ASTRID & VERONIKA

Two Swedish women forge an unlikely friendship full of walks, swimming, confidences, and emotional healing. Veronika, a young novelist, has recently returned from New Zealand after the tragic death of her boyfriend. Astrid, her neighbor, is an octogenarian and "town witch" with her own painful history. Most of the story is ably narrated by Patricia Conolly with a smooth British eloquence. Conolly and Olsson are a lovely combination for evoking the physical world of rural Sweden, with its snow, fog, and dazzling sunshine. Interspersed are chapters told by Astrid (Jill Tanner) and Veronika (Susan Lyons). The narrators are too much alike, though, especially Conolly and Tanner, and Lyons's New Zealand accent for Veronika's boyfriend is distinctly iffy. A.B. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 07]