A dazzling cast of narrators enhances this stunning novel, which takes place in Rome over 2,000 years. Four stories ask what it means to be a good person. In modern times, Tom, an American biologist, portrayed with sorrow by Jeremy Arthur, is trying to understand how his marriage went wrong. During the Renaissance, Bahni Turpin fluidly captures the beautiful Giulia, who is suffering from an unwanted pregnancy. In the Middle Ages, Felix, a monk, recalls his youthful love of a boy in wistful tones voiced by Graham Halstead. Finally, the saintly Prisca, who lives during the first century, is portrayed by Caitlin Kelly with innocent yet passionate inflections. Throughout, Satan, wickedly voiced by January LaVoy, provides commentary, and descriptions of the city of Rome illuminate the passage of time.
Pub Date: 2020
Duration: 12 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780061555794
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
American colleges are favorable locales for ghastly event and hair-tearing circumstance. There is, for instance, a good deal of pleasure to be had out of professor and past-prodigy Grady Tripp's awful life, as portrayed by Michael Chabon in WONDER BOYS. There is a certain amount of slapstick here, but it's balanced by Chabon's superb portrait of a gale-force mid-life crisis, a soul-destroying albatross of an unfinished novel and the mind-numbing inconsequence of writers' conferences. David Colacci sounds a little starved for oxygen in his reading, but that's not exactly out of keeping with Grady Tripp's personal gestalt.
Pub Date:
Duration: N/A
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
As a group of men bring their own emotional baggage to their football-obsessed reunion, R.C. Bray delivers his usual solid narration. He shifts his tones slightly but enough to put the listener in the motel with the men, revealing their foibles as the story progresses. The narrator's role in this book is a descriptive one, and Bray is a good guide. His narration becomes extra important because this is a rare instance when there almost isn't a protagonist. The author's well-written story--which alternates between serious and laugh-out-loud funny--uses quarterback Joe Theismann's 1985 injury, a broken leg, as a McGuffin.
Pub Date:
Duration: 5 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781681680057
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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