A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Dion Graham offers a stirring and, yes, heartbreaking reading of Eggers's Pulitzer Prize–winning memoir of assuming guardianship of his eight-year-old brother after both his parents died of cancer. Graham's reading is so honest and emotionally generous that it sounds as if he is relaying events from his own life. His pacing is well matched with the writing and varies with the shifting emotional current; the back and forth dialogues between Eggers and his brother ring true as Graham shifts his tone to capture the subtleties. Despite the often rapid-fire speed of Graham's delivery, he never stumbles and keeps the conversations believable and Egger's penchant for metafictional asides coherent. A Vintage paperback. (Feb.)