Review "Byatt uses bright splashes of verbal color...to paint word pictures similar to the oil paintings of Matisse...[The] plots are expertly crafted and completely believable, with surprising twists and turns...These are memorable portraits."-- "Library Journal""Hits the imagination's retina with all the vibrant splatter of an exploding paint-box...Everywhere, scenes sizzle with chromatic intensity."-- "Sunday Times (London)""Ravishing descriptions of sounds, colors, and smells...bring each setting to life and steer each conflict to its eviscerating conclusion...These are breathtakingly beautiful stories, rendered with precision and poetry."-- "Booklist"[McCaddon's]...excellent pacing and authoritative grip on the material won me over. Her narration commands attention from beginning to end.-- "Kliatt"[Wanda McCaddon] brings just the right amount of emotion to three subtle and witty stories...The combination of [McCaddon's] animated style and Byatt's vivid workmanship results in a seamless and engrossing audio production.-- "AudioFile"I have the hardback, but it is better to hear [McCaddon] linger on some of Byatt's finely honed description...Virtually every phrase is a treat for the ears. [McCaddon], a professional narrator from way back, knows how to make each word count. -- "Philadelphia Inquirer" Product Description In this elegant set of stories, three modern women are touched in different ways by the paintings of Henri Matisse.In "Medusa's Ankles," a distinguished translator visits a hair salon hoping to regain a hint of her youthful looks. Hung on the wall before her is one of Matisse's iconic portraits.In "Art Works," the three inhabitants of one household--a generous wife, her petulant husband, and their regal housekeeper--make very different artists.And in "The Chinese Lobster," a self-tortured, anorexic art student confronts the smug opulence of Matisse's nudes while pondering suicide. About the Author A. S. Byatt was educated at York and at Newnham College, Cambridge. She taught at the Central School of Art and Design and was senior lecturer in English at University College, London, before becoming a full-time writer in 1983. She is a distinguished critic and reviewer as well as a novelist.Wanda McCaddon (a.k.a. Nadia May or Donada Peters) has narrated well over six hundred titles for major audiobook publishers, has earned numerous Earphones Awards, and was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine.