cover image Nemesis

Nemesis

Philip Roth, read by Dennis Boutsikaris. Brilliance Audio, unabridged, five CDs, 5 hrs., $24.99 ISBN 978-1-4418-9311-6

Roth's compact latest novel rounds out his quartet%E2%80%94Everyman, Indignation, and The Humbling%E2%80%94addressing mortality. WWII-era Newark is in the grip of a rampant polio scare. Bucky Cantor, the fearless, 4F playground director valiantly holds the fort against the disease and protects his charges, until matters take a deadly turn. Dennis Boutsikaris, himself a Newark native, can sound a bit young in parts, sapping the listening of some of the book's dark majesty. But his reading conveys the book's aura, its nostalgia and horror. A Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hardcover. (Feb.)