J. W. Wright

Others have praised this praise-worthy novel. I wish to call attention to Humphrey Bower's reading. It really is superb. He captures a variety of accents and voices, and always with the right emotion. He pronounces words native to Zulu, Africaans, German, Latin and English without missing a beat. This triumph of a book deserved an equally good reader, and it got it in Bower.

I found myself at turns weeping and laughing out loud while I went through my routine at the YMCA. This book tells multiple, intertwined stories that operate on multiple levels, laced with enough symbolism to keep a literature class busy for weeks, and to keep it on the must-read list for years to come. It is destined to be a classic. Hearing the author read it, with his pleasant accent and native pronunciation of Afghani words, was a major plus.