River Sing Me Home: A powerful, uplifting novel of a remarkable journey to find family, inspired by true events

This is a vivid account of slavery and family connections. Very dramatic and moving. Made me ruminate about the British empire and the loss of freedom and indignity of slavery horrors of slavery

Historical fiction about slavery set in 1830s Barbados.When England declared the abolition of slavery, the white plantationowners in Barbados had other ideas.They told the slaves that they were now apprentices that had to work for them for another six years. It was freedom in name only. They could not leave.This is a story of a mother’s undying love and bravery.After living through 40 years of slavery, Rachel had birthed and lost six children. Micah, Mary Grace, Thomas Augustus, CherryJane and Mercy. She would recite their names daily, she refused to forget them, she would find each one.Rachel takes us through the Caribbean islands from Barbados to British Guiana to Trinidad.Beautiful inside and out, Eleanor Shearer tells a traumatic story with endearing descriptions. A mother’s love runs through like a golden thread, its full of hope and love, two things that rise above the trauma of slavery and being on the run.

I found this book to be very well and thoughtfully written. Slavery was abolished, but was it? Rachel is on a mission to find the children that were taken from her by the Massa (to sell). Its a mother's story, a humanitarian story and an educational story. I Hadn't realised the massive wider implications of slavery - where one person owns another.Its not all doom and gloom though, its captivating, adventuring and full of description of the Caribbean and despite the harrowing details, it lightens the prose with music, lots of storytelling and some humour. I couldn't put it down.

Sorry to say but this was disappointing. Very little accurate historical research and had a lightweight, predictable, plot. Gave up two thirds of way through and jumped to end. An underwhelming read

“A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity. It dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path”.-The Last Seance (from The Hound of Death and Other Stories, also Double Sin and Other Stories)”― Agatha Christie, The Hound of Death.Providence plantation, Barbados.The King has decreed an end to slavery with the new Emancipation Act of 1834 coming into effect. However, the Master of Providence has told the supposedly free slaves that they will have to work as apprentices for him for the next six years, they weren’t allowed to leave until then - so freedom definitely didn’t mean freedom.Rachel had suffered unbearable heartache over the years due to the cruelty of the Master, as one by one her children were snatched away from her and sold. She thought an end to slavery would allow her to search for her children, so Master or no Master she wasn’t having her dreams taken from her any longer. Rachel could stand it no more and acted on her sudden urge to flee.‘River Sing me Home’ shines a spotlight on the sheer cruelty and oppression of slavery. But cruel and distressing as it is, there’s beauty in the words of these unspeakable events thanks to the literary talents of Eleanor Shearer.Imagine having to suppress hope - sometimes hope is all we have, all that keeps us going, but to suppress hope because it hurts? That’s heartbreaking. However, Rachel’s hope to be reunited with her children, takes her and the reader on quite a journey.A powerful and moving novel inspired by those courageous and determined women who walked all over their islands to find the children who had been snatched from them.

I really enjoyed this book. It was well written and I was swept along with Rachel’s search. A mother’s love, the determination and endurance to keep travelling and searching for her loved ones. The author’s research of the lives of slaves during this period and also the geographical areas during this time made for a very interesting and enjoyable read.

River Sing Me Home, by Eleanor ShearerA wonderfully written story that begins in Barbados, when the formal end of slavery is announced, giving hope of freedom to so many, only for it to be snatched away. One woman, Rachel, escaped and went in search of her five living children, from Barbados to British Guiana and then to Trinidad. This is her story, inspired by so many women like her, who would have walked to the ends of the earth to find their children and literally walked for weeks, surviving on the strength of their love.The descriptions of the places, the people and the memories are so incredibly detailed and they really drew me in, I was so full of hope for Rachel.As she eventually finds each of the children that were taken from her and sold, her heart is filled and then broken over and over again when she discovers the journey each of them have been on and how that has shaped the young adults they have become.4 ⭐️

Warning - Ellie used to work at the same place as me (though I did not know her well - and certainly did not know she was writing her first novel for publication)> I really enjoyed this - great female characters and a fascinating insight into the lives of slaves in the Caribbean before and after "freedom". Parts are grim - but overall its a rollicking read.

River Sing Me Home is a powerful story of the strength and perseverance of a mother's search for her five children, all of whom had been taken from her during her time as a slave on a sugar cane plantation in Barbados. We follow the protagonist (Rachel) across land and sea, through forests and up rivers as she searches, and finds, one child after the other. Now grown, each child has come to their own way of life, always with a driving force of surviving as a slave (or former slave) on a Caribbean island in the days and months after emancipation has been declared. What Rachel finds is not always what she expects or hopes, and she is called upon to accept each child's reality, painful as some may be. Along her way Rachel meets characters that are of great help to her, from the emancipated dressmaker in Barbados, to a nomadic former slave who gives up his life on the sea to join Rachel and one of her first found children. The end of the book is a hopeful one, yet the powerful message of the book is universal. A mother's love fuels self-sacrifice. That same love allows us to accept—often painfully—the individual journeys and associated outcome of our children's lives. And human resilience is required to accept that the freedom we imagine is very often not the freedom that actually awaits. If you're looking for shocking twists and turns this book is not for you. In reading the book, I felt that I was on a linear journey right along side this courageous mother and her companions, traveling across seas, over land and upriver. Especially resonant for those readers who relate to the pain of losing children and the strength of the never dimming love for those children that fuel courage and sacrifice.

Set in a place I have very little knowledge of.The story carried me along with their tales.The hardships and hard times they had ,and the powerful inner strength was inspiring.

Slow start but got hooked and then couldn’t put it down! Characters were great and locations were fascinating! The entire reality of slavery is so abhorrent…and this book is a chilling example of the damage done to innocent people!

This is a good historical fiction focused on the Caribbean and how slavery impacted the islands. That being said, it mostly focused on Rachel’s story/narrative, so you really didn’t learn that much of the nuances as I probably would have liked, although it still told the important story of a mother searching for her children that were cruelly torn from her.I liked that all of Rachel’s children had different stories…not everything was a happy reunion, or a painful meeting - but everything was so incredibly nuanced and I think Shearer did a solid job of landing that there are different types of freedom for the characters involved.I enjoyed this novel and it went by pretty quickly for me as I was fairy invested. That being said, it was obviously a debut novel. Some things were repetitive, the author, although she had a way with words that were quite beautiful at times, still erred no the side of telling more than showing. And she also left a lot of things up to the “vibe”. Ie, when Rachel and the others met with Nuno’s people, how much Rachel “understood.”? That was really confusing to me how she could infer meaning from languages she couldn’t speak.All in all I’ll give this a solid 3.5 stars.

The book River Sing Me Home by Elenor Shearer is a story of a complex journey. It is a novel that captures the possibility of what memory can have. What opportunities for someone have to go back into one's history to find their family? It shares the story of motherhood and external and internal journeys. In a river town, Shearer skillfully immerses readers in their journeys.Shearer's vivid descriptions bring the setting to life. River Sing Me Home is a thought-provoking read that is highly recommended for those seeking a profound exploration of the impact of familial bonds. I would rate it a ⅘ for its way of telling stories impacted by erasure through such vivid explanations.