SOMERSET

Meacham introduced us to the Tolivers, Warwicks, and Dumonts in ROSES, her epic saga of the settling of East Texas. Now narrator Teresa DeBerry’s Southern accent helps set the time and place as listeners go back to 1835, filling in the families’ previous six decades. The story spans their emigration from South Carolina’s Plantation Alley to their settlement in the “black waxy” of the new territory of Texas, also covering the Civil War and the early twentieth century. DeBerry modulates her voice to identify characters from various stations of life. She smoothly navigates Meacham’s flowery language, full of similes, as she tries to breathe life into a sprawling cast of characters living in complex historical times. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2014]