"Olga Dies Dreaming," by Xochitl Gonzalez. (Macmillan Audio, unabridged, 11 1/3 hours.)
Xochitl Gonzalez's debut tells the story of Olga Acevedo, a successful wedding planner, and her brother, Prieto, a popular U.S. congressman living in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in Brooklyn. Their father is dead and their mother, Blanca, abandoned them as children to fight for Puerto Rico's independence.
Prieto is being blackmailed by property developers, and Olga is conducting a demoralizing affair with a self-important, older man — until she meets Matteo, the answer to our prayers. That's the setup for this many-layered novel which is, at once, a witty romantic comedy, a tale of two siblings finding themselves, a portrait of hurricane-torn Puerto Rico's tribulations as a U.S. territory, and a story of an ethnic community shattered by gentrification.
Almarie Guerra delivers Blanca's often pleading letters to Olga in a voice that conveys both urgency and self-forgiveness; Inés del Castillo narrates energetic, fast-talking Olga's sections; and Armando Riesco takes on those of the genial, soul-tortured Prieto. All three narrators are Puerto-Rican born and deliver the Spanish passages with musical grace, thereby enhancing an already fine novel.
"Something to Hide," by Elizabeth George. (Penguin Audio, unabridged, 21 1/2 hours.)
This is the 21st installment of Elizabeth George's series starring those stalwarts of New Scotland Yard, Acting Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley, and D.S. Barbara Havers, now with D.S. Winston Nkata. It's an insufferably hot summer in London and an undercover police detective has been murdered.
She had been investigating the continuing (though not universal) practice in the Nigerian community of female genital mutilation. Is the murder related? Elsewhere, the fate of an 8-year-old girl is at stake. The story widens into a pursuit and becomes infinitely more complicated as George adds further story lines, while maintaining suspense through the many hours of developing her characters into fully fleshed people.
As audiobooks, George's novels have been extremely fortunate in their narrators, all multi-award winners: Donada Peters, Davina Porter, John Lee and, here, Simon Vance, who delivers the book at a measured pace in his distinctive emollient voice. He grants moderate accents to the characters, but his manner is really that of a gifted storyteller rather than an actor performing parts.
