ties... Read More

Published in 2006, this audiobook is performed with verve and nuance by Piper Goodeve. Her light intonation and high pitch are perfect for her portrayal of sharp-witted 16-year-old Frederica. She lives with her professor parents--Aviva and David--in a small New England college dormitory in the 1970s. Her parents are the resident houseparents. The arrival of flamboyant Laura... Read More

This complicated story of friendship, migration, and loss is told by Jessica Sarkodie, Ekua Ekumah, and Sarah Dorgbadzi. They create a delightful listening experience with lilting rhythms of slightly accented English. The trio display the variety of personalities in Ghanaian women as depicted in this tale of Selasi and Akorfa. As children, the two girls are best friends,... Read More

Karl Jenkinson introduces Neville Watkins, who is shocked when his wife leaves him, he is fired from his job, and he plows into a car while sneezing. It is through that last event that listeners meet 50-something Neville and Laura, the other driver. Jenkinson outdoes himself performing characters of all ages and classes who are experiencing life's joys and sorrows. Things start... Read More

Author Jill McCorkle joins a talented group of narrators in a memorable performance of her terrific new short story collection. Sly, funny, perceptive, and searing, the stories explore what gets us through our days and years. Hayden Bishop, Teralyn Davis, Marcella Cox, Kathy Bell Denton, and Cary Hite bring a euphonious mix of Southern accents and helpful interpretations of the... Read More

While Nolan's novel begins as a police procedural, it soon evolves, with the help of narrator Jessica Regan, into a study of hereditary hopelessness. In England, as police investigate the murder of a small child, the novel pulls back the curtain on life in the 1990s with a focus on political and social forces of the period. Regan's prodigious range guides the portrayal of the... Read More

Joniece Abbott-Pratt performs this multigenerational novel set over several decades in the American South. In the 1830s, a mysterious woman named Saint frees enslaved people from plantations throughout Arkansas and brings them to a town they call Ours. There they find a safe haven from the rest of the world. But when Saint tightens her control of the townspeople, they begin to... Read More

This layered audiobook could be experienced as one man's midlife crisis. The undistinguished Professor Q steps out of his lifeless marriage to have an affair with Aliss, a mechanical ballerina who somehow comes to life. Greg Chun's subtle performance encourages the listener to look beyond the dullard protagonist to what's happening around him. Q's island country of Nevers is in... Read More

Dorje Swallow's performance of this metafiction centers this whirligig of a novel in which story begets story. His assured narration--in particular, his ability to do voices and accents and adapt his tone to whatever the scene--makes this audiobook marvelous to listen to. Hero Tojosoa ostensibly comes to Prague to join her friend, Sofie, for a weekend. When Dorothea Gilmartin... Read More

Amy Alexander's Scottish burr and nuanced delivery are perfect for this cozy collection of love stories. Who needs online dating in Edinburgh when the Perfect Passion Company can apply a more tailored and personal approach to making love matches? Katie takes over her cousin's matchmaking business and discovers it takes innovative thinking to sort out the types of people her... Read More

Narrator Rebekah Hinds imbues Hazell's compelling debut with a palpable sense of dread. A London cookbook editor known as Piglet prepares for her wedding, complete with a croquembouche wedding cake she's planning to make herself. Then, just 13 days before the big day, her fiancé, Kit, shares a secret that derails everything. Hinds's portrait of Piglet is a triumph, capturing... Read More

A pirate captain, portrayed with a perfect raspy brogue by English actor Sam Hazeldine, captures an unusual treasure, a beautiful, fiery woman with a past and a price on her head, voiced with a fine mix of defiance and yearning by Eleanor Tomilinson. Not surprisingly, a tempestuous "will-they-won't-they" romance is born. Shifting seamlessly from the ensemble dialogue onboard... Read More

There's a strange fable-like quality to this novel about grief and the stories children tell to make sense of it. Sophie Amoss brings all that into her performance by varying her tone and pacing, and shifting her voice as the story moves between time periods. As a girl, Margaret loses her best friend in a tragic accident. Her role in the death is murky, and as she grows older,... Read More

Narrator Rebecca Quinn Robertson offers a gritty portrait of 26-year-old Teddy Angstrom, whose life goes off the rails after her father's suicide. Soon, Teddy discovers that her father never stopped investigating the disappearance of her older sister, Angie, ten years earlier. Teddy decides to pick up the investigation herself and falls headlong into a world of... Read More

Narrators Christine Lakin and Nicole Lewis offer a humbling story on racism in small-town America. De'Andrea, a Black entrepreneur, is heartbroken to leave Atlanta behind when she moves to Rolling Hills, Virginia. Once there, she reluctantly joins the Parent Diversity Committee, run by her enthusiastic white neighbor, Rebecca, at their daughters' school. While the women have... Read More

As a half-Chinese teenager in Shanghai, Alva shared a close bond with her American expat mother but longed for the idealized California life depicted in movies. Jennifer Lim's portrayal of Alva's youthful resentment is colored with both confusion and defiance. Who is her father, and why must they live this half-in/half-out life in China? When Alva's mom marries a much older... Read More

With a youthful delivery, narrator Lu Banks depicts the anger and confusion of a 12-year-old girl who is traumatized by the loss of her beloved brother in an apparent drowning near their favorite fishing spot. In the wake of the tragedy, their mother, an ornithologist, goes in and out of mental institutions. Then, the girl is left to her own devices when her father is convicted... Read More

Stina Nielsen narrates the majority of this debut audiobook, set in a stately country home in the Netherlands in 1961. The veil of WWII overlays the action. Nielsen creates a pervasive sense of disquiet that will keep listeners off-balance until the final moments. Isabel takes an instant dislike to her womanizing brother Louis's new girlfriend, Eva, when he brings her to their... Read More

Vanessa Johansson adds a youthful, energetic tone to this backstage melodrama. Dance moms and close friends Ever, Josie, and Lindsay-- who are the mothers of Bea, Savvy, and Olive--deal with critical personal issues, but each is always ready to do whatever's necessary to advance her ballet-dancing daughter. Johansson believably handles the heated competition to win choice roles... Read More

Dami Olukoya juggles the three central female characters in this audiobook. The lives of these expatriates play out amid the luxury of Singapore. Olukoya moves between Dara, an ambitious lawyer on her way to making partner; Amaka, a banker obsessed with designer brands; and Lillian, the newbie expat wife. Olukoya sets a quick pace, playing up the humor laced throughout the... Read More

Edoardo Ballerini meets Towles is a happy alliance in this short story collection. J. Smith-Cameron narrates only one story. Golden Voice narrator Ballerini uses his full range of techniques. By turns nuanced and dramatic, he always serves the author's fine prose. His smart pace and rich tone work particularly well for the noir novella set in late 1930s Hollywood. Evelyn Ross,... Read More

This unique collection of 10 short stories gathers together various insights on the Black Muslim experience in America. Amir Abdullah, Chanté McCormick, Soneela Nankani, Leon Nixon, and Jade Wheeler come together to dramatize these widely differing voices. Together, they tackle family issues and sexuality, discrimination and grief. From a daughter who is grieving to another... Read More

The vocal agility of narrator Marisa Blake transports listeners back to the 1950s. Nine-year-old Andrea Rodriguez and her brother are whisked away from Woronoco, Massachusetts, to Puerto Rico by their disinterested single mother and left in the care of relatives. Missing home, they contact their father, Luis, and the three return to Woronoco. Blake aptly narrates Andrea's... Read More

With his lovely Irish brogue, Dan Murphy narrates this follow-up to SOLAR BONES. Nealon, just released from prison, returns to his home in West Ireland, now devoid of his wife and young son and their possessions. Almost immediately, he is telephoned by a mysterious man whom Murphy fills with enough menace and specific knowledge about Nealon to make him and listeners wary of... Read More

Pete Cross uses an arch tone and deliberate pacing to deliver this dark satire of contemporary life. Office drone Melvin Levin's existence is flat as a pancake until he receives an anonymous and seemingly unmotivated death threat in the mail. The threat breaks the spell of his drone life and pushes him into a frenzy of paranoia and frustration, but for the first time in a long... Read More

Anthony Rey Perez has just the right tone for this satirical debut novel, especially as he aptly mimics the protagonist's self-justifying voice and truth twisting. Perez's pace moves the story forward--no matter the circumstance. He sounds just like the smart Puerto Rican kid from the Bronx featured in the story. Javi Perez succeeds until he doesn't by playing the victim... Read More

This audiobook reveals that Orange is among the most insightful novelists writing today and a poet of pain. Among this segmented novel's stellar performances, Charley Flyte's reading of Victoria Bear Shield's dramatic monologue to her unborn daughter is a tour de force--a haunting performance with an expressive tone and intimate voice. Alma Cuervo portrays Jacquie Red Feather... Read More

Actor Lili Taylor brings a wry warmth to her narration of Campbell's latest, set in Michigan's Great Massasauga Swamp, where a family contends with secrets and intergenerational trauma. Taylor portrays imperious Hermine Zook, who is raising her 11-year-old granddaughter, Dorothy, nicknamed Donkey, on a secluded island in the middle of the swamp. When tragedy strikes, Donkey's... Read More

Rosa Escoda's narration of this slice-of-life audiobook is like being wrapped in a blanket still warm from the dryer. Frustrated by her indifferent marriage and burned-out by her competitive career, Yeongju leaves both behind to open a bookstore that becomes a refuge to those seeking peace and renewal. Escoda's brisk pace and gentle tone carry listeners along as Yeongju... Read More

Tiffany Morgan narrates this novel set during the Civil War in rural North Carolina. Fifteen-year-old Henry McBride steals off to enlist, and his mother, Joetta, sends his father, Ennis, off to bring him home. Joetta's refusal to support either side makes her a target in her community, especially after she performs a daring act of kindness. Morgan's measured cadence brings the... Read More