Gregoire's performance of these original stories stimulates listeners' imagination, providing plenty of food for thought.
Samek's collection of 12 short stories is thought provoking, surreal, and original. These creative stories are linked by several common threads: psychology, technology, and time. Narrator Chandler Gregoire adopts a personable tone, feminine and relatable, though her pacing can sometimes become a little bit rapid. Several standout stories from the collection include the titular tale of an older brother who has a puppeteer to control him; “Muscle to Muscle, Toe to Toe,” in which a couple is matched by an algorithm but it ends up feeling artificial; and “The Cloud,” in which mothers' limbs are stored in the cloud.
Gregoire's performance of these original stories stimulates listeners' imagination, providing plenty of food for thought.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
Duration: 5 hrs, 16 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217278107
Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
All four narrators are fitting choices for this collection.
Ozeki's thought-provoking 10-story collection features protagonists at various stages of life. Ozeki capably narrates the majority of her own stories at a relaxed pace, with varying tonal touches, from placid to biting, tailored to the content of each story. Rounding out the cast are a youthful-sounding Akie Kotabe as the child of a Yale faculty member in “The Anthropologist's Kid”; Jeff Ebner, pleasant in “Immortal,” about a patient who eats plastic; and George Newbern, thoughtful in one of the best stories of the collection, “Where Ambition Goes To Die,” about a couple's ambitious past selves. “The Problem of the Body,” about a grandmother/author who catfishes on a dating app on behalf of her granddaughter, is another standout.
All four narrators are fitting choices for this collection.Pub Date: June 2, 2026
Duration: 8 hrs, 48 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217338719
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
With this diverse group of narrators, each story is powerfully performed with emotional intelligence and perfect pacing.
Ten narrators powerfully capture the jarring and thoughtful experiences contained in the crime stories in this Swedish collection. From a police officer who quickly learns his bias can be deadly to a young woman seeking revenge on a wealthy fellow student to a mother who soon commits the very crime her son has been accused of, each story grabs hold of the listener and leaves them questioning what it means to break the law, even with the best of intentions. Each narrator takes on a separate story, and their individual performances skillfully match the emotional power and complicated examination of human nature these pieces provide.
With this diverse group of narrators, each story is powerfully performed with emotional intelligence and perfect pacing.Pub Date: May 30, 2026
Duration: 11 hrs
DD ISBN: 9798228701991
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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