Curtis’ engaging tone and skillful characterizations enhance the wit and poignancy of this multilayered tale.
Hannah Curtis’ nuanced performance illuminates the divergent characters in Prose’s quiet, insightful novel about Hans Christian Andersen’s famously overlong visit with Charles Dickens and his family in the summer of 1857. While an approaching comet creates excitement and anxiety, a self-involved Dickens, awkward Andersen, nine needy Dickens children, and Dickens’ unhappy wife, Catherine, cycle through weeks of misunderstandings. Curtis subtly varies the pace, tone, and pitch of her performance to emphasize the characters’ widely varying personalities as they relate their versions of the visit. Andersen is stilted and whispery; a daughter, forthright and impatient; Dickens, patronizing. In between, the narrative voice is warm and listenable.
Curtis’ engaging tone and skillful characterizations enhance the wit and poignancy of this multilayered tale.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
Duration: 11 hrs, 58 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063411845
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 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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