OUR NARROW HIDING PLACES

Edoardo Ballerini's spellbinding performance of this intergenerational tale of love and survival lingers in the mind long after one is done listening. Based on memories of the author's Dutch grandmother, the novel incorporates two stories--the child Mieke, who is trying to survive Holland's "Hunger Winter" of 1944, and Mieke's adult grandson, Will, who visits his now elderly grandmother in her American home. Ballerini transcends the different eras, locations, and storytellers with an almost poetic narrative voice that allures and captivates. In scene-setting contrast, the characters of 1944, from Amsterdam's hungry children to exhausted adults to urgent Nazi occupiers, receive vivid and distinct Dutch-influenced interpretations. In America, grandson Will is a believable everyman. And the eels of Holland's waterways, who watch and comment, are ironic and wise. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2024]