A Rhode Island-set story from Jodi Picoult, a Massachusetts-set tale from Elin Hilderbrand, and a pair of multi-actor speculative-fiction extravaganzas are this month’s audiobooks.
“Hollow Bones: A Novel”
By Jodi Picoult, read by Rebecca Soler, MacLeod Andrews, Julia Whelan and Jodi Picoult. Random House Audio, 15½ hours, $28. Available through all Rhode Island public libraries.
This new novel by one of America’s best novelists, set partly in Rhode Island, does not disappoint.
It starts in September of 2026 with Molly Fitzgerald, the wunderkind director of the state Department for Emergency Preparedness, coordinating rescue workers during an incident at T.F. Green. And it continues with the story of Molly, whose Brown-graduate father moved to Barrington a few months after her mother never came back from an appointment at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Now Molly is pregnant with her own baby, and trying not to let her work get in the way — or let her baby get in the way of her work.
This being a Jodi Picoult novel, there are, of course, twists, and twists on the twists. And discussion of important issues — in this case postpartum psychosis, the syndrome in which mothers who have recently given birth end up with a mental illness that can make them harm their children. Think Andrea Yates or Lindsay Clancy. I don’t want to spoil the book by saying anything more about the plot; suffice it to say that you should experience it for yourself.
Picoult, who lives in New Hampshire, always does meticulous research when she writes, and that’s certainly true here. She captures Rhode Island and its minutiae nicely, with just a few small hiccups: She talks about something happening in Federal Hill rather than on it, and she has Junior Patriarca leading the mob from Coin-O-Matic when that was his father’s hangout, not his. In the feel of the place, though — including its anybody-can-bump-into-anybody size — she’s right on track.
She also contributes, and reads effectively, an after-story note about postpartum psychosis. The book’s main narrators also are highly skilled, even if Andrews falls into the out-of-towner trap of pronouncing the Rhode Island town “CUH-ven-try” instead of “CAH-ven-try.” It’s a small blip in an otherwise stellar group of performances.
“The Thoroughbreds”
By Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham, read by Erin Bennett. Hachette Audio, 14¼ hours, $31.99.
Hildebrand, famed for her Nantucket series of novels, returns with a second story written with her daughter, Shelby Cunningham. Based on Cunningham’s experiences at St. George’s School in Middletown and set at fictional Tiffin Academy in northwestern Massachusetts, this one picks up where last year’s “The Academy” left off, following the lives of Tiffin’s now-senior class, aka the “sixth form” in prep-schoolese.
There’s Dub, the quarterback, with not one but two big secrets. Charlie, the pretty bookworm who’s now dating rich bad boy East. Davi, the influencer, who’s suddenly in a fight for queen bee with newcomer Pippa. Olivia, torn between wanting to please and wanting to stand out. And a host of faculty and administrators with their own problems and dramas.
It’s all kind of Young Adulty, but the characters are strong enough that it’s enjoyable for grownups, too. And you needn’t have listened to the previous book — there’s just enough backstory here to inform new listeners without Tiffin veterans becoming antsy.
Bennett, who also narrated “The Academy” and Hilderbrand’s Nantucket books, is as strong a reader as ever. Her voice gives a feeling for who each character is, and provides energy and clarity.
“All the Time In the World”
By Cara Bastogne, performed by Emily Bader, Lewis Pullman, Josh Hurley, James Lurie, Merissa Czyz, Marc Vietor and L.J. Ganser. Audible Originals, 4½ hours, $14.79 or free with membership, $8.99 a month.
This is the kind of thing Audible does so well. Instead of a standard book with narrators, this is a kind of audio play, with dialogue and sound effects carrying the whole story.
It’s the sci-fi tale of Everett Ludlow and Celeste Varick, who have come to an island in Lake Michigan in search of the world’s last two wormholes. These are passages through time that had started popping up a few years earlier, and a scientist has been relentlessly stamping them out because of the havoc they can create.
But this isn’t really about wormholes or mad scientists. It’s about Everett and Celeste, each searching for something important. And though they start out suspicious of one another, it’s soon clear that each needs the help the other can give, both for their quest and simply to stay alive on an island with danger around every bend. And perhaps for more.
Movie stars Bader (“People We Meet on Vacation”) and Pullman (“Remarkably Bright Creatures”) have chemistry in the lead roles, and their dialogue sounds natural and spontaneous. The rest of the cast works well, too, for a recording well worth a listen.
“Space: 1972”
By Bill Oakley, performed by Natasha Lyonne and a full cast including Oakley. Audible Originals, 7 hours, $18.06, or free with membership, $8.99 a month.
It’s 1972, and an always-horny President John F. Kennedy, who survived being shot in Dallas in 1963, is still in the White House, and running for reelection. A potty-mouthed Richard Nixon is managing a Shakey’s pizza parlor on the moon and pondering a political comeback. And a nurse named Nancy Kranick is part of a resistance that’s trying to prevent what they know will be a 200-year space empire — with Kennedy as president for the whole two centuries — before he can have them retroactively wiped out before they’re even born.
This is neither history nor the kind of serious alt-timeline fiction Stephen King created in “11/22/63.” It’s the second in a series of wacky confections written by Emmy winner Oakley, who’s also written for “The Simpsons,” “Futurama,” and “Portlandia.”
So we hear the “voices” not just of political figures including Kennedy, Nixon and Henry Kissinger, but also such period showbiz folk as Dean Martin, Florence Henderson and Dolly Parton. Bartley Booz as Kennedy, Jim Meskimen as Nixon (who narrates much of the action), and Kelly O’Brien as Parton are particularly good, with Steve Routman as Henry Kissinger and Donna Jay Fulks as a frisky Henderson, canoodling with Kennedy, close behind. Oakley is plausible as Nixon aide John Haldeman. And keeping the whole thing together is “Orange is the New Black” and “Russian Doll” star Lyonne, whose trademark offbeat delivery is perfect for the role of a nurse and military veteran who finds herself dealing with forces way, way beyond her pay grade.
This audiobook — really a collection of podcast episodes — is a sequel to “Space: 1969,” the 2022 podcast that set up the situation. You can understand what’s going on without having listened to the earlier book, but there are enough references to previous events that you may want to tune in to it first.
Alan Rosenberg is a retired executive editor of The Providence Journal and has been reviewing audiobooks for more than two decades. Reach him at .
