NEXT OF KIN

In contrast to many of the dazzling performances by other Chivers narrators, Eleanor Bron's reading is quiet and undramatic. But it's no less effective for that. This story of two brothers struggling to make a living on adjoining farms in rural England reveals poignantly the way members of the same family can suffer so much and say so little. Eleanor Bron has captured this reticence perfectly, as well as the tensions that propel the story to a dramatic climax. It's in great part her sympathetic interpretation that makes us care deeply about these decent people as they move--in the words of the family matriarch--"from change S to loss ... to growth." J.C. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: NOV/DEC 97]