BREATHLESS The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus

Quammen's focus is on the science of COVID-19--its nature, development, and possible origin--in a study that is complex and often technical. Narrator Jacques Roy negotiates the details deftly, maintaining the intelligent dispassion of a newsman or documentary narrator but with the amiable, intimate manner of an expert recounting a story in a personal conversation. His expressiveness and naturally varying tones convey not only the facts, but also Quammen's take on them, including occasional authorial sarcasm delivered with a muted but telling edge. His ability to engage the listener even with the denser passages makes him the perfect companion for this sometimes microscopic examination of virological science and the illness that currently plagues us. W.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2022]