Leeway Cottage - Audio CD - Abridged Author:Beth Gutcheon, Elizabeth Marvel (Narrator) In April 1940, as the Nazis march into Denmark, a rich girl named Sydney Brant marries a gifted Danish pianist, Laurus Moss. Almost at once, their views of the world and their marriage begin to diverge. When Laurus chooses to leave Sydney in the fall of 1941 to help build a Danish Resistance from London, Sydney is dismayed. By the time they are ... more »reunited four years later, Laurus's family and the reader have been through one of the most stirring stories of the war: Denmark's courageous grassroots rescue of virtually all 7,000 of the country's Jews. Meanwhile, in America, Sydney has led a group knitting for the war effort, and had a baby. In the decades to come, many people, especially their three grown children, will wonder whether these two very different people understand each other at all.
Elizabeth Marvel captures the subtleties and humor of Gutcheon's fine novel of family and friendships. The guest book of Leeway Cottage, the Maine summer house that is the touchstone of several generations of the Brant family, follows the years from the '30s through WWII to the present. The entries of comments by guests center the swirl of events and characters--a useful device especially in this abridgment. Marvel is perceptive of the carefully honed balance of emotions of the characters and brings them alive with voice and cadence. Marvel's deft way with dialogue enhances the richness of the portraits. The men's voices are distinctive and serviceable, if not perfect, but the many Danish and German names are spoken fluidly. -- AudioFile