SHAHNAMEH The Epic of the Persian Kings

This new prose translation of the Iranian national epic is read, as Francis Ford Coppola says in his introduction, with the right amount of excess. Ferdowsi's classic is full of battles, love, revenge, grief, piety, and more, and narrator Marc Thompson plays it to the hilt. Even though this version omits the historical age (the last third of the work), what we get moves from the foundational legends of Persia to the spread of Zoroastrianism and is full of fierce passions and characters depicted from birth to old age. Amid a lavish sonic landscape, Thompson creates myriad voices, which age with the characters. We can forgive a few mispronunciations for the high style of the performance, and for the introduction to a classic of world literature. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2018]