NECESSARY LIES

Teenager Ivy Hart has a lot to handle. After losing her parents, she has no choice but to take care of her stubborn grandmother, her "slow" older sister, and her nephew on a small tobacco farm in Grace County, North Carolina. Meanwhile, social worker Jane Forrester is trying to help the people being affected by the state's controversial Eugenics Sterilization Program, which seeks to sterilize various people, including the "mentally defective." Narrator Alison Elliot uses a warm voice and Southern accent to vividly capture the story's setting and to evoke the emotions of Ivy and Jane. Elliot connects with the characters and the injustices they face, enlisting the listener's empathy to the end. D.Z. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2013]