The Choir

By: Joanna Trollope

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's Summary

In the gentle world of one of England’s beautiful old cathedral towns, crisis looms: Funds are short, and the cathedral is in need of major repair. One faction of the community argues that the obvious solution is to abolish the expensive, and nowadays rather irrelevant, boys’ choir. But of course, there are those who disagree: the choir school’s headmaster, a conscientious scholar somewhat out of his depth with his elusive, poetical wife; the cathedral organist and choirmaster, brilliant, wayward, and in love with the lead chorister’s married mother; the former lead chorister, now twenty-three and directionless, who haunts his old school looking for a sense of purpose; and the gentle, left-wing bishop, trying to soothe the angry protagonists. Their stories are marvelously woven into this enchanting story of modern life in old-world England.

©1988 Joanna Trollope (P)2000 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"A modern Barchester Chronicle." (Sunday Telegraph)

"[Trollope is] one of the most interesting writers to have emerged in the past few years." (Daily Mail)

"As in the music that pervades the plot of Trollope’s absorbing novel, contrapuntal technique results in a brilliant composition.… Sacred music, the perfect treble of pre-pubescent boys and delicious deadpan understatement create a uniquely rich soundtrack on the pages of this beautifully crafted tale." (Publishers Weekly)

Engaging and absorbing story full of richly-drawn characters

A glimpse into the lives of the people surrounding an English Cathedral boys' choir, full of unexpected intrigue and characters working at once for the benefit of cathedral and town, but also driven by their own less noble needs and satisfaction.
Superb narration.