Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow

By: Dedra Johnson

Narrated by: A. Jai Simone

Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Despite being a straight-A student and voracious reader, eight-year old Sandrine Miller is treated as little more than a servant by her mother, who forces Sandrine to clean house, do chores and take care of her younger half-sister, Yolanda. On top of the despair of her life at home, Sandrine must confront growing up against the harshness of life in 1970s-era New Orleans, where men in cars follow her home from school and she is ostracized because she is a light-skinned black girl. The only refuge Sandrine has against her bleak world is spending summers with her beloved grandmother, Mamalita. After Mamalita’s death, Sandrine realizes that she must escape from her mother, from New Orleans, from everything she has known, if she is to have any kind of future. In the tradition of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow is a brilliant debut from an important new African-American voice in literary fiction.

A native and current resident of New Orleans, Dedra Johnson received her MFA from the University of Florida, where she was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers. Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow was a runner-up for the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Award in 2006.

©2008 Dedra Johnson (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Reading Dedra Johnson's Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow, I was fully in the presence of the mind, heart and soul of a richly rendered, fascinating fictional character. I knew I was also in the presence of the brillian voice and sensibility of a major new American writer. This is an important novel by a true artist." (Robert Olen Butler)

“Dedra Johnson has caught something wonderful in Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow. She writes brilliantly about childhood, New Orleans, the intricacies of a vexed family life. Sandrine is a remarkable debut novel that will catch your heart." (Frederick Barthelme)

You will love this Performance, Because I did!

This was a great book, and I think the Performance was OUTSTANDING! A. Jai Simone I love you work. I only discovered this book because I desired to hear more from you, after listening to "the Man in 3B" by Carl Weber. I love the way you made Sandrine come alive. The author does well with keeping Sandrine innocence. I really expected to find out that Charlene was NOT Sandrine's mother because of the way she treated Sandrine. I found myself thinking about Sandrine even when I wasn't listening. I found myself telling others about Sandrine. I will be sharing this book with others!

I hate reading, but I go to college and I am

I hate reading... I'm a college student... ive been forced to read many of books by crazy teachers over the course of my life. but this book is actually decent. so if u hate reading like me, know that this book is a little less painful than the others