*STARRED REVIEW “[B]eing able to understand where we came from, what happened to our people, and how to honor them by living right, by telling our stories” could be goals for any community – but the words are especially resonant for debut novelist Tommy Orange’s sprawling Native American cast: “the world is...
*STARRED REVIEW Cats may have nine lives, but Maggie O’Farrell, who won the Costa Book Award for The Hand That First Held Mine, has had 17, as revealed in this stupendous collection of essays named for various body parts that have caused her near demise. Her...
Within the first few minutes, the chameleonic Adjoa Andoh quickly grabs listeners' attention with the high-pitched ululating trilling that will repeat throughout the almost 10 hours of narration here. Ethiopian Canadian journalist Edemariam couldn't have found a better narrator to embody her late nonagenarian grandmother,...
*STARRED REVIEW Despite the title, the Angels here are more damaged than broken, with even a promise of salvation – more than less – by title's end. Narrated by Luis Alberto Urrea (The Water Museum), who has magnificently recorded most of his audio adaptations, this House...
Meet the Allbrights: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-afflicted Vietnam War returnee Ernt, his perennially in-denial wife Cora, and mature-beyond-her-years teenager Leni. Bequeathed a remote homestead in 1974 by a fallen army buddy, Ernt relocates his family to wild, remote Alaska, chasing dreams of self-sufficiency and simple...
Tom Hazard has a condition that's not in any official medical journal. Referred to in the 1890s as "anageria with a soft g," Tom – who was born in March 1581! – is still very much alive, currently working as a London schoolteacher, and appears...
Dreading her twin sister Keiko's visit from Hawai'i, Hanako deliberately delays returning to her Manhattan apartment, but when she does, she finds Kei in the shower, unconscious from a mysterious attack. While Kei lies comatose in the hospital, Hana recalls their inseparable, even interchangeable childhoods...
*STARRED REVIEW That Elizabeth Acevedo narrates her debut novel-in-verse is a sublime gift. She’s undoubtedly the ideal aural arbiter of her spectacular coming-of-age tale about a Harlem teen whose generational, cultural, religious, and emotional conflicts coalesce to teach her “to believe in the power of [her]...
"What is it like to live in a culture where it often seems like it is a question of when, not if, a woman will encounter some kind of sexual violence?" Roxane Gay (Hunger) posits in the introduction to her latest title, a "place for...
As the youngest of seven children born to a junkyard-tending father and midwife-herbalist mother in remote Idaho, Tara Westover realizes at age 7 that the single fact “that makes [her] family different: we don’t go to school.” Her family espouses Mormonism, although their practices tend toward...
Hillary Huber takes on human and canine characters with mindful, measured narration. The woman – an unnamed writing professor – lost her best friend and mentor to suicide. When she's summoned postmortem by Wife Three (Wife One is a friend, Wife Two not at all,...
In 1959 Havana, as Fidel Castro claims absolute power, the sugar-rich Perez family's vast wealth marks them as targets, necessitating their escape to Miami, FL. With her three sisters and their parents, 19-year-old Elisa Perez leaves Cuba forever. Almost 60 years later, Marisol Ferrara arrives in...
Be warned: this three-parter, four-narrator delight requires utmost attention. But be assured: rewards aplenty await. With crisp, almost staccato delivery, Candace Thaxton affectingly presents Part 1, "Folly," in which editor Alice and author Ezra share 97 years between them. Hint: Alice is 27, but the age...
Versatile, charming, culturally well-matched Soneela Nankani auspiciously voices Sujata Massey’s ("Rei Shimura" mysteries) promising new series set in early 20th-century colonial India. Here the author introduces feisty Perveen Mistry, India's first female solicitor in 1921. Perveen's debut dovetails her challenging career journey – from facing...
When her 5-year-old twins began practicing lockdown procedures in kindergarten, Rhiannon Navin channeled her fearful helplessness into writing what would become her debut novel. Six-year-old Zach's memories of the "POP POP POP" he hears from inside his first-grade classroom closet remind him of a video game....
Dion Graham has narrated 10 – which is almost all – of McSweeney's founding publisher and literary powerhouse Dave Eggers's books. Graham showcases his staggering genius for aural incarnations across gender, ethnicity, culture, age – whatever details Eggers writes, Graham inspiringly brings to listeners' ears. Their...
Following the collapse of her marriage, not-quite-50-year-old Emmy arrives in Bali from Sydney, Australia, where she's built her life after leaving her native England almost three decades prior. Now unfettered, she finds herself in the hostel-like home of local guide (and lothario) Buddy, all the...
Julia Robinson and Cassie Burnes found each other at age 4 in the middle of the nursery school playground, but their glorious best friendship crumbles when they're middle schoolers. Julia, with her supportive parents and a stable home, watches as Cassie, the only child of...
*STARRED REVIEW With her eloquent contralto, Mozhan Marnò exquisitely embodies the Persian poet and filmmaker Forugh Farrokhzad – her experiences as a young bride, maturation as a writer, hesitant then strident steps toward independence, and refusal to be silenced through the violent horrors of the autocratic...
An 11-year-old's daring 1934 dip at Brooklyn's Manhattan Beach introduces the tautly twisted threads of Jennifer Egan’s first novel since 2011's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad. This tripart historical hybrid – part family saga, part noirish mystery, part testimony to women's war-fueled...
