IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT

Narrator Kathleen McInerney creates a vibrant audio version of the interlocked lives, families, and generations in Judy Blume's arresting, sometimes harrowing, new novel. In the early 1950s, Elizabeth, New Jersey, was a cheerful, confident town in the middle of the American Century when a freak series of plane crashes shattered assumptions and lives. Blume recalls the town's shock, grief, and loss of faith in the goodness of life, all of which shape this devastating story without descending to melodrama. Well matched with Blume's narrative control, McInerney's vocal technique is marvelously flexible, distinguishing with easy shifts of tone a 9-year-old girl from a 15-year-old, not to mention men from women, and the midde-aged from the elderly. Together, they make this powerfully imagined, intricately plotted story unforgettable. B.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2015]