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Calling Me Home

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Calling Me Home

By: Julie Kibler
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Lorna Raver
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About this listen

A stunning, moving tale of forbidden love in segregated 1930s Kentucky, perfect for fans of The Help.

Love doesn't play by the rules… Shalerville, Kentucky, 1939. A world where black maids and handymen are trusted to raise white children and tend to white houses, but from which they are banished after dark. Sixteen-year-old Isabelle McAllister, born into wealth and privilege, finds her ordered life turned upside down when she becomes attracted to Robert, the ambitious black son of her family’s housekeeper. Before long Isabelle and Robert are crossing extraordinary, dangerous boundaries and falling deeply in love.

Many years later, eighty-nine-year-old Isabelle will travel from her home in Arlington, Texas, to Ohio for a funeral. With Isabelle is her hairstylist and friend, Dorrie Curtis – a black single mother with her own problems. Along the way, Isabelle will finally reveal to Dorrie the truth of her painful past: a tale of forbidden love, the consequences of which will resound for decades…

©2013 Julie Kibler (P)2013 Blackstone Audio Inc Contemporary Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Heartfelt Tear-jerking Thought-Provoking Emotionally Gripping

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Critic reviews

”Fans of The Help with love this touching debut…A poignant tale of race relations in America, it will have you hooked” <Sunday Express, S Magazine )

”This touching tale covers the same difficult subject of racism and segregation in 20th-centuary America as The Help. But it’s a much more human and personal book…A sad but life-affirming book” (Bella Magazine)

”Comparisons to The Help are inevitable, and though there are echoes of Kathryn Stockett’s popular best-seller to be found in Calling Me Home, Kibler has crafted a wholly original debut” (Booklist)

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Wow, I thoroughly enjoyed this book of the road trip with Miss Isa and Dory on their way to the funeral. The book was spent going over the life of Isabelle who experienced the most awful prejudices from the people who should have loved her.
Sorry to get on my soap box for a rant but America was a racist paradise through the twentieth century. The way blacks were treated in a century when we thought we had moved forward from slavery is appalling. Read Small Island by Andrea Levy if you disagree.

The narrators truly bought this story to life, I loved the older gentle voice of Isabelle reflecting on her youth and as for Dory what a beautiful southern lilt, I could listen for hours. ( I remembered her voice from The Help)

Some reviewers compare it to The Help but is very different and each has its merits.try the above mentioned book if you enjoy this sort of writing.

The crossword puzzle book of clues threading through the book that Isabelle and Dory completed during the road trip was a clever element which cemented the intent of chapters

I laughed and cried throughout this tale, although the latter was unfortunately more prevalent and by the final chapters I felt I knew Miss Isabelle like a family member.

Prejudice and pride!

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This is a wonderful listen, truly heart rending, I was lost in the story and listened over two days, I’ve never wept so much, nor felt so moved my the emotion of a book. A must read/ a must listen.

Moving and beautiful

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Absolutely loved this, the different narrators helped bring the story to life. Experienced many emotions along the way. Would definitely recommend

Emotional listen

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I don’t think I can give the right words to how much I loved this book. As hard as it was to listen at times. The the characters were superb and the narration absolutely perfect. Fan bloody tastic

Phenomenal

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Read well by the two narrators which made it more alive and felt like you were in the car with them! A gripping tale, although sad in places because of prejudice and discrimination but the strong love was so warming. Well written and a really great listen which will leave you wanting more - of the story and from the author!

A great listen. I didn't want the journey to stop!

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