It’s difficult to name the better storyteller: the sensational author Fiona Barton, or reader Clare Corbett, who gives a one-woman, full cast performance. The only certainty is that The Widow is a compulsory listening experience.
Let’s begin with Fiona Barton, a former journalist, who has taken her experiences and developed this devastating insight into those affected by unfathomable personal horror. Jean Taylor is the woman we see in news reels: stone-faced, hanging off the arm of her husband as he faces trial-by-media for the crime of child kidnapping and possibly worse. The focus is on him, but what did she live through? What goes through her mind? Was she aware of the sickness that drove her loving husband to horrible acts against children?
This is a chilling drama, indescribable in the powerful and emotional depths it plummets the listener into, spiralling from a simple romance into a horrific nightmare as the truth slowly emerges. It’s not a straight-forward evolution however. How much did Jean know? How much was she in denial? And was her husband as guilty as he seems? Was she as innocent as she seems? Like all good stories, there is more below the surface that what there first seems.
Barton explores these questions from every direction. Each chapter is titled according to the point of view: The Widow, The Detective, The Journalist, The Mother… so many people affected and so many stories to tell over a four-year period covering the crime through to the trial and its aftermath.
Add to this Clare Corbett’s outstanding realisation of this heartbreaking novel and the drama comes to life beyond any reasonable expectation. She is, quite literally, a one-woman show. Every character is nuanced. Her accents, the timber of her voice, the inflection of her words…every heart-pounding moment is brought to life through Corbett’s extraordinary versatility.
Corbett is surely one of the greatest living voice actors today. She not only makes you experience the depth of emotion and makes you understand the subtle motivations of Barton’s characters, but she extracts the irony and comedy of each character’s dialogue and inner thoughts. Her masterful reading is truly a movie for the mind.
Barton and Corbett are an unbeatable team. The Widow is mandatory listening for anyone demanding an exceptional story told by an exceptional storyteller. The audiobook runs for 10 hours and 29 minutes which is far too short for such a memorable experience.
Reviewed by Rod Lewis
Twitter: @StrtegicRetweet
Rating out of 10: 10
The audiobook of The Widow is available now through audible.com.au.
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: January 2016
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