HELM

Louise Brealey's remarkable performance of the new novel by award-winning author Sarah Hall makes for thoroughly addictive listening. Like the mistral of France and the sirocco of North Africa, helm is a named wind that blows through England's Pennine Hills. Fierce, playful, and unpredictable, it's long been the stuff of folklore. Now it is the central figure in this astonishing novel told by itself and those whose lives it affects: a Neolithic tribe, a Middle Ages monk, a Victorian steam engineer, and a contemporary eco scientist. Brealey's vivid characterizations of the personalities through the ages and her mood-setting skill with pacing--from mannered Victorian to tense modern day--are extraordinary. One wants to buttonhole every passerby and say, "Listen to this!" A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2025]