cover image Empire Made: My Search for an Outlaw Uncle Who Vanished in British India

Empire Made: My Search for an Outlaw Uncle Who Vanished in British India

Kief Hillsbery, read by James Cameron Stewart. HighBridge Audio, unabridged, 8 CDs, 9.5 hrs., $29.99 ISBN 978-1-6816-8516-8

Hillsbery explores the 19th-century disappearance of his distant relative, a man named Nigel Halleck. Born in England, Halleck moved to British Colonial India in 1841 at the age of 20 to work for the powerful East India Company, but left his post and disappeared into the remote reaches of Nepal. Reader Cameron Stewart provides a strong delivery throughout, as the story shifts back and forth between Hillsbery’s modern travels and the complex historical narrative detailing the social and political shifts in colonial life during Halleck’s era. His upper-crust British accent is a proper match for the subject matter and time period. The weight of the background historical information does require patience and attention on the part of the listener, but Cameron Stewart doesn’t miss a beat. When initial hints surrounding the possibility of Nigel’s homosexuality build into something more substantive, the author starts to connect to his distant relative on a more personal level, and Cameron Stewart conveys this by loosening his voice to sound more relaxed and personable. Cameron Stewart proves he’s a dynamic voice actor with this performance, as he is aptly voices the history, memoir, and adventure components of this multifaceted story. A Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hardcover. (Aug.)