ORPHEUS LOST

Music and mythology combine in Janette Turner Hospital's look at love in the time of terrorism. Leela, a brilliant MIT graduate student in mathematics, follows street musician Mishka Bartok's bewitching violin solo down into the Boston subway. His music enchants her, and so does Mishka. But their love affair is interrupted when Mishka disappears after a series of terrorist bombings. Edwina Wren's voice is dewy, fresh, and clear as she narrates this complex, convoluted retelling of the Orpheus myth. She brings a sweet lyricism to the love affair, but she's less successful when the story descends into cruelty and revenge. Alternating between the lovers' early lives and the disastrous conditions of post-9/11 America, Hospital's rich, dense prose leads listeners down subterranean passages of the human soul. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2008]