Celebrated audiobook narrator Robert Fass reflects on a lifelong passion for the spoken word

Robert Fass has called Riverdale home for 14 years, so when an opportunity to narrate a book dedicated to the history of the Bronx arose, he jumped at it.

Courtesy Robert Fass

Robert Fass chased his childhood love for the spoken word and made it a unique career as an audiobook narrator. 

His career started in 1981, but the inspiration of his lifelong love of narration began with his father, who sparked Fass’ interest in the spoken word with his volunteer work reading to the blind.

Fass spent his childhood at the public library, listening to albums, but not just any albums, comedy and Broadway plays; albums filled with spoken word. 

In college, Fass worked at his school radio station, hosting his own show, often going unscripted on the airwaves with his classmates. After the passing of his father in 1981, he started volunteering at a New York radio service that catered to the blind, in honor of his father. His segment was spent reading bits and pieces of the New Yorker every week for 11 years. 

“I’ve just had a long-term love affair with spoken word,” Fass said. 

He attended a conference about getting into audiobooks, which opened the door for him to pursue a career in narrating literary works. That journey included recording what he called a ridiculous demo, being told he could probably get a job narrating then waiting a few years before he was hired to read his first novel.

Was it a success? Well… 

That job led him to be hired personally by Ray Bradbury to narrate his 2007 sequel to the novel Dandelion Wine, Farewell Summer. After working for Bradbury, author of the critically acclaimed Fahrenheit 451, Fass was offered more and more assignments and won several awards for his work. 

He moved to Riverdale 14 years ago and set up shop permanently with an in-home recording studio, an upgrade from the blankets he used to hang in his West Side apartment to block out the city noise. 

With his success, Fass found time to work on a personal project, one he refers to as a “labor of love.” As a teenager, he admired the novel It Happened in Boston? by Russell H. Greenan. With his career in narration, Fass took it upon himself to contact the author to ask for the rights to the book so he could record and produce his own audio for the novel he loved so much. 

“I was just so happy to realize that dream and help new readers and listeners to discover this book that I think is just an amazing book,” Fass said. 

Fass has narrated more than 300 books, of which several stand out, including his work on Mockingbird by Walter Tevis, Wolfen by Whitley Strieber and, most recently, his work on Paradise Bronx: The Life and Times of New York’s Greatest Borough by Ian Frazier. 

Mockingbird resonated with him, he said, as it’s a classic science fiction novel, while Wolfen captures a werewolf story taking place in the 80s Fass believes describes the grit of a good, scary werewolf tale. 

Fass said his latest work, on Paradise Bronx, published Aug. 20, left him in awe of Frazier’s storytelling and dedication to information gathering. Frazier walked more than 1,000 miles across the Bronx over 15 years studying the history of the borough from the time of the glaciers up until the present.

“Many times in its history it has been a paradise, and he focuses on its resilience over the last several decades,” Fass said. 

When he read the script, he knew he had wanted the role, with the first line of the novel mentioning the sweet smell of the Stella D’oro factory that once filled the Kingsbridge neighborhood air. Fass said all narration requires some understanding of the author’s point of view, but he doesn’t always find himself identifying with the author and the work as much as he did with this story. 

He said he found Paradise Bronx to be optimistic, telling the history of his neighborhood and the neighborhood of countless others while also honoring those who brought peace and community engagement to the Bronx. The story not only educated Fass on the history, but reminded him of things like the middens — piles of oyster shells left behind by the indigenous people who once lived in the neighborhood— in Riverdale Park that can still be seen when he walks the trails. 

When he isn’t narrating, Fass is all over the neighborhood, performing with his electric bass in the Cover Collective at An Beal Bocht, photographing the Bronx and helping to see the Hudson River Greenway built as a board member of the Friends of the Hudson River Greenway. 

“I was able to have a well-rounded and rewarding career that introduced me to a really supporting and caring
community of artists,” Fass said.