River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer – 322 pages
ARC from Berkley Pub and Negalley for an honest review
Book Blurb:
River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer: 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.
Away from Providence, she begins a desperate search to find her children–the five who survived birth and were sold. Are any of them still alive? Rachel has to know. The grueling, dangerous journey takes her from Barbados then, by river, deep into the forest of British Guiana and finally across the sea to Trinidad. She is driven on by the certainty that a mother cannot be truly free without knowing what has become of her children, even if the answer is more than she can bear. These are the stories of Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy. But above all this is the story of Rachel and the extraordinary lengths to which a mother will go to find her children…and her freedom.
My Review: 4 stars
River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer was a beautiful story about redemption and the risks a mother will take to find her children after the Emancipation Act in 1834. Although the law was meant to free the slaves, masters didn’t necessarily accept it as law.
Rachel, the protagonist in the book, runs after learning her master has no plans to free them. She faces capture and a painful death if caught, but she’s set on finding her five children taken from her and sold off to other places. At first this seemed like a futile search, but the author took me on a harrowing journey filled with suspense, joy, romance, grief and contentment.
Each of her children had an incredible story that moved me.
I really enjoyed learning about Barbados and Trinidad and both the Demerara River in British Guiana and the another that followed the coast of Trinidad. As the title suggests, the rivers in the book are symbolic of their journey and the singing they did as they walked along them or paddled in them. I definitely recommend this one for historical fiction lovers.
Quotes I liked:
Sometimes, it was impossible to see a shadow before it was lifted.”
“Love was there in the beginning—even before the beginning. Love needed no words, no introduction. Existence was enough.”
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