Clara Callan.

Richard B. Wright. 2002. Read by Anne Twomey & Joanna R Adler. Abridged. 7 cds. 8.75 hrs. HighBridge Audio. 1-56511-761-1. $34.95. Jewel case: plot, reader, author notes. SA

Two unmarried sisters from a small town near Toronto, Clara and Nora Callan, cast about for meaning as they approach the third decade of their lives. Their parents have died and it is the latter half of the 1930s, a time of world turmoil and social and technological change but also a time of opportunity. Nora goes to New York, where she stars in a widely listened to afternoon radio dramatic series, Clara, an elementary school teacher who remains in the family home, is traumatized by a rape followed by an abortion in a back room in Harlem. The sisters travel and relish achievements, but their personal lives drift as each in her own setting becomes involved with a married man. Both yearn for completeness and each eventually comes to her own accommodation with a less than ideal turn of her life. Exchanges of letters and entries from Clara's diary carry along the novel's plot. Twomey's and Adler's reading, Clara of the gentle voice, Nora bursting with eager energy, suit the characters perfectly. The legions that love The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller and The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough will be delighted with this. The abridgement is well done, Edna M. Boardman, Bismark, ND