MAGNOLIA FLOWER

Sheryl Lee Ralph displays her magical acting talents throughout her bold narration of this adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston's short story "Magnolia Flower." Ralph delights listeners as she breathes additional life into this story of love and freedom. The work is presented as a frame story in which the wise river tells the young, babbling brook about Bentley, an enslaved man who escaped to freedom and built a community of other freed people. One of the residents is Swift Deer, a Cherokee woman who escaped the Trail of Tears. They have a daughter named Magnolia Flower. She falls in love with a man named John. Later in life, they return to her birthplace and live free and in love. The audiobook concludes with historical and author's notes. P.P.C. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2022]