Review: Debut novel ‘Found Audio’ questions what is normal

N.J. Campbell's debut novel 'Found Audio” is a frame story within a frame. A fictional version of the author works for a small publishing house and comes across an unusual submission: the transcription of three found audiotapes. Dr. Singh, a world-renowned research historian specializing in the 'examination of antiquated audio formats,” sent the secret transcription for safe keeping, as she was convinced the events detailed 'are not only real, but also something more than real can be.” She then disappeared. Every trace of Dr. Singh - her publication record, her academic history - was erased.

'Found Audio,” then, is the transcription of the tapes in question, as published by N.J. Campbell. The book is divided into three sections - one for each tape - and the text also includes Dr. Singh's professional notes regarding background noises, accents and hints to the possible location and identity of the speaker and his interrogators.

The story detailed on the tapes is startling. A swashbuckling, unnamed adventure reporter spends his life traveling the globe covering unusual people: an ageless snake hunter deep in the Louisiana Bayou; a fearless mountain climber; a genius chess player who orders hits on anyone who publicizes his games. As the narrator chases one thrill to the next, he finds himself wrapped up in a series of unexplainable events. One minute he's in the middle of a desert village, and the next it's gone; he steps into a hotel in the middle of the city, then steps outside onto a mountain top. And yet in these moments the narrator feels awake, aware. What is real, he wonders? What is normal?

The world, the narrator concludes to his interlocutors, may be more and less that we believe it to be.

A fresh book that is as entertaining as it is pensive, 'Found Audio” is startling debut.