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SYNC Audio -- Weekly Offers -- FAQs -- exp 02 Jun @ 11:59 pm ET

NOTE -- you MUST use the Sora app in order to download these books for free

Week 5 -- During the week of May 27 – June 2, your new audiobooks include a full-cast stage play based on a short story, thanks to L.A. Theatre Works, and a memoir performed by its author, thanks to Hachette Audio. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Bernard Malamud also won the National Book Award for the short story collection in which MAGIC BARREL first was published. The full-cast dramatic performance you can download during SYNC’s fifth week of 2021 earned AudioFile Magazine’s Earphones Award. So, for half an hour’s commitment, both new and experienced audiobook listeners are guaranteed satisfaction. Tony Award winner David Cromer, Sheldon “Shelley” Berman, Marge Kotlisky, Naana Potok, Malcolm Rothman, and Jensen Wheeler sweep us into a mid-20th-century New York where a shy rabbinical student and a well-equipped Old World-style matchmaker consider the prospects.

Paired with this audio play is OF BEETLES AND ANGELS: A Boy’s Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard, written and read by Mawi Asgedom. With his family, Mr. Asgedom escaped Ethiopia’s civil war in 1983 and resettled in Illinois. Sixteen years later, he delivered Harvard University’s commencement speech. The title of his memoir comes from teachings his father bestowed on his children, and the book itself has been featured widely in the media since its publication and has been chosen as a one book, one community selection in several communities. You can find out more about the author’s life and work since his memoir’s publication here.

FREE -- The Magic Barrel -- Bernard Malamud/ full cast -- 27 min -- drama

NOTE: this is a dramatized adaptation.

In this 1992 L.A. Theatre Works live performance, Tony Award winner David Cromer and the irrepressible Shelley Berman (1925-2017) created a wonderful chemistry between a shy rabbinical student who is searching for the perfect mate and an old-style Yiddish matchmaker who possesses a large envelope full of prospects. Always full of heartwarming wit and comic detail, these ace actors dig a little deeper to find the gentle pathos in their characters, as well. First published in 1958, "The Magic Barrel" was the title piece in a National Book Award-winning short story collection that, along with his first novel, THE NATURAL, put Bernard Malamud on the map as a major Jewish-American author of the twentieth century.

FREE -- Of Beetles and Angels -- Mawi Asgedom/ Mawi Asgedom -- 3.5 hrs -- NF memoir

A Boy's Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard

Mawi Asgedom brings authenticity to the narration of his memoir, whether he's telling stories of the hardships his family endured while escaping a war or talking about moving to a new country and overcoming difficulties in assimilating there. Illuminating the lessons he learned from his father, his faith, and his culture, Mawi provides a vivid picture of a young man who faces prejudice and tragedy by treating all people as angels--even though they are frequently disguised as beetles. As narrator, Asgedom gives his father a natural-sounding Ethiopian/Eritrean accent, which adds to the flow of the narrative. A large amount of back matter, including a lengthy section of acknowledgments, follows the story.