On a good audiobook

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar is a slim novel about magic and sisters and love and living between two worlds. The Hawthorne family lives on the edge of Faerie — a dangerous and little understood land of magic. Two sisters use the power of their singing voices to honor an ancient compact to tend to the willow trees. There are two love stories in this book, one between one of the sisters and an inhabitant of Faerie and the other between the two sisters. The story reads like an old fairy tale, steeped in tradition. It feels like it has been around for a long time, but the story is new. 

The audiobook is narrated by Gem Carmella, who also sings short segments, and has music performed by the author and her sister, Dounya El-Mohtar on harp, flute, and vocals. This bordered on the cheesy, but ultimately worked, bulking up the just-under-four-hours narrative and turning it into a full and complete experience. The language was so lyrical and nuanced that I found myself wanting to also read the physical book and I might still do that — one of the few books I get around to rereading.