The Island at the Center of the World

Based on newly translated archives, Shorto tells the story of the Dutch settlement of Manhattan in great detail, including all the European back story, through the English takeover. Unfortunately, the book is as overwritten (sometimes comically) as the title is overblown. L.J. Ganser's voice--sharp-edged, harsh, and nasal--takes a long time to get used to. His pronunciations of foreign words is awkward and strained (especially the frequent Dutch). But the wealth of information and the cogent, if repetitive, arguments for the influence of this cosmopolitan, multicultural, liberal colony on the future U.S. outweigh the faults of the book and the reading. W.M. 2005 Audie Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine