THE REFUGEE OCEAN

Three extraordinary narrators guide listeners through two timelines, three lives, and multiple locations involving the immigrant experience. Marguerite, intelligently portrayed by Suehyla El-Attar Young, is musically gifted and composes brilliant sonatas even as civil war rages in Beirut in 1922. Ali Andre Ali is terrific while recounting a story set 50 years later involving Naim, a young Syrian and gifted pianist who is maimed in an Aleppo bombing. Tying the two stories together is wise, witty American Annabel, who is wonderfully portrayed by Jackie Sanders. From Lebanon to Cuba, from Syria to America, the sensitive prose offers painful insights into war and its effects on those displaced. But it's the top-notch performances and music that will resonate with listeners. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2023]