February 2023 Earphones Award Winners

With his trademark tough-guy growl, Richard Ferrone captures the casual confidence, wobbly moral compass, and street-smart charm of Tony Tetro, an art forger extraordinaire. Showing up in California during the swinging 1970s, the self-taught artist found he had a natural aptitude for imitating almost any painting style--from Picasso to Dali to masters like Caravaggio. Tetro's... Read More

There are many reasons to love this long, important audiobook. One big reason is author/narrator Richard Hester's excellent delivery. Another is the memoir's intrinsic value to contemporary American history. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, while we were all in a state of fear and confusion, Hester was taking notes. An observant recorder, the Broadway stage... Read More

Edoardo Ballerini is in excellent form as he provides a gripping performance that captures the backdrop of historical events. Lilith is born into the omnipresent terror of Nazi Germany. Her mother eventually makes the heartbreaking choice to send her, alone, to Cuba, for the possibility of a better life. Once there, Lilith embarks on a second life, never knowing what happened... Read More

Tavia Gilbert single-handedly delivers this production, and is she ever up to the job. She evokes the story's characters--Lampie, the lonely, motherless lighthouse keeper's daughter; Lampie's self-hating, alcoholic father; Edward, the angry, neglected child immured in the Black House, where Lampie is indentured; and more. Gilbert shades her delivery as the third-person close... Read More

Robin Miles transports listeners to 1950s San Francisco to meet mother Vivian, who wants her children to be famous singers, and daughters Ruth, Esther, and Chloe, whose wants differ. Miles fully embodies Vivian as she talks about growing up in Louisiana, negotiates with a music manager, professes her love for the preacher, and reacts to Ruth's becoming pregnant, Esther's... Read More

Voice-over actor Paul Bellantoni has a fine delivery and a rich tone. He ably narrates this witty audiobook. His pace allows the many stories of Italian-American/American-Italian food to stay with the listener. The work is part celebration of the traditional checkered tablecloth spaghetti-and-meatball joints that were common in the U.S. for decades and part revelation of the... Read More

Author/journalist Marcel Theroux narrates his fascinating story of everyday life in North Korea with graceful aplomb. In 1995, when Cho Jun-Su was 11, he found a smuggled copy of Dungeons and Dragons. A teacher helps him understand the game by translating it for him. The game changes the trajectory of his life forever. Cho Jun-Su lives through a brutally oppressive regime,... Read More

Set near Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the Troubles, this audiobook is beautifully written and expertly performed. Bird Brennan's delivery of Kennedy's prose is lovely: Her accent and tone are perfectly matched to each character she voices. Clear-eyed descriptions so carefully wrought come alive in her calmly paced care. In the story, Cushla Lavery is a young Catholic... Read More