SOLAR BONES

On All Souls' Day in Mayo County, Ireland, the ringing of the Angelus bell returns Marcus Conway to the kitchen he once shared with his wife and children, sparking a sprawling meditation on family, work, politics, and life as is it lived. Narrator Tim Gerard Reynolds capably maneuvers through this unrelenting stream of consciousness, which moves back and forth through time within a single, unbroken sentence. Though Reynolds cues the shifts in the story through deliberate pauses or changes in tone, the shifts happen quickly--memories are slippery and triggered unexpectedly--and distracted listeners may find themselves regularly disoriented. Reynolds, however, stays on point, and careful listeners are rewarded with a deceptively intricate and compelling examination of mortality. A.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2018]