- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Free Press (Aug 7 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1416572309
- ISBN-13: 978-1416572305
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15.2 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 408 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,176,407 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
First-timer Sheehan offers an uneven but emotionally and lyrically powerful novelization of the life of Sojourner Truth. Born Isabella at the beginning of the 19th century, the future crusader for equality and justice spends nine years on a New York State farm with her wise mother and kind father before being sold-as a lot, along with sheep, at auction. Whipped for speaking her native Dutch, she begins to talk to God: "God is big to us, and we should speak to him under the biggest sky," her mother always said. So begin years of masters both kind and cruel, but none able to see her as a human-a blindness Isabella describes as one of the damages slavery inflicts on both slave and master. Though Isabella experiences indescribable horrors, she also finds love and desire; she even meets with rare self-sacrifice and aid from abolitionist whites, some helping her sue to get her son back from an illegal master. After she acquires her freedom and becomes a preacher, she falls in with a "house of seekers" led by a false prophet, Matthias, whom at first she stands by ("I did not survive slavery and see two husbands die of broken spirits to be put off so easily"), and from whose thrall she barely escapes. Isabella's strong, warm, distinctive voice is a genuine accomplishment, able to render tortures and prayers alike. Though the pacing is inconsistent, this is a disturbing and robust work, offering a new way of looking at one of history's greatest champions of freedom.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Psychologist Sheehan offers a fictionalized account of the life of Sojourner Truth, relating the incredible saga of a woman who survived slavery and cruelty to become a fiery abolitionist orator. Sheehan's story is based on five years of research of public documents, including Truth's own Narrative of Sojourner Truth, which Sheehan's character describes as "weak tea." The novel is graphic in describing the cruelty and suffering inflicted on slave women as it explores the mental and emotional development of a young girl who is sold away from a loving family at the age of nine and thrown into the hands of a succession of cruel masters. Truth, who took her name from a divine inspiration, suffered the loss of the man she loved and later separation from her children, all the time receiving guidance from her conversations with God. Following Emancipation, she takes up with spiritualists before settling into a lifelong crusade for reparations for slaves and women's right to vote. Historical fiction fans will enjoy this sensitive portrayal of a slave woman's survival and triumph. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
I rode to earth on the backside of a comet. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I rode to earth on the backside of a comet. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
I loved this book.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Truth: A Novel (Hardcover)
The author's beautifully determined words grabbed my heart from page one. It should be required reading in American history classes. I especially enjoyed Isabella's consciousness -- i.e.,personal relationship God/Higher Power in the true sense of the word.
5.0 out of 5 stars
An amazing, moving book,
By A Customer
This review is from: Truth: A Novel (Hardcover)
Comparable to Toni Morrison's BELOVED in its lyrical, beautifully rendered prose and sense of time and place. I learned so much from this moving, ultimately uplifting book. A masterpiece.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews) 7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
I loved this book.,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Truth: A Novel (Hardcover)
The author's beautifully determined words grabbed my heart from page one. It should be required reading in American history classes. I especially enjoyed Isabella's consciousness -- i.e.,personal relationship God/Higher Power in the true sense of the word.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An amazing, moving book,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Truth: A Novel (Hardcover)
Comparable to Toni Morrison's BELOVED in its lyrical, beautifully rendered prose and sense of time and place. I learned so much from this moving, ultimately uplifting book. A masterpiece.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another Truth About Slavery,
By K. Kaltenbach "reader forever" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Truth: A Novel (Paperback)
The author does not spare us horribly graphic details about the early years of Sojourner's life as a slave. They sadly remind us of years when supposedly superior 'masters' were crual and barbaric and many others looked away or, as slaves, accepted their fate as workers-until- death. In this story we read about the evaporation of a culture and the endurance of the human spirit.
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