The Peacock Emporium

Restless Suzanna Peacock has always hoped that her next venture--her marriage or her high living in London or, now, her new shop in the town where she grew up--would bring her perfect fulfillment. Her tribulations are spoken by Judith Boyd, who turns this novel into a stellar dramatic reading. We expect a narrator to deliver different voices and sound ranges, and sometimes a tone that describes the places on the pages, but this narrator lets you know at the beginning that you have entered a special arena. You know when she announces each chapter that she is figuratively drawing back a stage curtain and inviting you to enter the novel with her. This is the way excellence sounds. J.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine


Elizabeth Sastre narrates with Christine Rendel and Fabio Tassone as they deliver the complicated story of Suzanna Peacock. Blessed and cursed to be the daughter of the scandalous Athene Fairley-Hulme, Suzanna finds that the only place she can be herself is in her own coffee bar. Sastre delivers a compelling performance as she takes on the emotions and concerns of the complicated Fairley-Hulme family, as well as the voices of residents in the farming town where Suzanna lives. Sastre's delivery keeps this audiobook experience upbeat even in moments of darkness, while Rendel and Tassone take on the roles of the more inwardly focused characters. V.B. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine