SONS AND DAUGHTERS

Listeners may be tempted to bypass this magnificent audiobook with its unfamiliar character names and sprinkling of Yiddish words. That would be a mistake. This story is universal in its community feeling, challenging parent-child relations, marital troubles, and eternal struggle between tradition and modernity. At a basic level, the story is about a Polish village in the early 1930s, where a rabbi is disheartened by the paths chosen by his 5 children. But it's really the story of a Jewish community--its many flawed and generous characters, all portrayed with precision, nuance, and vitality by Rob Shapiro. His tour-de-force narration will have listeners convinced they're witnessing an actual place and time--a vibrant way of life that was tragically obliterated only a few years later. M.J. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2025]