WHITETHORN

Humphrey Bower creates an engrossing soundscape in this story of a 6-year-old boy's pain and triumph in South Africa in 1939. The boy, Tom Fitzsaxby, is an outcast with an English name at a Boer orphanage; his only friend, a black employee. When terrible events occur, Tom decides to fight for what is right. This is a tough book made manageable for listeners by the complex portrayal of characters and by a happy ending. Humphrey Bower paces the tension just right and relieves us with quick-step happiness when it appears. Throughout, he offers revealing, sometimes heartbreaking, portraits of little boys, Boer overseers, and black villagers in an exemplary performance. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 07]