A MAP OF THE WORLD

Jane Hamilton's novel of a young family's move to a rural, midwestern community keeps the reader on the edge of his seat. Told by dual narrators, the voices of Mary Beth Hurt and David Strathairn alternating as the voices of Alice and Howard Goodwin, provide good contrast. Both narrators convey strong emotional timbre as the story moves from the pain felt at the death of a child by drowning on the Goodwin farm, to horror at the charge of child abuse leveled at Alice. This excellent narration takes the reader from heated courtroom scenes to the insides of two people trapped by circumstances in a circle of pain. I.Z. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 95]