Even at this audiobook’s daunting length, Gilbert’s tour-de-force performance keeps each moment riveting.
Tavia Gilbert deserves a standing ovation for her performance of this brilliant family saga. She captures the truth in each heart-stopping situation, each convoluted connection, each moment of joy or pain, and she makes each character’s inner thoughts, hopes, and dreams come alive. An early-19th-century chocolatier has a secret family recipe which, while deliciously irresistible, has dark consequences. He reluctantly passes the recipe to his daughter, and what follows covers a century of the country of Georgia’s history with Russia, complete with highly dramatic experiences of operatic proportions. Gilbert delivers a tale filled with the horrors of war, the excruciating costs of love, pain, ecstasy, death, and retribution.
Even at this audiobook’s daunting length, Gilbert’s tour-de-force performance keeps each moment riveting.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
Duration: 41 hrs, 9 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063485884
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2026
Ayla, one of the "others," is adopted by a clan of Neanderthal cave people. She struggles to conform to their ways, but her advanced human traits overwhelm and threaten their primitive culture in this initial installment of an immensely popular series. Although the story might benefit from abridgment, Rowena Cooper easily carries out the formidable task of enlivening the mostly silent and stereotypical characters with consistent, diverse personalities and human dimension. Through skillful phrasing and inflection, she maintains the reader's interest and suspense, especially with Ayla and her plight, throughout this rambling and imaginative story.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 22 hrs
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America/ Chivers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This lyrical, sensual novel of woman's lot in Manchu, China, is as well researched as it is well written. Authentic in tone, it's nonetheless written for Westerners by a Western expert on China. Moreover, Susan Clark performs the demanding text superbly, with only occasional signs of fatigue. For the most part she not only sustains the quaint diction and Asian atmosphere, but also, creates whole worlds with her voice. She acts the book, rather than reads it, and, in so doing, turns a pretty trifle into a stupendous beauty.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 4 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Audio Literature
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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