Island Queen
A Novel
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Island Queen
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Narrated by:
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Adjoa Andoh
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By:
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Vanessa Riley
About this listen
“Richly detailed, vividly depicted, and sweeping in scope, Island Queen is historical fiction at its absolute finest. A stunning must-read!” (Chanel Cleeton, New York Times best-selling author of The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba)
A remarkable, sweeping historical novel based on the incredible true life story of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a free woman of color who rose from slavery to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful landowners in the colonial West Indies.
Born into slavery on the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat, Doll bought her freedom—and that of her sister and her mother—from her Irish planter father and built a legacy of wealth and power as an entrepreneur, merchant, hotelier, and planter that extended from the marketplaces and sugar plantations of Dominica and Barbados to a glittering luxury hotel in Demerara on the South American continent.
Vanessa Riley’s novel brings Doll to vivid life as she rises above the harsh realities of slavery and colonialism by working the system and leveraging the competing attentions of the men in her life: a restless shipping merchant, Joseph Thomas; a wealthy planter hiding a secret, John Coseveldt Cells; and a roguish naval captain who will later become King William IV of England.
From the bustling port cities of the West Indies to the forbidding drawing rooms of London’s elite, Island Queen is a sweeping epic of an adventurer and a survivor who answered to no one but herself as she rose to power and autonomy against all odds, defying rigid 18th-century morality and the oppression of women as well as people of color. It is an unforgettable portrait of a true larger-than-life woman who made her mark on history.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 Vanessa Riley (P)2021 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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So much detail
- By Keisha Mac on 03-01-25
By: Vanessa Riley
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Things Past Telling
- A Novel
- By: Sheila Williams
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 510
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 472
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Story5 out of 5 stars 469
Born in West Africa in the mid-eighteenth century, Maryam Prescilla Grace—a.k.a “Momma Grace” will live a long, wondrous life marked by hardship, oppression, opportunity, and love. Though she will be “gifted” various names, her birth name is known to her alone. Over the course of 100-plus years, she survives capture, enslavement by several property owners, the Atlantic crossing when she is only eleven years of age, and a brief stint as a pirate’s ward, acting as both a spy and a translator.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fulfilled
- By Lovin Life on 08-18-22
By: Sheila Williams
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The Third Mrs. Galway
- By: Deirdre Sinnott
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 146
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 130
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 130
It’s 1835 in Utica, New York, and newlywed Helen Galway discovers a secret: Two runaway slaves are hiding in the shack behind her husband’s house. Suddenly, she is at the center of not only the era’s greatest moral dilemma, but her own, as well. Should she be a “good wife” and report the fugitives to her husband? Or will she defy convention and come to their aid? Within her home, Helen is haunted by the previous Mrs. Galway, recently deceased but still an oppressive presence.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Never thought I'd enjoy a novel so much.
- By HBvideo on 12-01-21
By: Deirdre Sinnott
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A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby
- Rogues and Remarkable Women, Book 1
- By: Vanessa Riley
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 65
When headstrong West Indian heiress Patience Jordan questioned her English husband's mysterious suicide, she lost everything: her newborn son, Lionel, her fortune - and her freedom. Falsely imprisoned, she risks her life to be near her child - until The Widow's Grace gets her hired as her own son's nanny. But working for his unsuspecting new guardian, Busick Strathmore, duke of Repington, has perils of its own. Especially when Patience discovers his military strictness belies an ex-rake of unswerving honor - and unexpected passion....
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3 out of 5 stars
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Saved by the narrator
- By MaBiche on 02-04-21
By: Vanessa Riley
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A Gamble at Sunset
- Betting Against the Duke, Book 1
- By: Vanessa Riley
- Narrated by: Bianca Drew
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 5
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 5
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Story4 out of 5 stars 5
Georgina Wilcox, a wallflower with hidden musical talents, is furious when her reclusive older sister—the recently widowed Viscountess—refuses sorely needed help from the Duke of Torrance, the only gentleman who has shown kindness to the bereft Wilcox sisters. Georgina decides to get back at her sister and shock the Viscountess by kissing the first willing stranger she meets in the enchanting gardens of Anya House. Unfortunately, her sister is not the sole witness. A group of reporters and the ton's leading gossips catch Georgina in a passionate embrace with a reticent composer.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Nice and Clean
- By Belladona on 10-11-24
By: Vanessa Riley
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Yellow Crocus
- Yellow Crocus, Book 1
- By: Laila Ibrahim
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 12,611
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 11,251
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 11,211
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.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A rare find, a 5 star book!
- By Kathy in CA on 02-22-15
By: Laila Ibrahim
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The Bittersweet Bride
- Advertisements for Love, Book 1
- By: Vanessa Riley
- Narrated by: Bianca Drew
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 27
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 24
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 24
Widow Theodosia Cecil needs a husband to help protect her son. The former flower seller turned estate owner posts an ad in the newspaper, and no one is more surprised than she when her first love, the man she thought dead, reappears.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Cost of never giving up on love
- By Ashop on 04-21-25
By: Vanessa Riley
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River Sing Me Home
- By: Eleanor Shearer
- Narrated by: Debra Michaels, Eleonor Shearer
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 268
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 231
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 231
The master of the Providence plantation in Barbados gathers his slaves and announces the king has decreed an end to slavery. As of the following day, the Emancipation Act of 1834 will come into effect. The cries of joy fall silent when he announces that they are no longer his slaves; they are now his apprentices. No one can leave. They must work for him for another six years. Freedom is just another name for the life they have always lived. So Rachel runs.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good debut.. with a few quarrels in my opinion
- By Alize on 07-24-23
By: Eleanor Shearer
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Sister Mother Warrior
- A Novel
- By: Vanessa Riley
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh, Robin Miles
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 34
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 30
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Story5 out of 5 stars 30
Acclaimed author of Island Queen Vanessa Riley brings listeners a vivid, sweeping novel of the Haitian Revolution based on the true-life stories of two extraordinary women: the first Empress of Haiti, Marie-Claire Bonheur, and Gran Toya, a West African-born warrior who helped lead the rebellion that drove out the French and freed the enslaved people of Haiti.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Exquisite Writing!
- By DebbyM on 04-28-25
By: Vanessa Riley
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The Yellow Wife
- A Novel
- By: Sadeqa Johnson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 5,776
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 5,183
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Story5 out of 5 stars 5,169
Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Delores Brown has lived a relatively sheltered life. Shielded by her mother’s position as the estate’s medicine woman and cherished by the Master’s sister, she is set apart from the others on the plantation, belonging to neither world. She’d been promised freedom on her eighteenth birthday, but instead of the idyllic life she imagined with her true love, Essex Henry, Pheby is forced to leave the only home she has ever known. She unexpectedly finds herself thrust into the bowels of slavery at the infamous Devil’s Half Acre.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Real page turner
- By Elizabeth Early on 01-19-21
By: Sadeqa Johnson
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Fallen Grace
- Blaze Collection
- By: Sadeqa Johnson
- Narrated by: Channie Waites
- Length: 1 hr and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 365
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 345
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 345
With a newborn in tow, Bubbles Jones escapes a brutal sanctuary for “wayward girls” to confront the hypocritical shame of her pastor father and the betrayal of a lover. But Bubbles is accompanied by a woman who offers her shelter and a dream. Forging an unpredictable path ahead, Bubbles will not yield and will not hide in her unwavering commitment to make a big life real in a world determined to keep her small.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Give me MORE!!!
- By JoGriff on 06-01-24
By: Sadeqa Johnson
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The American Queen
- By: Vanessa Miller
- Narrated by: Angel Pean
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 233
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 216
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 216
Transformative and breathtakingly honest, The American Queen is based on actual events that occurred between 1865 - 1889 and shares the unsung history of a Black woman who built a kingdom in Appalachia as a refuge for the courageous people who dared to dream of a different way of life. Over the twenty-four years she was enslaved on the Montgomery Plantation, Louella learned to feel one thing: hate. Hate for the man who sold her mother. Hate for the overseer who left her daddy to hang from a noose. Hate so powerful there's no room in her heart for love.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The life of the Queen
- By R. Dameron on 03-26-24
By: Vanessa Miller
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The Book of Night Women
- By: Marlon James
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,198
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,764
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,763
The story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the 18th century. Even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they - and she - will come to both revere and fear. The Night Women, as they call themselves, have long been plotting a slave revolt, and as Lilith comes of age and reveals the extent of her power, they see her as the key to their plans.
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5 out of 5 stars
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"A lyrical, heart thumping, engaging masterpiece"
- By ann on 01-07-11
By: Marlon James
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Harlem Rhapsody
- By: Victoria Christopher Murray
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 269
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 265
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 265
In 1919, a high school teacher from Washington, D.C arrives in Harlem excited to realize her lifelong dream. Jessie Redmon Fauset has been named the literary editor of The Crisis. The first Black woman to hold this position at a preeminent Negro magazine, Jessie is poised to achieve literary greatness. But she holds a secret that jeopardizes it all. W. E. B. Du Bois, the founder of The Crisis, is not only Jessie’s boss, he’s her lover. And neither his wife, nor their fourteen-year-age difference can keep the two apart.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Horrible Representation
- By Kwana Nicholas on 04-05-25
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The Girl with the Louding Voice
- A Novel
- By: Abi Daré
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 6,045
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 5,438
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Story5 out of 5 stars 5,399
The unforgettable, inspiring story of a teenage girl growing up in a rural Nigerian village who longs to get an education so that she can find her “louding voice” and speak up for herself, The Girl with the Louding Voice is a simultaneously heartbreaking and triumphant tale about the power of fighting for your dreams.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A must HEAR!
- By Michelle on 03-09-20
By: Abi Daré
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The Davenports
- By: Krystal Marquis
- Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 910
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 843
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 841
The Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in a changing United States, their fortune made through the entrepreneurship of William Davenport, a formerly enslaved man who founded the Davenport Carriage Company years ago. Now it's 1910, and the Davenports live surrounded by servants, crystal chandeliers, and endless parties, finding their way and finding love—even where they’re not supposed to.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Giving Bridgerton Vibes
- By Danni B. on 03-11-23
By: Krystal Marquis
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Take My Hand
- By: Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- Narrated by: Lauren J. Daggett
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 3,970
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,574
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Story5 out of 5 stars 3,562
Montgomery, Alabama, 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend intends to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she hopes to help women shape their destinies, to make their own choices for their lives and bodies.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Page Turner Based off True Events
- By LATOYA LEWIS on 06-10-22
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The Water Dancer (Oprah’s Book Club)
- A Novel
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 13,976
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 12,331
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 12,247
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her - but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known. So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North.
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5 out of 5 stars
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We Must Always Remember
- By Cammie on 09-28-19
By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Island Queen
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Utterly fantastic
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Powerful woman of color
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a MUST listen!
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Amazing
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Truly amazing story
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Fantastic story, writing, narration!
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++++++++++ aaaaaaa +++++
Good book
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I was invested from the very start. Lots of history that I was not aware of. Thank you for telling Dorothy's story.
So good!
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I could listen to it again.
The struggle, the unbelievable strength to achieve all that she did!
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