Producer Orli Moscowitz interviews Allan Corduner about why he loves narrating audiobooks, how he prepares to record, and why ANNA AND THE SWALLOW MAN personally resonates with him.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
Orli Moscowitz: You’ve done so many types of acting, from stage to screen to audio. What is it about audiobook acting, in particular, that moves you?
Allan Corduner: I love the human voice and I love the fact that the human voice can express so much… It’s like being a kid. It’s wonderful to get to play all these different parts… It’s something you don’t get to do if you’re in a play, you only get to play one part… It’s just a release of the imagination for me, as a reader.
Allan Corduner in the studio
AC: “ANNA AND THE SWALLOW MAN, particularly, because it’s set in the Second World War and it’s a specific story about existing and surviving in the face of terrible horror. I relate to that very strongly because my mother was from Berlin and she had to leave Germany because of Hitler. She came to England and her real father perished. I have a sort of… cultural and psychological hotline to that kind of story. So it speaks to me, it resonates with me. Even though it’s something I didn’t personally go through myself, it’s in my genes and it’s in my blood and it’s in my being… Gavriel Savit has deftly woven that story together… It’s a wonderfully authentic… and moving story… To be allowed to read that book was in itself a joy and privilege. I think when you’re entrusted with that kind of privilege, you have a duty not to abuse it.”
OM: Can you talk about some audiobooks you most enjoyed narrating and why?
AC: One of the audiobooks I most enjoyed reading was ANNA AND THE SWALLOW MAN. It deals with a horrific time and situation in a very human, unsentimental, and not self-righteous way. I think it’s a beautiful book and consequently I was very drawn to it and, in a way, that makes it very easy to read! Another book that I absolutely loved was The Book Thief… I got the most amazing email from author Markus Zusak after I read the book, which was extremely touching… He said, “I have a bone to pick with you, Allan. You made my whole family cry.”
OM: What do you love most about audiobooks?
AC: “Audiobooks unleash the imagination… Listeners have to use their imagination in a very different way from when they’re seeing something. I think that’s a wonderful thing and I think that’s why it’s increasingly popular… People can get lost in a world that they can put on whenever they want to, without having to go to a theater… They can do it while they’re driving… It means that they can find some escape from this increasingly difficult world that we all have to deal with.”
Gavriel, Allan, and Orli accepting the Odyssey Award at the 2017 ceremony
