The influence of ancient story-telling traditions on Kahil Gibran means that he is best heard rather than read. The Prophet and the Wanderer combines his best-known work with the collection of fables published as The Wanderer and a few other tales for good measure.
The orotund language of The Prophet owes much to the King James Bible and Robert Glenister sounds suitably grandiloquent as he gives the full context for quotations so interminably repeated at weddings and funerals.
The Wanderer, a delightfully unpredictable collection that evokes both Aesop and the Sufi poet Rumi gives Glenister more scope for his skill at painting characters by voice, be it oysters chatting on the seabed, a love affair between branches, merchants in the marketplace of Salamis or squabbling spouses.
The Prophet and the Wanderer by Kahil Gibran
Naxos, CDs, £13.99
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