OUT OF EGYPT

Narrator Edoardo Ballerini immerses listeners in a lost world with this memoir. In a melancholy tone, he captures the author's longing for his boyhood home in cosmopolitan Alexandria, Egypt. He masterfully portrays the characters, especially his quirky grandmothers--one dubbed the saint and the other the princess--and ensures that the other members of his lively Sephardic Jewish family come through vividly. Portraying the author, Ballerini's intonation suggests the wonder and urgency of youth. Aciman's 1996 memoir is a classic story of a privileged clan who lost everything in the fraught years after 1956, when President Nasser expelled English and French nationals and Jews from their homes in Egypt. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2022]