HOPE A Tragedy

Displaying a combination of sarcasm, insight, and wit in his novel, Auslander narrates with the precision of the best audiobook performers. At its simplest, HOPE is the story of how Solomon Kugel deals with his discovery that Anne Frank survived the Holocaust and is living in his attic and writing a novel. More deeply, HOPE is a literary tour de force, with allusions to many great works. Auslander does justice to his written words by deftly reading the book, adding the right inflections and tones in every scene. Remarkably, he does so without minimizing any of the book’s tragic or comic moments, such as when Kugel tries to explain to friends and family that Anne Frank is alive and encounters their reactions to this presumably unthinkable proposition. D.J.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2012]