Showing results by author "Laila Ibrahim"

Southern China, 1923. Desperate to secure her future, Mei Ling’s parents arrange a marriage to a widower in California. To enter the country, she must pretend to be her husband’s first wife - a paper wife. On the perilous voyage, Mei Ling takes an orphan girl named Siew under her wing. Dreams of a better life in America give Mei Ling the strength to endure the treacherous journey and detainment on Angel Island. But when she finally reaches San Francisco, she’s met with a surprise. Her husband, Chinn Kai Li, is a houseboy, not the successful merchant he led her to believe.

Moments after Lisbeth is born, she’s taken from her mother and handed over to an enslaved wet nurse, Mattie, a young mother separated from her own infant son in order to care for her tiny charge. Thus begins an intense relationship that will shape both of their lives for decades to come. Though Lisbeth leads a life of privilege, she finds nothing but loneliness in the company of her overwhelmed mother and her distant, slave-owning father.

Oberlin, Ohio, 1868. Lisbeth Johnson was born into privilege in the antebellum South. Jordan Freedman was born a slave to Mattie, Lisbeth's beloved nurse. The women have an unlikely bond deeper than friendship. Three years after the Civil War, Lisbeth and Mattie are tending their homes and families while Jordan, an aspiring suffragette, teaches at an integrated school. When Lisbeth discovers that her father is dying, she's summoned back to the Virginia plantation where she grew up.

Jenn Henderson is proud of the church-centered life she's created for her family. She prays each morning, attends worship every Sunday, and confidently takes up the struggle to defend traditional marriage when she learns marriage licenses are being issued to gays and lesbians in nearby San Francisco. But the certainty that she is living right falters after her teenage son, Josh, swallows a bottle of sleeping pills. Her fear deepens when she discovers that Josh struggles with same-sex attraction. If she's living right, how can Josh be gay? 

Bereits Augenblicke nachdem Lisbeth geboren ist, wird sie ihrer Mutter weggenommen und Mattie übergeben, einer jungen Sklavin, die man von ihrem eigenen Kind getrennt hat, damit sie dem Baby als Amme dienen kann. So beginnt eine intensive Beziehung, die das Leben der beiden Frauen auf Jahrzehnte hinaus prägen wird. Obwohl Lisbeth ein privilegiertes Leben führt, findet sie bei ihrer überforderten Mutter und ihrem distanzierten Vater, der Sklaven hält, nichts als Einsamkeit.

Ohio, 1868: Lisbeths Vater liegt im Sterben. Um ihn noch einmal zu sehen, reist die junge Frau zur Plantage Fair Oaks, wo sie einst aufgewachsen ist. Doch in Virginia scheint die Zeit stehengeblieben. Ihre Familie glaubt immer noch an die Ideale der Südstaaten und kann ihr nicht verzeihen, dass sie sich den Werten des freien Nordens verschrieben hat. Auch die entflohene Sklavin Mattie Freedman, einst Lisbeths geliebtes Kindermädchen, ist auf dem Weg nach Fair Oaks. Sie will eine Verwandte in den sicheren Norden bringen. Mattie reist nicht allein.