THE TRANSCRIPTIONIST

Xe Sands's ironic tone fits Lena, the questioning transcriptionist who begins to wonder about herself and life in general from the isolation of a small room where she types news stories phoned in by reporters from around the world. How can she not when one moment she's typing a story on a celeb's wedding and the next an event in a foreign war? Though both Lena's voice and Sands's readings are dry, there's a tone of quiet, growing despair after a blind woman breaks into the Bronx Zoo, where she's killed by lions. As Lena's chance encounter with this woman before her death sends her on a course of discovery, Sands's narration reflects the loneliness and emptiness that inspire her new direction. S.W. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2014]