THE SEAMSTRESS

This sprawling (read repetitive if you want to) saga of two Brazilian sisters is an old-fashioned swashbuckling adventure. Young orphans Emilia and Luzia are taught the sewing trade by their beloved Aunt Sofia. When Luzia, whose crooked arm causes classmates to call her Victrola, is kidnapped by Hawk, the leader of a group of rebel bandits, the sisters' lives diverge. Shades of Zorro, Lorna Doone, and Patty Hearst. Justine Eyre, who has a lovely voice and appears to be dead-on with her Portuguese accents, has, however, chosen an odd sort of raised-pinkie diction with overenunciated "t's" for this performance, which ill-sorts with the earthy and often violent narrative, and may strike more than one listener as affected and irritating. B.G. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2008]