No Two Persons

Bauermeister’s (The Scent Keeper) book-about-a-book explores the impact of one novel on its readers. The initial chapter, “The Writer,” presents the backstory and inspiration for what becomes the book Theo. In “The Assistant,” a manuscript reader flags Theo for a literary agent, thus launching the novel’s voyage through many lives. “The Diver” introduces a free-diver testing the sport’s extremes, with detrimental effects. “The Teenager” follows a student secretly living in a school shed until she is discovered. “The Artist” introduces a free-thinking designer of sea-glass jewelry who resists pressure to be more grounded. An ensemble cast brightens this audiobook, with notable performances by Braden Wright as “the Actor,” a former screen actor rediscovering himself as Theo’s audiobook narrator; George Newbern as “the Caretaker,” a widower finding solace in his wife’s notations throughout Theo; and Carol Jacobanis as “the Agent” who brought Theo to publication and is now nearing retirement. Bauermeister points to the deeply personal nature of reading, as each character reacts to and learns from Theo differently.