OF SALT AND SHORE

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 narration shifts points of view and even inanimate objects speak. Her skill navigates listeners through the emotional storm of this fantasy (a Dutch import), but that doesn't make it an easy listen: It's difficult to hear the abject cruelty the children suffer and internalize. But the luminous Lampie has a stout, loving heart, and listeners who stay the course will be amply rewarded. Virtuosic. V.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2023]