There's been a tragedy. As 60-year-old Mary-Mathilda gives her statement to Sergeant Percy, her memories reveal a harrowing portrait of plantation life on a fictional Caribbean island in the 1950s. Mary-Mathilda weaves island history with a tale of racism, de-facto slavery, and lifelong abuse at the hands of Manager Bellfeels, who took her as his "outside-woman" at the age of 13. For 38 years, she remained at his mercy, including bearing his children. Canadian writer Austin Clarke's sultry, languid prose seduces; Mary-Mathilda's rambling, circular remembrances mesmerize; and Robin Miles's liquid sugar-cane voice beguiles, enchants, and sticks you fast to this beautifully imagined story. THE POLISHED HOE won the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and Miles deserves a prize for this performance. From island patois to standard broadcast speech, she enhances every word, every emotion, every richly remembered detail.
Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2010
Duration: 19 hrs
Publisher: Recorded Books/ Maple Leaf Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Ayla, one of the "others," is adopted by a clan of Neanderthal cave people. She struggles to conform to their ways, but her advanced human traits overwhelm and threaten their primitive culture in this initial installment of an immensely popular series. Although the story might benefit from abridgment, Rowena Cooper easily carries out the formidable task of enlivening the mostly silent and stereotypical characters with consistent, diverse personalities and human dimension. Through skillful phrasing and inflection, she maintains the reader's interest and suspense, especially with Ayla and her plight, throughout this rambling and imaginative story.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 22 hrs
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America/ Chivers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This lyrical, sensual novel of woman's lot in Manchu, China, is as well researched as it is well written. Authentic in tone, it's nonetheless written for Westerners by a Western expert on China. Moreover, Susan Clark performs the demanding text superbly, with only occasional signs of fatigue. For the most part she not only sustains the quaint diction and Asian atmosphere, but also, creates whole worlds with her voice. She acts the book, rather than reads it, and, in so doing, turns a pretty trifle into a stupendous beauty.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 4 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Audio Literature
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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