Balto

By: T. C. Boyle

Narrated by: T. C. Boyle

This short story from the collection Wild Child was originally published in the Paris Review and selected for The Best American Short Stories, 2007 by Stephen King.

Angelle's father is a drunk, and Angelle and her little sister, Lisette, know it. Their mother has told them as much. But their mother has abandoned them and gone back to France, leaving only the empty promise to return behind.

Now Angelle is the key witness in a case that may decide whether she and Lisette are taken away from their father. Angelle must choose between the truth that could hurt them all and the "necessary truth" her father's lawyer wants her to tell.

©2007 T.C. Boyle (P)2013 Blackstone Audio

Typical Boyle short story.

I enjoy the pace of his prose but don’t always understand what he had in mind when he wrote it.

T. C. Boyle was great, but...

...why do they ruin the ending of these stories with that idiotic summary of title/author/narrator/publisher/copyright info, read as if by a machine? It's an assault on the reader.

Courage is the key

This is my takeaway from this story. Courage. Other opinions may differ. I can only be subjective. TC Boyles' narration is great.