cover image The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay

The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay

Beverly Jensen, read by Bernadette Dunne, Blackstone Audio, unabridged, 10 CDs, 11.5 hrs., $20.97 ISBN 978-1-4417-4788-4

Bernadette Dunne has a pleasantly hoarse, easygoing voice that seems to grows increasingly textured and wiser as the novel progresses and the sisters age. Her clear emotional tones amplify the scenes as she travels with Idella and Avis from tragic childhoods through humdrum adulthoods to comic endings. Without awkward exaggeration, she creates a unique personality for each character, male and female. A Viking hardcover (Reviews, May 3). (Aug.)