CURRENTLY READING
Heritage by Miguel Bonnefoy
Monday, April 21 through Friday, May 9, 2025
Read by Norman Gilliland
The house in Santiago de Chile, with its lush lemon trees, has sheltered three generations of the Lonsonier family. Having arrived from France’s Jura region with a single grape vine in his pocket, the patriarch put down roots there in the late nineteenth century. His son, Lazare, back from World War I’s hellish trenches, would build in their garden the most beautiful aviary in the Andes. The granddaughter Margot, a pioneering aviator, would first dream of flying, and where she would raise her son, the revolutionary Ilario Da. Like Lazare before them, they will bravely face the conflicts of their day, fighting against dictatorship on both sides of the Atlantic. A dazzling family saga, brimming with poetry and passion, that skillfully weaves together the private lives of individuals and major historical events in South America and Europe.
THEME: “Iberia”, Claude Debussy, Orchestre National de Lyon, Jum Markl
(Other Press; ISBN 10: 1635421829 / ISBN 13 978-1635421828)
Readings are archived for one week following the broadcast day of the last chapter due to publisher copyright restrictions.
Latest Episodes
-
Heritage 6 of 15 – The Factory and Margo’s First Flight
Lazare starts a factory that makes communion wafers. A boy, Hector, breaks into the factory. Discovering the boy is the son of a former employees, he offers the boy work. […]
-
Heritage 5 of 15 – The Birth of Margo
Lazare builds the most spectacular aviary in all of South America for Therese and her birds. In it, she gives birth to their daughter, Margot. As a young child, Margot […]
-
Heritage 4 of 15 – Therese Lonsonier
The daughter of a musician, Therese begins her life singing until a case of whooping cough causes her to change her interests. She becomes a falconer which is how she […]
-
Heritage 3 of 15 – Lazare’s Journey To Healing
Lazare has returned to Chile but is very unwell both mentally and physically. Lazare Sr. hires a shaman, Aukan, to heal him. At a market, Lazare impulsively joins a caravan […]
-
Heritage 2 of 15 – The Lonsonier Sons Fight For France
All of Lazare Lonsonier’s sons leave Chile to fight for France. Lazare, the youngest, is the only one to survive. He returns to Chile a ruined and unwell man, missing […]
Chapter A Day Booklist
View information about every book we’ve read in the past 30 years!
Coming Next
Sitting Pretty by Rebekah Taussig
monday, may 12 through friday, may 23, 2025
Read by michele good
UW Madison’s 2024-2025 Go Big Read! Growing up as a paralyzed girl during the 90s and early 2000s, Rebekah Taussig only saw disability depicted as something monstrous (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), inspirational (Helen Keller), or angelic (Forrest Gump). None of this felt right; and as she got older, she longed for more stories that allowed disability to be complex and ordinary, uncomfortable and fine, painful and fulfilling. Disability affects all of us, directly or indirectly, at one some point or another in our lives. By exploring this truth in poignant and lyrical essays, Taussig illustrates the need for more stories and more voices to understand the diversity of humanity. Sitting Pretty challenges us as a society to be patient and vigilant, practical and imaginative, kind and relentless, as we set to work to write an entirely different story.
NPR’s Book Concierge
