TO THE END OF THE LAND

Narrator Arthur Morey starts off his reading with a pitch-perfect conversation between teens who are quarantined in a hospital. From there, the novel jumps forward to adulthood, revealing that the hospital stay led to a lifelong romantic triangle. The novel becomes one long conversation between two corners of that triangle during a hike across Israel. Morey enlivens a story that could have been monotonous by giving the two troubled hikers strong personalities. There's more than romance, though. The horrors of war seep through in scenes of a mother's anguish, a child's irrational fears, the rambling rant of a trapped soldier. The novel is long, but it has rewards for the thoughtful listener, and Morey’s performance is strong. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2010]