The Revisioners

This rich audiobook features two African-American women who are connected by blood but separated by almost a century of cultural differences. Their story depicts resonant themes of trust, race, and the power of women. Narrator Myra Lucretia Taylor portrays Josephine, a slave in Louisiana who became owner of her own farm. In 1924 she recounts her memories--including those of her mother, a revisioner, or seer. Taylor delivers a sumptuous portrait of Josephine as intelligent and capable yet suspicious of outsiders, especially white ones. Adenrele Ojo narrates the chapters about Ava, a single mother in 2017 who accepts help from her unpredictable white grandmother. In a clear, contemporary-sounding voice, Ojo portrays Ava's reluctance to rely on others and her fierce protection of her son. Both narrators capture these intense characters as they blossom. N.M.C. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Starred review from September 16, 2019
Sexton (A Kind of Freedom) returns with this excellent story of a New Orleans family’s ascent from slavery to freedom, paying poetic tribute to their fearlessness and a “mind magic” that fixes the present, sees into the future, and calls out from the past. In alternating chapters, two women tell their haunting, frightening, and ultimately uplifting stories: Ava, a mixed-race single mom struggling to establish a career and raise a teenage son in 2017, and her great-great-grandmother Josephine, a former slave who in 1924 proudly runs the family farm. Ava’s decision to be the caregiver for her rich white grandmother, Martha, as she slips into dementia will trigger disturbing premonitions for her own cancer-stricken mother, a doula named Gladys. Josephine’s story focuses largely on her struggle to turn over management of the family farm to a son intent on standing up to the Klan—and a troubling interaction with a shy white neighbor who seeks out Josephine’s rumored powers to get pregnant and appease an abusive husband. A chilling plot twist reveals the insidious racial divide that stretches through the generations, but it’s the larger message that’s so timely. “Ain’t no use in hate,” Josephine’s mother advises. “Whatever you trying to get away from, hate just binds you to it.” This novel is both powerful and full of hope.