THE FOREVER WAR

NEW YORK TIMES correspondent Filkins offers this concise account of the "War on Terror," beginning in the 1990s with the origins of the Taliban in Afghanistan and leading up to the present-day situations in the Middle East. Narrated by the author, the production is less a dramatized experience (as is the case with Robertson Dean's unabridged recording) and more a personal monologue on modern warfare. Filkins delivers a reading that is stripped down and unabashed, but the simplicity of his narrative approach doesn't undermine the gravity of the events he relates. His voice carries an indefinable weight that one can only acquire from having experienced war firsthand and having lived to tell about it. L.B. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2009]