Red at the Bone: A Novel
Published by Penguin Random House Audio
Narrated by Full Cast
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
An extraordinary new novel about the influence of history on a contemporary family, from the New York Times best-selling and National Book Award-winning author of Another Brooklyn and Brown Girl Dreaming.
Two families from different social classes are joined together by an unexpected pregnancy and the child that it produces. Moving forward and backward in time, with the power of poetry and the emotional richness of a narrative 10 times its length, Jacqueline Woodson's extraordinary new novel uncovers the role that history and community have played in the experiences, decisions, and relationships of these families, and in the life of this child.
As the book opens in 2001, it is the evening of 16-year-old Melody's coming of age ceremony in her grandparents' Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the soundtrack of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress. But the event is not without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier, that very dress was measured and sewn for a different wearer: Melody's mother, for her own ceremony — a celebration that ultimately never took place.
Unfurling the history of Melody's parents and grandparents to show how they all arrived at this moment, Woodson considers not just their ambitions and successes but also the costs, the tolls they've paid for striving to overcome expectations and escape the pull of history. As it explores sexual desire and identity, ambition, gentrification, education, class, and status, and the life-altering facts of parenthood, Red at the Bone most strikingly looks at the ways in which young people must so often make long-lasting decisions about their lives — even before they have begun to figure out who they are and what they want to be.
Read by Jacqueline Woodson, with Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Sabe), Peter Francis James (Po’Boy), Shayna Small (Iris), and Bahni Turpin (Melody)
Related to Red at the Bone
Related audiobooks
Mother of Pearl Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Twice Lived Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Backstreets: A Novel from Xinjiang Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Mother of All Pigs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Caste by Isabel Wilkerson: The Origins of Our Discontents Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHere We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares (A Memoir) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heart Spring Mountain: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Cask Of Amontillado Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlight of the Diamond Smugglers: A Tale of Pigeons, Obsession, and Greed Along Coastal South Africa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Removes: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fourteenth of September: A Novel Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Gossip: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dancing with Rose Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Birdy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Hill North of Town Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Petty Crimes Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Before You Go: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Family Tabor: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bridal Chair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How I Shed My Skin: Unlearning the Racist Lessons of a Southern Childhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Home Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5142 Ostriches Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Baker Towers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Writers from Around the World on the COVID-19 Pandemic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNight Came With Many Stars Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Revolutionaries: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Literary Fiction For You
The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunger Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Hunger Games Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hate U Give Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Red at the Bone
106 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of the best books I’ve read/listened to in a VERY long time. Generational wealth, generational pain, generational curses & blessings. All broken down & brought from the past to the future in this book. So good!