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Title

One-line summary

The prompt

Prepare this book chapter for audiobook narration. The author's text must stay verbatim — everything you add is direction, placed in {curly braces} so it cannot be confused with the text itself.

Chapter: [PASTE CHAPTER TEXT]
Genre and overall tone: [e.g. LITERARY FICTION, DRY WIT UNDERNEATH]
Narration style: [SINGLE NARRATOR WITH CHARACTER VOICES / NEUTRAL SINGLE VOICE / MULTI-CAST]
Narrator baseline: [e.g. MIDDLE REGISTER, UNHURRIED, MINIMAL ACCENT]

Produce, in order:

1. Character voice map. Every character who speaks in this chapter, with age and disposition as evidenced in the text, and a voice spec relative to the narrator baseline: pitch (higher, lower, same), pace, energy, and one distinguishing quality (clipped, breathy, formal, drawling). Keep each spec sustainable by one performer over hours of recording, and flag any voice that risks vocal strain.
2. Pronunciation list. Every proper noun, invented word, and foreign phrase, each with a phonetic respelling. Where the text gives no basis for a pronunciation, make a recommendation and flag it as a choice I should confirm.
3. The marked-up chapter. The verbatim text with {direction} inserted: {voice: CHARACTER} where the speaker changes, {beat} and {long pause} for timing, {tone: ...} at emotional turns, and {scene break — full reset, two seconds} at section breaks. Direct sparsely — mark the turns and the traps, not every line.
4. Performance notes. The chapter's emotional throughline in two or three sentences, the hardest passage to read aloud and why, and any long sentence the narrator should pre-mark for breath.

Do not summarize, correct, or improve the author's prose anywhere.

Write it so someone can paste it straight into Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini and fill the [BRACKETS].