HALF A HEART

The two distinct voices of Jayne Atkinson and Lisagay Hamilton are a boon to this moving story of a mother-daughter relationship tested by time and by race. Now living in a white, upper-class suburb of Houston, Miriam Vener's life is radically changed when her estranged daughter--the product of an affair with a black professor nearly eighteen years earlier--reenters Miriam's life. Both narrators do a superlative job of fleshing out the characters' conflicts as they regain each other's trust while battling a boldly racist society. Each narrator brings to this rich text her own sense of moral urgency and painful loss. R.A.P. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 00]