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
Tóibín empathetically describes characters in extreme moments, and the narrators bring their experiences...
Melancholy hangs like a low cloud over these powerful stories of displacement, adjustment, and self-revelation. Both Derbhle Crotty and Darragh Shannon deliver nuanced and persuasive performances, giving structure and meaning to the often spare and restrained prose. Their Irish accents add music to the proceedings. Shannon offers rich characterizations, and Crotty's pacing is thoughtful; she gets inside the protagonist’s head especially well in the novella-length concluding piece, “The Catalan Girls.” That story follows three sisters who spend most of their lives in Argentina before returning home to Catalonia. Two of the most affecting stories, “Sleep” and the title story, provide different takes on loss.
Tóibín empathetically describes characters in extreme moments, and the narrators bring their experiences eloquently to life.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
Duration: 8 hrs, 29 mins
DD ISBN: 9781797104768
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
Unfortunately, Erdrich's narration of these stories misses the mark.
The 13 stories in Erdrich's collection combine the everyday and the surreal. In the title story, a girl goes to stay with her grandparents while her parents bring home a new baby. She watches her uncle Jurgen slaughter livestock and recalls “meeting” a Burmese python during a school presentation. In “Domain,” a woman seeks to exact revenge on her father in a corporate afterlife. Pallas Erdrich narrates the stories in a straightforward manner, without many flourishes. The performance feels disjointed, however, as if she’s not fully engaged with the text, which can make it challenging to follow the threads of the stories.
Unfortunately, Erdrich's narration of these stories misses the mark.Pub Date: March 24, 2026
Duration: 6 hrs, 34 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063375048
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2026
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