PALAVER

André Santana's narration matches the somber tone of this novel in which a Jamaican mother visits her nearly estranged gay son. Frequent flashbacks to the mother and son's often joyless lives lend insight to their tense exchanges. In the two weeks that follow, the mother works on mending their relationship; at the same time, the son realizes he has more friends than he realized. Santana tackles the Jamaican, Japanese, Texan, and Spanish accents and phrases of the many globe-trotting characters. His flat descriptions of the son's affair with a married man reflect the disengagement of the main character. Black-and-white scene-setting photos between the chapters are lost in the audio version. S.S. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2025]