Libertie, Kaitlyn Greenidge
Libertie, Kaitlyn Greenidge
11 Rating(s)
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Libertie

Author: Kaitlyn Greenidge

Narrator: Channie Waites

Unabridged: 12 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 03/30/2021


Synopsis

The critically acclaimed and Whiting Award–winning author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman returns with Libertie, an unforgettable story about one young Black girl’s attempt to find a place where she can be fully, and only, herself.

Coming of age as a freeborn Black girl in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson is all too aware that her purposeful mother, a practicing physician, has a vision for their future together: Libertie is to go to medical school and practice alongside her. But Libertie, drawn more to music than science, feels stifled by her mother’s choices and is hungry for something else—is there really only one way to have an autonomous life? And she is constantly reminded that, unlike her mother, who can pass, Libertie has skin that is too dark. When a young man from Haiti proposes to Libertie and promises she will be his equal on the island, she accepts, only to discover that she is still subordinate to him and all men. As she tries to parse what freedom actually means for a Black woman, Libertie struggles with where she might find it—for herself and for generations to come.

Inspired by the life of one of the first Black female doctors in the United States and rich with historical detail, Kaitlyn Greenidge’s new and immersive novel will resonate with readers eager to understand our present through a deep, moving, and lyrical dive into our complicated past.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Roxane on April 25, 2021

This is an interesting novel. Libertie is the daughter of a physician. Both she and her mother are free black women. The novel begins near the end of the Civil War, Libertie as a child, helping her mother tend to the people in their Brooklyn Community. This is a coming of age story. It is very inter......more

Goodreads review by BookOfCinz on July 22, 2021

The only good poem I’ve ever written is you. A daughter is a poem. A daughter is a kind of psalm. You, in the world, responding to me, is a song I made. I cannot make another. In Kaitlyn Greenidge’s sophomore novel Libertie we are taken to Brooklyn where we meet Libertie and her mother Cathy a fr......more

Goodreads review by Debra on March 19, 2022

BLOG TOUR FOR PAPERBACK BOOK 03/19/2022 "For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." - Nelson Mandela Libertie Sampson's mother was a practicing physician in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, New York. Her mother had a visi......more

Goodreads review by Kelsey Mangeni (kman.reads) on January 11, 2021

Libertie is growing up during the Reconstruction era, training under her mother, a black physician. This book started out interestingly enough, but as it went on it got slower, and more boring, and then uncomfortable, then annoying, and then kid of infuriating. And the ending was pretty dissatisfyin......more

Goodreads review by Amy on March 14, 2022

4.5 stars! From girlhood to womanhood, Libertie is one woman's journey to freedom—both mental and physical—inspired by the life of one of America's first Black female doctors. Talk about some stunning writing and storytelling. Writing: ★★★★★ Plot/Pacing: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★ I think this book is going......more