The Fall of a Sparrow -- (4 Audio Cassettes / Abridged / 6 Hours)

A midwestern professor, his career ruined by an affair with a student, travels to Bologna to attend a trial of terrorists who killed his eldest daughter seven years earlier.

The Woodhall family is devastated when their eldest daughter, Cookie, is killed in an Italian terrorist bombing in Bologna. Through the eyes of her father, Woody, and her sister, Sarah, the two narrators recall the effects of the tragedy and the lives they rekindle to survive. Delivering rich images of American family and Italian culture, David Birney and Alyssa Bresnahan are beautiful counterpoints. There's no sudden switch of narrator, but a gentle balance that echoes the story's flow. Birney brings soulful intimacy to Woody's part and shares the father's struggles in a brilliantly effecting narrative. Bresnahan's light voice has just the right youthfulness to capture Sarah's pain. Woody's passion for steel guitar offsets the sorrow of the story as does a finely crafted abridgment. A splendid listening experience. R.F.W. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine