Audiobook10 hours
The Ballad of Laurel Springs
Written by Janet Beard
Narrated by Jennifer Jill Araya, Andi Arndt, Robin Eller and
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
From the internationally bestselling author of The Atomic City Girls, a provocative novel set in eastern Tennessee that “explores the legacies—of passion and violence, music and faith—that haunt one family across the generations” (Jillian Medoff, author of This Could Hurt).
Ten-year-old Grace is in search of a subject for her fifth-grade history project when she learns that her four times-great grandfather once stabbed his lover to death. His grisly act was memorialized in a murder ballad, her aunt tells her, so it must be true. But the lessons of that revelation—to be careful of men and desire—are not just Grace’s to learn. Her family’s tangled past is part of a dark legacy in which the lives of generations of women are affected by the violence immortalized in folk songs like “Knoxville Girl” and “Pretty Polly” reminding them always to know their place—or risk the wages of sin.
Janet Beard’s stirring novel, informed by her love of these haunting ballads, vividly imagines these women, defined by the secrets they keep, the surprises they uncover, and the lurking sense of menace that follows them throughout their lives even as they try to make a safe place in the world for themselves. “This inspired story of Appalachian folklore” (Publishers Weekly) will move and rouse you.
Ten-year-old Grace is in search of a subject for her fifth-grade history project when she learns that her four times-great grandfather once stabbed his lover to death. His grisly act was memorialized in a murder ballad, her aunt tells her, so it must be true. But the lessons of that revelation—to be careful of men and desire—are not just Grace’s to learn. Her family’s tangled past is part of a dark legacy in which the lives of generations of women are affected by the violence immortalized in folk songs like “Knoxville Girl” and “Pretty Polly” reminding them always to know their place—or risk the wages of sin.
Janet Beard’s stirring novel, informed by her love of these haunting ballads, vividly imagines these women, defined by the secrets they keep, the surprises they uncover, and the lurking sense of menace that follows them throughout their lives even as they try to make a safe place in the world for themselves. “This inspired story of Appalachian folklore” (Publishers Weekly) will move and rouse you.
Author
Janet Beard
Born and raised in East Tennessee, Janet Beard studied screenwriting at NYU and went on to earn an MFA in creative writing from The New School. She is the bestselling author of The Atomic City Girls and The Ballad of Laurel Springs. She currently lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Related to The Ballad of Laurel Springs
Related audiobooks
Sweet Water: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Room on Rue Amélie Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Midwife's Revolt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sisters of Summit Avenue Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Education of Dixie Dupree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Own Country: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Saturday Evening Girls Club: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girls of Ennismore Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Notorious Life: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When We Were Young & Brave: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Band of Sisters: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girls with No Names Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Whispers of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lightkeeper's Daughters: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Belong Here Now: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Ballad: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten Home Child Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sisters of the Great War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Little Hopes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Beantown Girls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Day After Night: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forest of Vanishing Stars: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Remember Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kitchen House: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Finishing School: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not Our Kind: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Saints of Swallow Hill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glovemaker: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl from the Channel Islands Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Women of the Copper Country Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Contemporary Women's For You
Reminders of Him: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Ends with Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5None of This is True: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Eve Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Starts with Us: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Regretting You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Dark Vanessa: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Weyward: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wrong Place Wrong Time: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bright Young Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Invisible Girl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slammed: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ugly Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love and Other Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5November 9: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lost Apothecary: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Then She Was Gone: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confess Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Missing Girls: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Sister's Keeper: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things We Cannot Say Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Change: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Club: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5After I Do: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Soulmate Equation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe in Another Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winter Garden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Ballad of Laurel Springs
Rating: 3.3846153846153846 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
13 ratings1 review
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Good premise. But the story takes too long to get going.