The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, Read by Julia Whelan
Powerful Storytelling and a Brilliant Narrator
Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens.
Narrator Julia Whelan brings vivid characterizations to The Four Winds, Kristin Hannah’s saga about the 1930s Dust Bowl, from the perspective of Elsa Wolcott. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss Whelan’s skill at becoming characters and making us ache, smile, and cry for them, their hardships, and their grit. Elsa Wolcott is tall, gangly, unloved by her family, and trapped in a spinster’s life in a Texas panhandle town. An encounter with handsome Rafe Martinelli leads to a shotgun wedding, and they are unexpectedly content until the Depression, drought, and wind decimate the land and the people. With forceful narrative drive, Whelan delivers a compelling performance of Hannah’s memorable new novel.
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