THE GATHERING

Winner of the 2007 Booker Prize for fiction, Irish author Enright's examination of the seemingly insignificant moments that shape lives is at once visceral, bleak, sensual, and lyrical. The story's narrator is Veronica, a woman whose recollections are eloquent, poetic, and laced with deeply held resentments. Her brother, Liam, has just walked into the sea and drowned himself, and Veronica tries to make sense of his suicide. Terry Donnelly's somber, ethereal tones match the dreamlike quality of Veronica's remembrances of her Catholic girlhood, the family of 12 brothers and sisters, the mother who is so overburdened that she can't remember Veronica's name, and the incident Veronica believes sent Liam to his watery grave. Enright's language is gorgeous, and Donnelly's performance captures every subtlety. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2008]