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A spellbinding debut about half sisters, one black and one white, on a 1950s road trip through the American South
Self-educated and brown-skinned, Cassie works full time in her grandmother's laundry in rural Mississippi. Illiterate and white, Judith falls for "colored music" and dreams of life as a big city radio star. These teenaged girls are half-sisters. And, when they catch wind of their wayward father's inheritance coming down in Virginia, they hitch their hopes to a road trip together to claim what's rightly theirs.
In an old junk car, with a frying pan, a ham, and a few dollars hidden in a shoe, they set off through the American Deep South of the 1950s, a bewitchingly beautiful landscape as well as one bedeviled by racial strife and violence. Suzanne Feldman's Absalom's Daughters combines the buddy movie, the coming-of-age tale, and a dash of magical realism to enthrall and move us with an unforgettable, illuminating novel.
Self-educated and brown-skinned, Cassie works full time in her grandmother's laundry in rural Mississippi. Illiterate and white, Judith falls for "colored music" and dreams of life as a big city radio star. These teenaged girls are half-sisters. And, when they catch wind of their wayward father's inheritance coming down in Virginia, they hitch their hopes to a road trip together to claim what's rightly theirs.
In an old junk car, with a frying pan, a ham, and a few dollars hidden in a shoe, they set off through the American Deep South of the 1950s, a bewitchingly beautiful landscape as well as one bedeviled by racial strife and violence. Suzanne Feldman's Absalom's Daughters combines the buddy movie, the coming-of-age tale, and a dash of magical realism to enthrall and move us with an unforgettable, illuminating novel.
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Reviews
"Magnificent . . . . reminiscent of both William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, but her voice is entirely her own and utterly original. Feldman's prose blisters and pops with sparks. . . . [T]here is a tart sweetness to Judith and Cassie's interactions. In this novel, most things are not as they seem, and Feldman doesn't hew too close to reality . . . . Searing and magical . . . by a monumental new talent."
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"This willingness to take on difficult subjects makes Feldman a writer to watch....the two main characters are so endearing, Absalom's Daughters is an engrossing read."
Dallas Morning News
"An amazing road trip novel for readers of The Help or The Kitchen House."
Jane Green's "Summer Reading" Book Bub