A Postcard from the Volcano
A couple of months ago a representative from Ignatius Press posted on the LibriVox forum, asking if there were any readers who’d like to audition to narrate books for them. So I read their little audition piece and in late August they hired me to narrate “A Postcard from the Volcano”, by Lucy Beckett. It was a fantastic book! I enjoyed every minute of the story, even when I felt a little bit stressed about doing a good enough job (and pronouncing all the Polish place-names correctly) and getting done on time (they had a very short deadline for this one). You can get the audiobook here:
http://www.ignatius.com: A Postcard from the Volcano
Beginning in 1914 and ending on the eve of World War II, this epic story follows the coming of age and early manhood of the Prussian aristocrat, Max von Hofmannswaldau. From the idyllic surroundings of his ancestral home to the streets of cosmopolitan Breslau menaced by the Nazi SS, Hofmannswaldau uncovers the truth about his own identity and confronts the modern ideologies that threaten the annihilation of millions of people.
It’s a well-written book and an extraordinarily moving story. There are a few places where the characters discuss philosophy at great length and it gets a little bit slow, but on the whole it’s a wonderful book. The story takes place in Germany so there’s a ton of German, of course, and some Latin, but I studied both languages in college so I feel relatively comfortable with them. A LibriVox friend helped me with the one French phrase I encountered.
I hope you will read this book and tell me what you think of it. If you’re not into audiobooks, you can buy a paperback or an e-text instead. It’s on Amazon as well, and they offer a Kindle version. My audiobook version will be on Amazon eventually.
edit: (Oct 8, 2009) Forgot to mention that music (especially my all-time favorite composer, Bach) is a very important part of the story.
Now I’m narrating another book for Ignatius, a history of the Templars, which is interesting too. I’m so delighted that I can earn a bit of extra money doing something I really enjoy!
Category: Audiobooks, Blog 5 comments »
October 8th, 2009 at 1:42 am
That’s really amazing, well done Kara!!
I’m not sure the Volcano book is up my street, but I would be very interested in the Templars one. Yay for reading out loud :)
October 8th, 2009 at 2:29 am
This is very cool and exciting, Kara! Hooray for work that doesn’t feel like work! :-)
October 8th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Wow, awesome! Congrats! =)
It does sound like such an interesting book… I’ll def. read (or listen) to it some time!
October 8th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
I think that is absolutely WONDERFUL Kara!
The book sounds interesting. I know Ignatius Press is well regarded. How would the book be as a reading group selection? Do you think it would make for an interesting discussion? When it’s my turn to choose, that’s what I look for.
October 8th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Hey there Elli, Christine, and Ryan, my LibriVox buddies! Now you know why I haven’t been around the LV forums quite so much lately. But I met the deadline (yay!) so now I have time to record for LV again.
Hey Kathy! I think this book would be an excellent choice for your book club. I can’t imagine anyone reading it and not wanting to discuss it, actually. My Ignatius Press liaison, Kristen, and I had many chats about it via email while I was recording and she was proof listening, and I had to keep telling Dan about bits of it. It was really hard for me to shut up about it, actually :) If you go to Amazon, you can do their “look inside this book” dealie and read some of it so you can see if it would interest your club. Let me know if you decide to read it!
oxoxox!