Told through letters and journal entries, this novel spans four years in the lives of two very different sisters from a small Canadian town during the 1930s. Narrators Anne Twomey and Joanna P. Adler each take the part of one sister, enhancing the exploration of contrast between the extroverted, ambitious radio star, Nora, and the reflective, reserved, and old-fashioned schoolteacher, Clara. Each reader renders her character sensitively, without resorting to sentimentality. Built on the details of daily life, the story illuminates the emotional drama that underlies the ordinary while exploring the societal restraints against which independent women of the 1930s struggled. Written in prose that is simple and poetic, CLARA CALLAN is rich in historical detail, psychological insight, humor, and tragedy--a moving work of literature, read with appropriate subtlety.
Pub Date: 2002
Duration: 8 hrs, 45 mins
Publisher: HighBridge 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: N/A
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: N/A
Duration: 5 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781681680057
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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