Narrator Lisa Flanagan paints completely believable portraits of the three women at the heart of WUNDERLAND. Best friends Ilse and Renate become progressively entangled in the ever-growing web of Nazism in 1933 Berlin. In 1989, Ava, Ilse's daughter, receives a package containing her mother's ashes and a packet of unsent letters written by Ilse to Renate. Flanagan is just right delivering Ava's animosity toward her mother, who dumped her in a German orphanage, a woman Ava never really knew. As she reads the letters, Flanagan transports listeners into the midst of a dark, terrible world overrun by Hitler Youth, brown-shirted bullies, and mindless brutality toward Jews. Flanagan gives a first-rate narration of a gripping story of friendship and betrayal in the face of evil.
Pub Date: April 23, 2019
Duration: 15 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781984844934
Publisher: Random House 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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