Distant Hours

Australian author Morton's (www.katemorton.com) third novel, following the international best seller The Forgotten Garden (2009)—also available from Bolinda Audio and read by actress Caroline Lee—is another intergenerational story, this one centering on two families: the Blythes of Milderhurst Castle and the Burchills, from working-class London. While researching a children's novel, Edie Burchill is led to the idiosyncratic Blythe sisters, now quite elderly, who had resided at Milderhurst when her mother, Meredith, was sent there to escape the blitz during World War II. A subplot involving the disappearance of Meredith's teacher as he was about to report for duty adds romantic intrigue. Lee tries, mostly successfully, to differentiate between the Blythes' aristocratic manner of speech and the lower-class dialect of the Burchills. Recommended where Jane Eyre is popular. [See Major Audio Releases, LJ 10/15/10; the Atria: S. & S. hc received a starred review, LJ 11/1/10; the Washington Square pb will publish in July 2011.—Ed.]—Sandy Glover, Camas P.L., WA