The author's initial commentary on the safety of night travel creates foreboding as David Shih narrates the story of the famous hijacking of a train between Shanghai and Peking in 1923. Shih builds intensity from the first skirmish as bandits fire on the train. His tone softens as he describes swallows that flew through the camp where the hostages, including many Westerners, were held. He gives the scene in which they sing "Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here" the bolstering feeling it must have had at the time, and he provides a light touch amid the chaos during an encounter between several bandits and two American women. This thorough re-creation creates sympathy for those on all sides of the dramatic historical event.
Pub Date: April 4, 2023
Duration: 9 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668621721
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This engrossing audiobook is enhanced by its author’s gifted and masterly narration.
This is only historian Rogoyska’s second audiobook, after Surviving Katyń (2021). But as a narrator, she is as assured, as nuanced, and as captivating as any seasoned professional. Her history of Paris’ luxurious Hotel Lutetia before and during the WWII German occupation is a model of historical reconstruction and reimagining. Refugee artists and intellectuals, Gestapo officers, and returning French detainees all passed through this hotel’s revolving doors, and their histories run the spectrum from tragedy to bitter comedy. Rogoyska’s chronicle is compelling and richly detailed, and her narration is simply sublime. Her beautifully accented, finely nuanced voice is a pleasure in itself, fluent, supple, and perfectly attuned to her narrative.
This engrossing audiobook is enhanced by its author’s gifted and masterly narration.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
Duration: 11 hrs
DD ISBN: 9798318572203
Publisher: Tantor Media
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
A beautifully written and narrated work.
Brangan narrates her own history of the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland with great empathy. The laundries were in operation all over Ireland from 1922 until 1996—and were in fact locked institutions run by the Catholic Church to ostensibly save “fallen” unwed pregnant women from ruin. In her lovely Irish brogue, Brangan follows several women throughout their experiences in the laundries. Her tone becomes subtly harsher when recounting the stories of those who looked the other way while the Church continued to imprison women and girls in plain sight. The story of the laundries has been told frequently in recent years, but never quite so thoroughly and compassionately.
A beautifully written and narrated work.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
Duration: 9 hrs, 14 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668121375
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: tomorrow
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