More Than You Know

MORE THAN YOU KNOW is one of those audio-books that encourages you to drive more or wear your Walkman for an extra few minutes. This story has it all: romance, mystery, and an amazing ghost story. Alexandra O'Karma delivers the ideal rendition of main character Hannah's recollection of her youth. The well-spoken O'Karma captures the listener immediately as she alternates between times present and past. As a girl summering in Maine, Hannah enjoys her first love alongside the horror of otherworldly beings from years ago. O'Karma understands the humor and terror of her role, for she delicately acknowledges the nuances of wit and fear without forgetting the value of engaging characters and an engrossing plot. This one is a must-hear! L.B.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

August 23, 2004
A car accident reveals a deep split in the marriage of an African-American couple in Story's lyrical, uneven fiction debut. As the novel begins, brilliant jazz saxophonist L.J. Tillman is a homeless street musician in Manhattan, eking out an existence blowing tunes for passing pedestrians. But Tillman's history is even more sordid—after an argument with his wife about a long-kept family secret, Tillman had an accident in which his car plunged into a river near their Kansas City home. Tillman survives the wreck, but rather than return to Olivia, he takes off—and lets her believe that he has died when the police fail to find his body. Tillman's fortunes improve when he lands a solid gig in Manhattan, and after finally getting an apartment he thinks about calling Olivia, who has had her hands full with a fire that destroyed her beauty shop. Story lays out her convoluted narrative in a series of flashbacks, but it is her vivid descriptions of Tillman's music-making—Story is a professional violinist and the author of a nonfiction work about African-American opera singers (And So I Sing
)—and her strong portraits of Tillman and Olivia that give this occasionally strained novel a solid foundation. 8-city author tour.