FIVE DAYS LEFT

In this gut-wrenching story, narrators Rebecca Lowman and Kirby Heyborne deliver all the necessary emotion without slipping into melodrama. Two parallel stories feature Mara, who has end-stage Huntington's disease, and Scott, who is about to lose custody of his beloved foster child. As the plot brings the climax of these tragic situations ever nearer, Lowman and Heyborne fully differentiate all the characters. Wisely avoiding sentimentality, they employ restraint and understatement while subtly building intensity. These portraits of emotional devastation offer valuable, if uncomfortable, insights. Listeners will find stepping away difficult. M.O.B. [Published: JANUARY 2015]