Henry and Rachel

Written by Laurel Saville

Narrated by Jeff Cummings and Joyce Bean

Brought to live with the George family as a child, all anyone knew about enigmatic Rachel was that she worked hard, making herself indispensable to the plantation. And she remained a mystery until the day she disappeared…even to her husband. Especially to her husband.

Henry was Rachel’s opposite—gregarious where she was quiet, fanciful where she was pragmatic. After years of marriage, Rachel left Henry and their oldest son without explanation and set off on a steamer for New York City with their other four children. Was her flight the ultimate act of betrayal or one of extraordinary courage? Eight characters connected by blood and circumstance reconstruct Rachel’s inexplicable vanishing act.

Weaving real family letters into this narrative of her own great-grandparents, Laurel Saville creates a historical novel of incredible depth and beauty.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Oct 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781480516717

Laurel Saville

In addition to Unraveling Anne, Laurel Saville is the author of four books, numerous feature articles, and many short stories and essays. She earned an MFA in creative writing and literature from the Bennington Writing Seminars and has taught a variety of courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. She lives and works in the Mohawk River Valley of upstate New York.

Reviews for Henry and Rachel

[beamis12 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I feel that books that are written based on an actual person, in this case the author's family members, are more appealing to me because they are based on reality. In this case I felt the strongest character was the island of Jamaica, the history and the descriptions were wonderful. When I first started reading this book, I enjoyed reading about their lives, together or not, and the children of course. A book told in alternating chapters, Henry's and than Rachel's because a bit tedious so in the second half of the book when additional character's viewpoints were told, it was a very welcome relief. I can't say that I particularly liked any of these characters, though at times I felt sorry and did perhaps understand Rachel and the way she acted much better, than the others. While I was reading this book, I liked it but when I put it down it never compelled me to pick it back up. So this was a good story, not a very exciting one, though with all the discoveries made about their characters it could have been. Maybe it was meant to follow the languid day to day existence in the Jamaican heat.ARC from publisher.