EGG & SPOON

Set in tsarist Russia, this story combines historical fiction and folklore and is told by a self-proclaimed “unreliable scribe” who writes from within a tower prison. Narrator Michael Page creates two girls—an earnest and believable Elena and a youthful, cultured Ekaterina—one peasant, the other privileged, yet so alike that their lives are exchanged with little notice. Great Aunt Sophia is haughty and imperious, while her mirror character, Baba Yaga the witch, is a capricious mix of lunacy, joy, and menace. Page especially shines as the story’s narrator. The character may be unreliable, but we believe his aged and patrician voice and hang on to his every measured word as he challenges us to ponder the nature of fate. L.T. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2015 Audies Winner © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2014]