Conception

A fetus that has opinions and tells its own story is one of the characters in this novel. Its mother is 15-year-old Shivana Montgomery, of Chicago's South Side, who babysits for the couple upstairs and has sex with the husband. As she considers whether or not to have an abortion, she falls in love with a neighborhood boy--and with her own unborn baby. The emotional changes Shivana goes through make the listener tremble. Bahni Turpin conveys every nuance of her joy and sorrow. The voices of her mother, aunt, impregnator, best friend, and her aunt's lover are also perfectly rendered. The story itself is clichéd, but Turpin's delivery makes this audio production something between being a gem and a miracle. R.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

October 8, 2007
Abandoned by her father and having unfulfilling sex with the married man whose children she babysits, Shivana Montgomery, 15, “already knew what it felt like to feel nothing.” Living in subsidized housing on Chicago's South Side, Shivana is soon enough pregnant. She fears confessing to her mother, considers abortion and finds herself unexpectedly falling in love with a neighborhood boy who just might be her “heart love”—and also with her own unborn baby. The spirit of this unborn child is a character in its own right, telling a story that spans centuries and offers tragic glimpses into the truncated lives of black children. The fetus's wise, sometimes heavy-handed narration grounds Shivana's story within a sad legacy, through slavery, lynching and ongoing racism to a modern world where reproductive choice is a myth, virtually all children are unwanted, and The Cosby Show
is the ultimate fairy tale. At its best, the novel balances a bitter stocktaking with a sorrowful lyricism.