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The Last Blue  By  cover art

The Last Blue

By: Isla Morley
Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
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Publisher's summary

A luminous narrative inspired by the fascinating real case of "the Blue People of Kentucky" that probes questions of identity, love, and family.

In 1937, there are recesses in Appalachia no outsiders have ever explored. Two government-sponsored documentarians from Cincinnati, Ohio - a writer and photographer - are dispatched to penetrate this wilderness and record what they find for President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration.

For photographer Clay Havens, the assignment is his last chance to reboot his flagging career. So when he and his journalist partner are warned away from the remote Spooklight Holler outside of town, they set off eagerly in search of a headline story.

What they see will haunt Clay into his old age: Jubilee Buford, a woman whose skin is a shocking and unmistakable shade of blue. From this happenstance meeting between a woman isolated from society and persecuted her whole life, and a man accustomed to keeping himself at lens distance from others, comes a mesmerizing story in which the dark shades of betrayal, prejudice, fear, and guilt, are refracted along with the incandescent hues of passion and courage.

Panning across the rich rural aesthetic of eastern Kentucky, The Last Blue is a captivating love story and an intimate portrait of what it is like to be truly one of a kind.

©2020 Isla Morley (P)2020 Recorded Books

What listeners say about The Last Blue

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good partner book for book woman and daughter book

So much happens.It is a wonderful. memorable, gripping story. Much is a part of American history that is with us still.. The story of these characters' livTs and endurance is experienced by , and therefore, resonates with us

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  • D2
  • 08-30-21

A beautiful, heart wrenching. story

This story will stay with me for a long time. Emotional, as it stitches humanity's best and worst into a beautiful live story.

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wonderful story!

This is one of the most beautiful, heartbreaking, yet glorious books ever!! wonderfully told as well!

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Emotionally riveting

Superbly written...wonderfully narrated..could not stop listening..and cried at the end ..I highly recommend this.. have shared with several of my friends

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GREAT BOOK!

The storyline was great, the narrator did a great job, the story wasn't boring or slow. One of my favorites.
Surprise ending !

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Amazing!!! Loved This!!

I felt it began a bit slow but stuck with the story. Likely one of the most amazing stories I’ve read. Very well done and well presented!!
Touching!! 😢

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My new favorite story

I listened once and now I’m listening again! All the emotions and the character development has so many layers. Loved it. Recommend especially for us Kentuckians roots in the mountains of Eastern KY

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Such a wonderful story.

All I can say is that this is the best story about the blue people I have read! Wonderful!

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  • 04-03-24

Must read. Fascinating, heartbreaking and encouraging.

Your sucked in out of curiosity, held in place because you can relate and stay because you have to know how it ends. A well done and deserving of high honors.

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Captivating

This was a beautiful story and so well written, I’m glad my friend recommended it since I wouldn’t have picked it out on my own. I’m generally more of a nonfiction reader but do enjoy historical fiction - usually with the condition that it’s within the culture of the author. Though she didn’t meet that condition, Morley drew me in with her well developed characters and captivating language. Sometimes I found myself feeling emotional just in the way she got to the essence of the human experience with her descriptions. For instance, when one of the characters doesn’t receive a response to a letter of apology, Morley writes “A man can find his footing on rebuke, but silence is a bottomless cavity through which he keeps falling.” YES.

I really enjoyed the narrator’s reading. Sometimes it’s tricky with a lot of different characters and distracting if a ‘voice’ doesn’t match the character in your head. For some reason it bothered me at first that the narrator was male while the author is female but I quickly got over it as it was so well done. :)

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1 person found this helpful