THE FETISHIST

This posthumously published novel, a meditation on death, has a dark side, but Eunice Wong's performance balances its undercurrent of grief with buoyant energy that will have listeners rooting for its antiheroes. A comatose Korean cello aficionado named Alma has ambivalent memories of her relationship with Daniel, a white violinist. Daniel, meanwhile, finds himself locked in a basement, where he is forced to confront a fetish he has that has hurt many women. Kyoko, Daniel's captor struggles to reconcile her identity in relation to the chained-up man. While the three characters confront racial politics and love laden with pain, Wong's narration manages to bring levity to the story without devaluing its depth. Her performance offers elegance amid the messy relationships, while Kayla Min Andrews' afterword emotionally explores her mother's writing process and how it inspired her own writing career. A.A.H. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2024]