THE WHITE GIRL

Shareena Clanton's performance is not always polished, but it is perfect for this hammer blow of an audiobook about mid-century racism in small-town Australia. The "white" girl, Sissy, is being raised by her dark-skinned grandmother, Odette, in a rural county that gives local (white, male) officials total jurisdiction over Aboriginal children. It's not that we don't know stories of Black or First People legally controlled by those most likely to demean, exploit, and harm them--guess why Sissy is half-white--it's that hearing it in a new accent, told of people under a different sun, makes it new. Birch's powerful story of Sissy and Odette's refusal to bow to circumstance, and of those who help and the prices they pay, is both shattering and indelible. B.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2022]