The Secrets of a Fire King by Kim Edwards (2007, Unabridged, Compact Disc)

Kim Edwards’ notable collection of short stories depicts the personal, often achingly private moments of men and women outside of society’s mainstream who are coming to terms with love, loss, betrayal and self. Characters include the husband of a Korean war bride who doesn’t wish to westernize, the cleaning lady in Madame Curie’s laboratory who shares her employer’s fascination with radium, an ignorant British ex-pat living in Asia who discovers she will not be invited to the Prince’s annual gala, a married pair of circus performers who yearn to make love standing on their heads, a scientist in an imperiled commune of like-minded idealists, a slick fire eater in a traveling tent show, the conflicted teenage daughter of a high-profile evangelical right-to-lifer and others. In intense, luminous prose, each personality reveals its depth slowly like a blossom; each protagonist confronts an unexpected crisis; each denouement brings a reverberating moment of truth. Narrator Bernadette Dunne differentiates these people subtly and wisely. Even more impressive, however, is her tone: it is gentle, intimate and confiding -- a perfect complement to the author’s own voice.