THE BLACK CATHEDRAL

Kyla Garcia and Gary Tiedemann take turns narrating this novel, set in a Black Cuban neighborhood. Told from different perspectives, the story opens as the Stuart family arrives in Cienfuegos, Cuba, where patriarch Arturo wants to build a cathedral. But as it rises, so does the crime rate around its poor neighborhood. Graphic scenes, sexual and violent in nature, pervade the audiobook, but both narrators expertly handle these delicate themes. Despite the nonlinear narrative and the sometimes flimsy characterizations, their smooth and resonant voices, especially Tiedemann’s, draw listeners into the dramatic plot. Listeners will be hooked by this fast-paced and suspenseful audiobook about unrequited love and betrayal. A.C. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2020]