Publisher Description
A timely and moving bicultural coming-of-age tale, based on a true story and told by an author who has struggled with the same issues as her protagonist. The daughter of a Danish immigrant and a black G.I., Rachel survives a family tragedy only to face new challenges. Sent to live with her strict African-American grandmother in a racially divided Northwest city, she must suppress her grief and reinvent herself in a mostly black community. A beauty with light brown skin and blue eyes, she attracts much attention in her new home. The world wants to see her as either black or white, but that’s not how she sees herself. Meanwhile, a mystery unfolds, revealing the terrible truth about Rachel’s last morning on a Chicago rooftop. Interwoven with her voice are those of Jamie, a neighborhood boy who witnessed the events, and Laronne, a friend of Rachel’s mother. Inspired by a true story of a mother’s twisted love, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky reveals an unfathomable past and explores issues of identity at a time when many people are asking “Must race confine us and define us?” Narrated by an ensemble, with Emily Bauer (Rachel), Kathleen McInerney (Nella), and Karen Murray (Jamie, LaRone, Brick, Roger).
Download and start listening now!
"A really good debut novel (semi-autobiographical) about a biracial girl (Danish & African-American) whose family life is enveloped in more than enough tragedy for a lifetime, added to which is the uncertainty & identity crisis of her ethnic heritage. 80% of this book merits 5 stars. But the ending wasn't up to the rest of the novel, and the gaps in the narrative (dad, the red-haired guy, the mom's boss) towards the end really leave you hanging. Now that Durrow has mined her adolescence to write this 1st novel, I hope she's got something in reserve to write about next."
—
Sheri (4 out of 5 stars)
About Heidi W. Durrow
Heidi Durrow is a graduate
of Stanford, Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, and Yale Law School. She
is the recipient of several fellowships including one from the New York
Foundation for the Arts and a Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging
Writers. She won top honors in the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition and
the Chapter One Fiction Contest. Her writing has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, the Literary Review, Yale Journal of Law, Feminism,
Essence, and Newsday. She is the recipient of Barbara Kingsolvers Bellwether
Prize for Literature of Social Change.
About the Narrators
Adenrele Ojo is an actress, dancer, and audiobook narrator, winner of over a dozen Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2018. She made her on-screen debut in My Little Girl, starring Jennifer Lopez, and has since starred in several other films. She has also performed extensively with the Philadelphia Dance Company. As the daughter of John E. Allen, Jr., founder and artistic director of Freedom Theatre, the oldest African American theater in Pennsylvania, is no stranger to the stage. In 2010 she performed in the Fountain Theatre’s production of The Ballad of Emmett Till, which won the 2010 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Ensemble. Other plays include August Wilson’s Jitney and Freedom Theatre’s own Black Nativity, where she played Mary.
Emily Bauer is an award-winning voice-over actress who has read for dozens of popular audiobooks for children and adults, including Margery Williams’s Velveteen Rabbit, Meg Cabot’s Insatiable, and Ann Aguirre’s Enclave. Her film credits include Mona Lisa Smile and Long Distance. She has done voice-overs for Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Pokemon and has voiced scores of TV and radio commercials as well as cartoons, talking toys, and video games.
Kathleen McInerney won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration in 2011 and was a finalist for the Audie in 2010 and 2015. Her narrations have also earned several AudioFile Earphones Awards. She has performed in New York and around the United States in both classical and contemporary theater. Her credits also include television commercials, daytime drama, radio plays, and a broad range of animation voice-overs.