RIKERS An Oral History

Using multiple narrators to perform this disturbing audiobook was a masterful decision. The voices carry several different accents, tempos, tones, and even attitudes that reflect the diversity of those incarcerated or working on Rikers Island, a hellhole that is New York's largest and best-known jail. The narrators are all first-rate as they recount stories of arrest, casual cruelty, simple kindness, extraordinary brutality, exploitation, and fear. The accounts are told in short pieces, some of them only a paragraph long. The multiple narrators allow the stories to move along, flowing into each other while still separating both the characters and their experiences. This is an engrossing look at the carceral state and the people within it. G.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2023]