Trondheim

James’s (The Surfacing) latest finds Lil and Alba at a crossroads in their marriage and long partnership with one another. The story opens on “the day their son was going to die,” with Lil going through the mundane motions of moving tile and rubble in a home renovation. Though the women continue to pass the days together, their relationship is fraught. However, when the two receive a call that their son, Pierre, has suffered cardiac arrest and is in a coma, everything changes. The mothers rush to Norway to be by their son’s side, quickly getting swept up in the hospital jargon and a new normal, set against a bleak, wintry landscape. The couple’s already tenuous relationship is strained even further as the stress of their daily bedside vigil intensifies. While Kim Bretton’s narration is well suited to the story’s movement between languages and cultures, her character voices are quite similar, which may pose a challenge for some listeners. Additionally, though she conveys the story’s tense atmosphere, her narration sometimes feels stilted.