A Kind of Freedom, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
A Kind of Freedom, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
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A Kind of Freedom

Author: Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Narrator: Kevin Kenerly, Bahni Turpin, Adenrele Ojo

Unabridged: 8 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/15/2017

Synopsis

Evelyn is a Creole woman who comes of age in New Orleans at the height of World War II. Her family inhabits the upper echelon of black society, and when she falls for no-name Renard, she is forced to choose between her life of privilege and the man she loves.In 1982, Evelyn’s daughter Jackie is a frazzled single mother grappling with her absent husband’s drug addiction. Just as she comes to terms with his abandoning the family, he returns, ready to resume their old life. Jackie must decide if the promise of her husband is worth the near certainty that he will leave again.Jackie’s son T. C. loves the creative process of growing marijuana more than the weed itself. He finds something hypnotic about training the seedlings, testing the levels, trimming the leaves, and drying the buds. He was a square before Hurricane Katrina, but the New Orleans he knew didn’t survive the storm, and in its wake he was changed too. Now, fresh out of a four-month stint for possession with the intent to distribute, he decides to start over―until an old friend convinces him to stake his new beginning on one last deal.For Evelyn, Jim Crow is an ongoing reality, and in its wake new threats spring up to haunt her descendants. A Kind of Freedom is an urgent novel that explores the legacy of racial disparity in the South through a poignant and redemptive family history.

About Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Margaret Wilkerson Sexton studied creative writing at Dartmouth and law at the University of California, Berkeley. A recipient of the Lombard fellowship, she spent a year in the Dominican Republic working for a civil-rights organization and writing her first manuscript, A Kind of Freedom, which received an honorable mention in the Leapfrog Press Fiction Contest. Her stories have been published or are forthcoming in Grey Sparrow Journal, Limestone Journal, and Broad! magazine, and her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

About Kevin Kenerly

Kevin Kenerly, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, earned a BA at Olivet College. A longtime member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he has acted in more than twenty seasons, playing dozens of roles.

About Bahni Turpin

Bahni Turpin has guest starred in many television series, including NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Six Feet Under, and Cold Case. Her film credits include Brokedown Palace and Crossroads. She has won numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and three prestigious Audie Awards.

About Adenrele Ojo

Adenrele Ojo is an actress, dancer, and audiobook narrator, winner of over a dozen Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2018. She made her on-screen debut in My Little Girl, starring Jennifer Lopez, and has since starred in several other films. She has also performed extensively with the Philadelphia Dance Company. As the daughter of John E. Allen, Jr., founder and artistic director of Freedom Theatre, the oldest African American theater in Pennsylvania, is no stranger to the stage. In 2010 she performed in the Fountain Theatre’s production of The Ballad of Emmett Till, which won the 2010 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Ensemble. Other plays include August Wilson’s Jitney and Freedom Theatre’s own Black Nativity, where she played Mary.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jessica

My entire reading life is spent chasing a specific kind of thrill, the thrill of being so emotionally involved in a story that it has power over me. I look for other thrills too but this is the one that I want most, and sometimes I go for long stretches without feeling it. I was in that kind of stre......more

Quotes

“This luminous and assured first novel shines an unflinching, compassionate light on three generations of a black family in New Orleans, emphasizing endurance more than damage.” New York Times Book Review

“Sexton subtly lays bare the ever-present societal forces at work to undermine black success and family.” Huffington Post

“The story moves through three generations of a black family, each represented by a character whose sections are delivered by three accomplished narrators. Bahni Turpin gives us Evelyn…Evelyn and Renard’s daughter marries a man who loses his job and becomes addicted to crack cocaine. Adenrele Ojo delivers these sections, her voice filled with anguish and dashed hope. Meanwhile, Kevin Kenerly’s mellow, resonant voice gives us a young man struggling to get off drugs and become a fitting father to his own infant son.” Washington Post (audio review)

“Narrator Bahni Turpin lays the foundation for the audiobook as Evelyn…Sexton and her narrators keep this family saga moving from hope to heartache and back again.” AudioFile

“Powerful…Despite the struggles, A Kind of Freedom glimmers with hope.” BBC.com

“An urgent novel that explores the legacy of racial disparity in the South through a poignant and redemptive family history.” Chicago Review of Books

“A novel about three generations of a New Orleans family, cut back and forth so that each generation can whisper in the other’s ears, beautifully intimate and heartbreaking, and also a portrait of America.” The Millions

“Being able to capture seventy years of New Orleans history and the emotional changes in one family in such a short book is a testament to Sexton’s powers of descriptive restraint.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“This family is worth every minute of a reader’s time.” Booklist

“Shows us that hard work does not guarantee success and that progress doesn’t always move in a straight line…Well-crafted—and altogether timely.” Kirkus Reviews

Awards

  • Indies Introduce
  • Chicago Review of Books Pick
  • Huffington Post Pick
  • BBC Best Book
  • SIBA Okra Pick
  • Washington Post Best Audiobook
  • National Book Award
  • Publishers Weekly Pick
  • New York Times Notable Book
  • New York Times Book Review pick
  • Crook’s Corner Book Prize
  • Book Riot Pick
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