Messer’s convincing performance maintains the tension, keeping listeners on edge with each new danger the women...
Gilli Messer gives a top-notch narration of this dramatic tale of two Jewish women from opposite ends of the social spectrum. They find themselves working together to locate a woman who is important to both of them. Fanny, from the Jewish upper class, is a budding photographer, while shtetl-born Zosia is caught up in the rising Zionist youth movement. On the cusp of Nazi restrictions for Polish Jews, photography professor and political activist Wanda Petrovsky goes missing, along with 16 others. As antisemitism encroaches, Messer uses Polish accents accurately and sparingly. She handles political arguments, class clashes, and occasional flirtations with confidence and skill.
Messer’s convincing performance maintains the tension, keeping listeners on edge with each new danger the women encounter.Pub Date: April 7, 2026
Duration: 10 hrs, 35 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217285532
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 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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