LAST HUMMINGBIRD WEST OF CHILE

Narrator Gerard Doyle fully embodies all the characters in this historical adventure, which includes a splash of social commentary. A 19th-century teenaged aristocrat, Andrew, flees his unhappy English family, renouncing an ill-gotten inheritance to seek freedom as an ordinary sailor. The fast-paced story of his life on the high seas is told by a diverse cast of characters, including the titular hummingbird and a centuries-old tree, along with a wide variety of humans. The accent he crafts for each character sounds authentic and is always understandable. Doyle steers the listener smoothly through the novel's tonal swings from absurdist humor to gruesome violence to poetic description of the natural world. V.E.G. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2025]