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3.0 

Song of Slaves in the Desert

By Alan Cheuse
Song of Slaves in the Desert by Alan Cheuse digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

Lyrically told and impeccably researched, Song of Slaves in the Desert traces the story of Nathaniel Pereira, a young New Yorker who's called to revive his uncle's South Carolina plantation. Nathaniel is struck by the sobering reality of slavery as he becomes captivated by the young slave Liza. Liza's never known the meaning of freedom, and as Nathaniel plunges into the murky mysteries of slavery, she can see how he might change her life forever. A masterful writer, Cheuse traces the thread of slavery from sixteenth-century Timbuktu and grapples with the wild nature of love.

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3 Reviews

3.0
“I found this work hard to immerse myself in because of the way it was put together. At first, we start out many, many, many generations ago. Then it vaults forward to just before Civil War time and leaves the lineage we had been following. Then, it continues to flip flop back and forth periodically with no rhyme or reason. When the story becomes about a northern Jewish man having to travel south in order to evaluate whether or not his father should invest in his brother’s plantation, it gets problematic for me. The entire story had been following a female lineage, and then we are following Nate, a man who has a girlfriend back home, but finds himself lusting after a slave girl named Liza. In my opinion, Nate is part of the problem. I felt terrible for Liza, and I thought Nate was a selfish pig just like his cousin. All in all, there are some decent parts, but it was like walking through quicksand to get to them. 2.5 stars rounded up here.”
“Two very interesting stories that combine about a family from Africa who is brought to Charleston in the slave trade, and a family from Holland who lives in New York. The New York family has a brother who lives in Charleston and who owns a plantation, and sends his son to check out if it is a good value. The story has great messages about freedom, love, and interpersonal relations.”

About Alan Cheuse

Novelist, essayist, and story writer Alan Cheuse (Washington, D.C.) has been described as "The Voice of Books on NPR." The author of A Trance after Breakfast, he has also written three novels and a pair of novellas. He is the editor of Seeing Ourselves: Great Early American Short Stories and co-editor of Writers' Workshop in a Book. He teaches writing at George Mason University.

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