The Good Life Elsewhere

Narrator Daniel Thomas May deftly presents this biting satire set in Larga, Moldova, where residents will try almost anything to leave their poverty-stricken country. May deftly captures the Russian psyche as Serafim Botezato leads a group who pay traffickers to take them to the promised land of Italy. Botezato's cultivated Italian accent and love for the country he hopes to adopt are charming--and then tragic, once he realizes they've been duped and are still in Moldova. In another vignette, villagers train in curling in order to pretend to be a team that will compete in Italy. May sounds exactly like a coach on the field, encouraging and cajoling his team. Lorchenkov and May present a moving listen. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

February 17, 2014
In Lorchenkov's comedy of errors, Larga, a small village in Moldova, is anything but thriving, and its citizens relentlessly look towards the economically-booming Italy for an answer to their problems. However, few Largans ever make it into the bordering country to find work; despite their best efforts, most are turned away at the border. Nevertheless, these doomed Largans insist on trying. From clergy members such as Father Pataii to politicians such as Voronin, to disillusioned citizens such as the Serafim and Vassily, an often wry narrator chronicles the villagers' cartoonish attempts to escape their impoverished fates. The result is a simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking tale, in which location becomes just as much a character as the people who populate it. Lorchenkov and translator Ufberg bring the myth of Sisyphus to its modern setting in this moving Moldovan satire.