LATE MIGRATIONS A Natural History of Love and Loss

Joyce Bean's narrations are always genuine and down-to-earth, and this performance of Margaret Renkl's short essays on the natural world and her family is no different. Renkl, who grew up in Alabama and now lives in Nashville, tells of her grandmother being shot, her grandfather's death, her mother's postpartum depression, and her own homesickness when she ventures north for graduate school. Interspersed are essays on the often cruel bird-eat-bird world outside her window, monarch butterflies feeding on her zinnias, and a nest of bees exposed by a tree split during a storm. Bean evokes the warmth of the Southern landscape, complete with a soundtrack of buzzing bees and birdsong. She also beautifully captures Renkl's poignant meditations on grief--specifically, her dreams, regrets, and comforts--when her parents die. A.B. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2020]