The Time Seller

This slim novel, an example of the popular genre of the business fable, takes place in a Swiftian fantasy universe, where the government permits an entrepreneur, AG, to bottle and sell five minutes of time. AG achieves fame, fortune, and his own bottling plant, until his time runs out. As fables go, it's not crystal clear what the lesson is, and the author loses steam as the story nears its end. Listeners may wish they had their own five minutes of time to make up for the shortfall. Kerin McCue confidently narrates this fractured fairy tale without overplaying the absurdity or the polemic. As a result, the audiobook may prove more palatable to some than the printed page. R.W.S. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine