cover image Running the Rift

Running the Rift

Naomi Benaron, read by Marcel Davis. HighBridge Audio, unabridged, 12 CDs, 14 hrs., $34.95 ISBN 978-1-61174-566-5

Set during the 1980s and ’90s, Benaron’s novel follows Jean Patrick Nkuba, an aspiring Olympic runner from Rwanda, as he struggles with the burdens of life in his home country and the growing conflict between Tutsi and Hutu people, which escalates and eventually leads to the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Narrator Marcel Davis produces a passable Rwandan accent; it is lilting and precise, but cuts in and out during dialogue. Davis narrates the rest of the book in an American accent. And while his reading is clear and well paced, this disparity only adds to the awkwardness of his attempt to capture the sound and rhythm of Rwandan speech and in the end undermines his performance. An Algonquin hardcover. (Jan.)