On Brassard’s Farm, by Daniel Hech
Read by Lisa Flanagan; Blackstone Audio; 12 hours and 30 minutes; $39.95; Audible download; $27.97
Written in the first person and sounding very much like a memoir, this is an intriguing mash-up of a love story and a tale of redemption. Ann Turner has messed up her life and turns to the solitude and hard work of farming in rural Vermont to rebuild it. This construct mostly works, though author Hecht overwrites to the point of distraction. The characters, however, grab you and the farm is so well described it almost joins the cast, though Ann sometimes sounds like a female character written by a man. Narrator Flanagan has one of those voices you could listen to all day. She sounds down to earth and you can easily hear despair, longing, and exhaustion in her performance.
Grade: B
