Yarlung celebrates two people close to us whom we have lost in the past few months. My friend the veteran Yarlung executive producer Carlos Mollura passed away in February, and my sweet mother Linda Attiyeh died last November. Both Carlos and Linda believed whole-heartedly in Yarlung and in our mission, and supported us unstintingly since our inception. We dedicate Antonio Lysy’s Yarlung 15th Anniversary edition of his GRAMMY® Award winning Antonio Lysy at The Broad: Music from Argentina to Carlos. He and his wonderful wife Haydee (my honorary sister) underwrote this album and serve as executive producers. I have loved Wind in the Willows since my mother first read it to me when I was four years old, and we dedicate Yarlung’s first audio book to Linda Attiyeh. Many thanks to executive producer Mike Rosell and audio engineers Cliff Harris and Scot Derwingson-Peacock for your talent and guidance.
Our first distributors for Wind in the Willows are NativeDSD (a first!) and Audible, the ubiquitous Amazon audio book platform. More audio book options will follow in coming weeks.
Within minutes of the book’s availability, writer Rush Paul published a Wind in the Willows review. I share some paragraphs here, with permission:
What a wonderful, over-the-top, project. Yes, Toad would be proud.
Bob’s quiet articulate voice takes us on the marvelous adventures created by Kenneth Grahame in the 1908 first publication of these stories. Bob’s narration is simple and direct, without any effort to emulate voices made up for the characters—no, he just reads the story with nice pacing and good inflection, pausing appropriately for dramatic effect. But otherwise, no hyperbolic shenanigans. Thank you, Bob!
And thus brought to life are the characters we’ve known for so many years: Mole, Rat, Badger, and Toad.
As I dole out the wonders of the river and the book’s inimitable characters, my grandchildren have now been introduced to Mole and Rat (or Moley and Ratty to their friends), and the irascible Mr. Toad.
We can certainly debate whether Grahame’s stories are truly stories for children. Many have argued the issue because these stories have such complexity and include schemes of such questionable ethical values, that one can argue they are better morality tales for adults.
Nicely done, Bob Attiyeh. Thank you for this gift.
–Rushton Paul