Days of Grace

Josephine Bailey's accomplished performance offers the only uplifting element of this bleak novel. Author Hall lets a promising opening deteriorate into gloom as adolescent Nora is evacuated from bombing danger in WWII London to the safety of life with a vicar's family in pastoral Kent. There she learns that dark secrets and forbidden desires can be just a threatening and destructive as bombs. The depressing story unfolds in chapters alternating between the present and the past, and Bailey convincingly portrays Nora through her entire life of malignant secrets. Bailey's light British accent is perfect, and her subtle adjustments of pitch and clarity, which permit effortless transitions from na•ve child to bitter old woman, are most impressive. M.O.B. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine