THE SHELTERING SKY

The Sahara is not a place for rapid motion, and Jennifer Connelly's pace in this story set mostly in the desert is almost languorous. The central figures, Port and Kit Moresby, travel because they have nothing better to do and because, otherwise, they might have to talk about what is important to them. Their constant motion between indistinguishable places mirrors their inability to move toward each other, and that almost hypnotic stillness is captured in the low-key narration. Connelly lets the text tell us who is speaking (which it does admirably) and lends the characters no more than the accents that show us the characters' cultures. A strong performance of a difficult book. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2013]