THE JUDGES

The Nobel Peace Prize winner serves up a Gothic morality play in novel form, in which five stranded airline passengers on their way to Israel find themselves prisoners of "The Judge," who forces them to engage in a parlor game with life-and-death consequences. Throughout The Judge's isolated mansion one hears ghostly echoes of J.B. Priestley and Isak Dinesen, authors who would not strain our credulity the way Wiesel does in this piece. Narrator George Guidall diverts our attention from the glaring flaws by convincingly vivifying the characters--a miraculous job, actually, considering the way they're written--and conveying that desperate earnestness that permeates all of Wiesel's writings. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB / MAR 03]