MISOPHONIA

Gilli Messer narrates this moving debut audiobook, which revolves around 15-year-old Margarita's turbulent adolescence. Margarita lives with her Israeli-born father, Avi, in Berlin, where he serves as a cantor at a synagogue. Margarita hasn't seen her American-born mother, Marsha, for many years. After visiting her maternal grandparents in Chicago, Margarita is abruptly sent to visit Marsha, who is living in Israel. The two travel around Israel, but then Margarita runs away to see a boy she met on the plane. With a light German accent and an angsty intonation, Messer captures Margarita's impulsivity and naïveté. Messer's pacing mirrors the shifts in narrative tension in this perceptive family drama, which touches upon issues of political unrest and anti-Semitism. M.J. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2025]