The Love You Save: A Memoir

by Goldie Taylor, Bahni Turpin (Read by)

Overview

Acclaimed journalist and human rights activist Goldie Taylor shares the harrowing yet deeply hopeful story of her troubled childhood in East St. Louis—a memoir of family, faith and the power of books

At age eleven, Goldie Taylor is out riding her new bike when a young man from the neighborhood brutally rapes her. Goldie’s mother, dealing with trauma of her own, sends her to live with her aunt, uprooting her from a good school to live in a dangerous, bottomed-out neighborhood in East St. Louis.

Aunt Gerald takes in anyone who asks, but the conditions are harsh. With no bed or personal belongings, Goldie sleeps on the living room floor, beneath a threadbare blanket, amid cousins who abuse her. Plagued by the echoes of trauma and longing for her mother, Goldie finds her thoughts growing increasingly dark. Until she finds solace in the writings of James Baldwin. And hope in the form of a nurturing teacher who helps her find her voice.

With echoes of Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Tara Westover’s Educated, Goldie Taylor’s debut memoir shines a light on the strictures of race, class and gender in a post–Jim Crow America while offering a nuanced, empathetic portrait of a family in a pitched battle for its very soul. Profoundly moving, exquisitely rendered and ultimately uplifting, The Love You Save is a story about hidden strength, perseverance against unimaginable odds, the beauty and pain of girlhood, and the power of the written word.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798212223201
Publisher:	Harlequin Audio
Publication date:	01/31/2023
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Goldie Taylorr is a veteran journalist, cable news political analyst, and human rights activist who has written about national politics and social justice issues for over thirty years. She has been featured on NBC News, MSNBC, ABC News, CNN, HLN, HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Dr. Phil, Steve Harvey, and Good Morning America, as well as NPR’s All Things Considered. She has written for Salon, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Creative Loafing, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Grio, Huffington Post, CNN.com, MSNBC.com, Essence, and most recently as editor-at-large for The Daily Beast. Her novel Paper Gods is currently in development with John Legend’s Get Lifted Film Co. and Sony Television. She lives in Boston.

Bahni Turpin is an experienced audiobook narrator and actress who has appeared in numerous television productions as well as films. An ensemble member of the Cornerstone Theater Company, she also works as a yoga instructor. She currently resides in Los Angeles, where she founded the SoLA Food Co-op.

Editorial Reviews

10/10/2022

A turbulent coming-of-age in the 1970s and ’80s Missouri suburbs is recalled in this indelible memoir from Taylor (Paper Gods: A Novel of Money, Race, and Politics). After Taylor’s father was murdered when she was five, the family moved to the all-white suburb of St. Ann. Taylor, who is Black, thrived in her new home until a teenage boy raped her when she was 11 years old. When Taylor’s family ignored her trauma (“It was as if my mother tucked away the unpleasantness and moved on”), she struggled with thoughts of suicide. Later, Taylor went to live with her aunt and uncle in East St. Louis, where her aunt, who called her “Dum-Dum,” forced her to toil for hours doing household labor, and her cousin repeatedly raped her, resulting in a pregnancy and a miscarriage. But school was a refuge for Taylor, and she became inspired by the works of Maya Angelou and James Baldwin, who “was a ready salve, meeting me at my point of need.” Taylor’s narrative is peppered with canny and insightful reflections: “For far too many years, I lived as if holding my breath.” This powerful examination of survival and self-forgiveness is an emotional reckoning. Agent: Eve Attermann, WME. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Harrowing, transcendent and written with singular grace, The Love You Save is the best kind of memoir. Goldie Taylor reveals how in the face of adversity, we can find hope in books, in faith, in family, and most importantly, in our own inner resolve. A powerful book that will stick with you forever."—Tamron Hall, Emmy Award-winning journalist and author of As the Wicked Watch

"Bursting with hope, wonder and wisdom, The Love You Save is a deeply inspiring, must-read memoir about the transformative power of books to heal and unite us."—Gabrielle Union, New York Times bestselling author of You Got Anything Stronger?

"Goldie Taylor's The Love You Save is at once candid and devastating. Writing with clarity and elegance, Taylor has crafted a memoir about finding peace, hope, and love after surviving unspeakable violence. This book will stay with me a long long time."—Jaquira Díaz, author of Ordinary Girls: A Memoir

"In The Love You Save Goldie Taylor weaves a vibrant retelling of her youth and by proxy a side of America that is rarely seen on the page. Instead of pathologizing hardship, Taylor celebrates survival and gives the readers a front row seat to a fascinating and poignant life. Deeply honest, it is an important cultural document wrapped in a memoir. Words are powerful, the pen can be our best weapon and here Taylor shows us that she survived and thrived because of them."—Mikki Kendall, New York Times bestselling author of Hood Feminism

"Goldie Taylor writes of her childhood in East St. Louis—often cruel, often dire, punctuated by intense and complex familial love—with a clear-eyed lack of sentimentality, much less self-pity, and, somehow, unwavering compassion that put me in mind of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, especially as young Goldie finds strength and salvation in the transporting, redemptive power of books and the support of perceptive teachers. The writing in The Love You Save is always as beautiful as its story so often is not, and I read it through with a kind of fearful hopefulness."—Benjamin Dreyer, New York Times bestselling author of Dreyer's English

"The Love You Save is a powerful coming-of-age story about a little Black girl's determination to love and survive. It made me smile and grimace with deep recognition. This is a memoir about the pain and joy of being 'the first,' with all of the sacrifices that come with opportunity. Taylor renders a lovely memoir about a slice of Black life with compassion and truth-telling."—Tressie McMillan Cottom, National Book Award-nominated author of Thick: And Other Essays

"Goldie Taylor's story will console and inspire countless people in crisis struggling with their own traumas. But it should also give hope, comfort and confirmation to everyone who believes in the singular power of books." —J.R. Moehringer, New York Times bestselling author of The Tender Bar

"Indelible... This powerful examination of survival and self-forgiveness is an emotional reckoning."—Publishers Weekly

“An affecting memoir of overcoming adversity when every deck is stacked against you.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Taylor's narrative flows beautifully (even the parts that are hard to read) and integrates seamlessly with her reflections on love, care, and forgiveness. A beyond-compelling testimonial.”—Booklist STARRED review

"This moving memoir is a deeply personal story of trauma and perseverance against all odds."—The Root

"Painful and inspiring, Goldie's memoir is important and unique."—Good Morning America

"A heart wrenching story of endurance under the most unimaginable of circumstances."—Motherly

"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings meets Educated."—Katie Couric Media

“Goldie Taylor’s absolutely stunning memoir depicts Black life in St. Louis, Missouri, in the 1970s and ’80s with cinematic detail and novelistic prose.”—BookPage

From the Publisher

Harrowing, transcendent and written with singular grace, The Love You Save is the best kind of memoir. Goldie Taylor reveals how in the face of adversity, we can find hope in books, in faith, in family and, most importantly, in our own inner resolve. A powerful book that will stick with you forever.”

Emmy Award–winning journalist Tamron Hall

A deeply inspiring, must-read memoir about the transformative power of books to heal and unite us."

Gabrielle Union

★ 11/01/2022

When a book is compared to Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Tara Westover's Educated, it has to deliver. Political journalist/activist Taylor's (Paper Gods: A Novel of Money, Race, and Politics) memoir does just that, with its forthright prose and clear, insightful observations about experiencing and learning from trauma. The memoir reads almost like a novel, and each voice that emerges through the dialogue shimmers with complexity, making Taylor's memoir richly evocative, harrowing, and beautiful, despite the dark traumas and acts of violence the story exposes. The author's syntax explodes on the pages: short sentences make it impossible to look away from ruptures and pain, while longer passages suggest nuanced thoughts and complex feelings. VERDICT While the moments of racial and gender-based violence are difficult to read, the book ultimately promotes a sense of hope and healing, designed not just to tell the story but to show readers that every act of resistance, every movement toward change can have an impact, and that no impact is too small when it saves someone.—Emily Bowles

Library Journal

Bahni Turpin exceptionally narrates Goldie Taylor’s memoir about growing up under chaotic circumstances, never knowing when Mom might show up. Auntie Gerald runs a tight ship but neglects the danger in the house full of cousins. Goldie frequently sneaks off to safety in a locked bathroom or Grandma Alice’s bedroom. Books save Goldie, and her teachers nurture her intellect and love of speech and writing. Once in high school, she is no longer a victim and finds her powerful voice. The epilogue illuminates reconciliation in a way that only looking back as an adult can. Turpin’s performance of the distinctive range of characters adds a rich, emotive quality to this listening experience. L.J.C.A. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2023 - AudioFile

Bahni Turpin exceptionally narrates Goldie Taylor’s memoir about growing up under chaotic circumstances, never knowing when Mom might show up. Auntie Gerald runs a tight ship but neglects the danger in the house full of cousins. Goldie frequently sneaks off to safety in a locked bathroom or Grandma Alice’s bedroom. Books save Goldie, and her teachers nurture her intellect and love of speech and writing. Once in high school, she is no longer a victim and finds her powerful voice. The epilogue illuminates reconciliation in a way that only looking back as an adult can. Turpin’s performance of the distinctive range of characters adds a rich, emotive quality to this listening experience. L.J.C.A. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2023 - AudioFile

2022-10-26
Journalist and human rights activist Taylor serves up a sometimes brutal, sometimes tender coming-of-age story.

In 1971, writes the author, her mother relocated their family from Chicago to East St. Louis, where, a few weeks later, her name “landed at the top of the waiting list for a new public housing project.” There and elsewhere, horrors awaited: Taylor’s older brother was beaten nearly to death, her father was killed, and she was raped—all terrible events the author relates with a certain matter-of-factness, as if as natural as a heat wave: “They’d found a man dead in his house, hunched over an air conditioner that was out of coolant and blowing hot air. The city morgue was at capacity, and they were running out of places to put all the bodies.” Moving to a suburb hardly helped, though it was refreshing not to walk along rows of abandoned houses and dirty street corners. Her mother’s one rule was not to embarrass her in front of the White neighbors, her attitude being that living among them was to be seen “not as an auger of imminent social change but rather an indication of our individual morality and earnestness.” Moving back and forth between family members’ households after attempting suicide, Taylor grew into a reader and excellent student. She was also unfailingly tough; in one case, she held her own in a fight with a taunting middle school classmate who “had fists like Leon Spinks.” Though aspirational, Taylor doesn’t buy the line that hard work always leads to success, not when “a stray bullet after a school dance could change everything.” Still, her well-told story, born of tenacity and intelligence alike, ends in success of a hard-won kind—for, as she concludes, “Grief…is love with nowhere to go.”

An affecting memoir of overcoming adversity when every deck is stacked against you.

Kirkus Reviews