"Every crossing is a theft of a life." How mysterious. How beckoning. This audiobook combines the suspense of nineteenth-century horror with the cool detachment of narrators Barrie Kreinik and Raphael Corkhill. Using their finely honed talents for European, African, and American accents, the narrators link an obscure short story by poet Charles Baudelaire with the Nazi occupation of Paris, the slave trade in New Orleans, and a long-forgotten South Sea island. A chase across time that begins with the breaking of tribal taboos can end only with sacrifice and longing. This audiobook is presented in two complete chapter versions told in alternate order, a format that makes it appear twice as long as it actually is.
Pub Date: 2020
Duration: 24 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781250753151
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
American colleges are favorable locales for ghastly event and hair-tearing circumstance. There is, for instance, a good deal of pleasure to be had out of professor and past-prodigy Grady Tripp's awful life, as portrayed by Michael Chabon in WONDER BOYS. There is a certain amount of slapstick here, but it's balanced by Chabon's superb portrait of a gale-force mid-life crisis, a soul-destroying albatross of an unfinished novel and the mind-numbing inconsequence of writers' conferences. David Colacci sounds a little starved for oxygen in his reading, but that's not exactly out of keeping with Grady Tripp's personal gestalt.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: N/A
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
As a group of men bring their own emotional baggage to their football-obsessed reunion, R.C. Bray delivers his usual solid narration. He shifts his tones slightly but enough to put the listener in the motel with the men, revealing their foibles as the story progresses. The narrator's role in this book is a descriptive one, and Bray is a good guide. His narration becomes extra important because this is a rare instance when there almost isn't a protagonist. The author's well-written story--which alternates between serious and laugh-out-loud funny--uses quarterback Joe Theismann's 1985 injury, a broken leg, as a McGuffin.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 5 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781681680057
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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