Narrator Janet Metzger has her work cut out for her in this confusing audiobook full of Icelandic words, along with two main characters who have similar names, each of whom has a traumatic past and whose paths cross only obliquely. Ellen is a theater prop maker in her 70s with no friends who is obsessed with a young playwright who is the illegitimate daughter of a famous writer whose name is Elin. Metzger captures fraught emotions, loneliness, and cognitive decline with sensitivity and excellent pacing. But the Icelandic names sound a bit shoehorned into the rest of the story, which is performed in Metzger's Southern accent, and a sense of place never really lands. It isn't really Metzger's fault, but it is difficult to keep straight which Ellen/Elin is which or if, maybe, they are supposed to be the same person.
Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
Duration: 5 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781978659384
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This audiobook is initially daunting. Sixteen hours long and constructed of subtle—at times, even confusing—shifts in point of view, it may feel overwhelming in the first hour. But sticking with George Newbern’s narration and Gilbert’s prose yields great rewards. Newbern’s performance is funny, thoughtful, heartrending, and utterly engrossing. When the famous, now aging, author A.N. Dyer calls his distant sons to his side, Newbern is provided ample characters to animate, and he does so with perfect pacing and what seems like an innate understanding of the novel. He creates a rhythm that makes the changing perspectives easy to follow and Gilbert’s details accessible. & SONS is a perfect example of how a skilled narrator can make a good book even better.
Pub Date: July 23, 2013
Duration: 16 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9780385359566
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Following multiple lives over six decades, this is a story of cultural shifts, the effects of racial prejudice, and family secrets. Joy Osmanski's narration is engaged and easy to listen to. There are times when her narration is uneven and character accents are inconsistent, but she moves the story along at an excellent pace. Will Damron capably narrates a few descriptive paragraphs at the beginning to set the scene. During the '50s, as bombs are explode in Nevada's deserts to entertain Las Vegas tourists, four sets of characters experience the destruction caused by prejudice and social upheaval in their lives. The author skillfully integrates the lives of vivid and realistic characters, bringing them to a satisfying and surprising denouement in the final chapters.
Pub Date: May 2, 2017
Duration: 11 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9781508234715
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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