I’m so happy to bring you a review for this stunningly beautiful and heartbreaking book.
If you know me at all, then you will know that Historical books are not my usual go-to reads, but it seems that I have missed out on a lot of fantastic reads, so I am aiming to rectify that and change my reading habits.
Why did I pick it up? – 1. It was the Audible Daily Deal, I couldn’t say no to it. 2. Bahni Turpin, I will literally listen to anything she narrates!
My Thoughts
This is a story set in the 19th century, an enslaved girl called Mattie is taken away from her 3 month old baby son, and moved to the “big house” to become a wet nurse for the newly born Lisbeth (Elizabeth)
(A wet nurse is a woman who breast feeds and cares for another’s child. Wet nurses are employed if the mother dies, or if she is unable or elects not to nurse the child herself.)
Mattie takes to the job, and the baby, and they both learn to love each other very much. Mattie gets to see her son and her family occasionally, even though they all live on the same plantation.
Lisbeth is brought up by Maddie to question things, even though she doesn’t say them out loud, she gets taught to not really see all of the problems that can arise when a white girl is friendly with a black family, but her Mother and Father, and the rest of the family certainly make their thoughts known!
Some of the things in this book just made me shake my head and think how shocking it was that people got treated this way, how “slaves are only three-fifths of a man. They are not entitled to the same rights” and they honestly believed this!
Lisbeth is very naive, she doesn’t see the anger and the cruelty that the slaves have to endure, she believes as her family has always told her, that they are lucky, and that they are doing a kindness by owning them.
Until one day she sees something that isn’t kind at all, and she questions everything.
All Maddie wants is to be free, she wants to be with her family, she wants to be with her son who doesn’t even recognise her really anymore, what can she do, the only thing she knows, Run…………
🎧🎧 – Narrated by the AMAZING Bahni Turpin, this one will have you shaking your head, and on the edge of your set, a fantastic listen.
About the book
Moments after Lisbeth is born, she’s taken from her mother and handed over to an enslaved wet nurse, Mattie, a young mother separated from her own infant son in order to care for her tiny charge. Thus begins an intense relationship that will shape both of their lives for decades to come. Though Lisbeth leads a life of privilege, she finds nothing but loneliness in the company of her overwhelmed mother and her distant, slave-owning father. As she grows older, Mattie becomes more like family to Lisbeth than her own kin and the girl’s visits to the slaves’ quarters—and their lively and loving community—bring them closer together than ever. But can two women in such disparate circumstances form a bond like theirs without consequence? This deeply moving tale of unlikely love traces the journey of these very different women as each searches for freedom and dignity.
Have those handkerchiefs handy!
Berit Talks Books 
