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River Sing Me Home cover art

River Sing Me Home

By: Eleanor Shearer
Narrated by: Debra Michaels
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Summary

Powerful, moving and redemptive, River Sing Me Home tells of a mother's desperate search to find her stolen children and her freedom.

We whisper the names of the ones we love like the words of a song. That was the taste of freedom to us, those names on our lips.

Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy.

These are the names of her children. The five who survived, only to be sold to other plantations. The faces Rachel cannot forget.

It's 1834, and the law says her people are now free. But for Rachel freedom means finding her children, even if the truth is more than she can bear.

With fear snapping at her heels, Rachel keeps moving. From sunrise to sunset, through the cane fields of Barbados to the forests of British Guiana and on to Trinidad, to the dangerous river and the open sea.

Only once she knows their stories can she rest.

Only then can she finally find home.

©2023 Eleanor Shearer (P)2023 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

Critic reviews

Every once in a while, a book comes along that is so assured and so powerful you can't believe it's a debut novel. RIVER SING ME HOME is just such a book . . . Eleanor Shearer is a remarkable writer and she brings this story of a mother's courage to the page with compassion, tenderness and pitch-perfect prose (Natasha Lester, New York Times bestselling author of The Riviera House)

An extraordinary odyssey of pain, love, and homecoming . . . RIVER SING ME HOME is a haunting and powerful debut (Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye)

A strong and beautiful novel that stares into the face of brutality and the heart of love (Jeanette Winterson)

What listeners say about River Sing Me Home

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Great view into a period on time

Cannot recommend this book enough, a beautifully written story with historical, hard truths we all need to learn.

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Disappointing detail

I felt there was no real detail to this story. Jump so quickly over different stories within the story. Couldn’t get invested and had to give up which is really disappointing and this should be a really powerful subject.

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A must-read

Such a beautifully written book conveying the hardships endured, and the lengths a mother will go to, to put her fractured family back together in the aftermath of slavery. The narration as well is fantastic, I couldn't recommend this book more.

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a beautiful story filled with heart ache and hope

beautifully written story with vivid imagery as well as being incredibly moving and engaging and the performance was outstanding. An important read/listen.

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Heartbreaking, inspiring

This is a fantastic book, a hard listen at times but so inspiring and heartbreaking in equal measure. It is incredibly thought provoking and powerfully evokes the strength and power of a mother’s love. The narration is superb. The last chapter had me gripped with anxiety and hope. As Rachel points out, love is the one thing no-one can take from you. Loved the author’s note at the end.

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