FOUR SPIRITS

It is 1963, in Alabama. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., writes his now famous "Letter From the Birmingham Jail," Police Chief Bull Connor uses fire hoses and attack dogs on peaceful demonstrators, and four young girls are murdered when the Baptist church is bombed. Amid these real events, Isabel Keating brings Naslund's many fictional characters into vivid relief. Her Southern accents are never caricatures. Her authentic rendering of supremacists and integrationists, the blessed and the abused in this time of cultural upheaval, spotlights ordinary souls who must face their personal demons, their heritage of bigotry, and the moral complexities of a changing world. Naslund's compassion and understanding of the time, the people, and the events, combined with a sensitive reading by Keating, elevate Four Spirits into quality fiction. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award
(c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 04]