MIDDLE PASSAGE

To evade both the law and an insistent woman, a newly freed slave becomes a sailor. After the ship sets sail, he discovers he has signed onto a slave ship enroute to Africa to capture members of a legendary tribe. This is one of those unfortunate circumstances in which the novel itself is the cause for the audiobook's failure. The use of twentieth- century language in a novel taking place in the nineteenth century is jarring to the ear and disconcerting to the narrative flow. Even the expert tones of Dion Graham's narration can't keep this production afloat. P.R. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 04]