The Weight of a Pearl

by Walker Smith

Overview

FREE E-BOOK! Purchase Walker Smith's new novel The Weight of a Pearl and receive her companion novel Bluestone Rondo as a free Nook book!

Bluestone Rondo begins in 1927 Jim Crow Mississippi with the birth of unusual twins. Calvin Bailey is dark and his brother Joe is light enough to pass for white. Thus begins a suspenseful conflict with an unguessable ending! Leaving a memorable impression with readers were two secondary characters, Doc and Pearl Calhoun.

The Weight of a Pearl is their story. It begins with a young girl suffering poverty and paternal abuse in the Black Belt of Chicago. Hundreds of miles away, a 19-year-old trumpet player puts his budding musical career on hold to fight in the Spanish Civil War. After years of combat, he returns home to find a healing in the music he loves. Unexpectedly, he meets a young singer with sorrow in her voice and Spain in her eyes. Her name takes up residence in his mind. Pearl.

For more information visit: www.walkersmithbooks.com
Or watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXxWuOstkzA&list=PLiROty7a-PAOm1YwhoW4lQBH5IChC1Mg1

Product Details

BN ID:	2940162098225
Publisher:	Sonata Books, LLC
Publication date:	06/25/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	778,430
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: The connection between The Weight of a Pearl and Bluestone Rondo:
As I traveled around the country promoting my books and meeting with book clubs, I heard one question more than any other: “When are you going to write a story about Pearl?”
Pearl was a key character in Bluestone Rondo, along with her husband Doc Calhoun. Their “hell-and-back” love served as a looming centerpiece to the story, and they made more of an impression than I ever imagined they would. So I put aside the novel I was working on, and wrote the prequel to Bluestone Rondo, which I titled The Weight of a Pearl.
I begin Pearl’s story in her childhood years, living in a tenement on the South Side of Chicago during the Great Depression. Her mother’s bootstrap heroism shaped her little girl’s spirit, and she reminded her often of why she named her after a pearl, which is the symbol of pure love.
Doc’s story begins when he is still a young, idealistic trumpet player, who leaves Harlem with many other African American men to fight in the Spanish Civil War. As a member of the historic Abraham Lincoln Brigade, he lives, breathes, and suffers with the Spanish people as they take their stand against the fascism of Franco, Hitler, and Mussolini. And he sees the clear parallel to his own oppression in the America he will return to—if he survives Spain.
Thus begins a story that continues in Bluestone Rondo. . . .

About the Author:
Walker Smith writes in a unique blend of history, drama, and suspense, delivering the most unknown details of our history through the eyes of unforgettable characters. Her novels include: “The Color Line” - an epic story of the Harlem Renaissance and black heroism in World War I; “Letters from Rome” - 1970s Sankofa journey from ancient Africa to Vietnam; and “Bluestone Rondo” - a racial Cain and Abel story set in the era of bebop and the Blacklist. Smith also collaborated with black radio pioneer and music industry giant Jack the Rapper Gibson on his biography “Mello Yello.”

Editorial Reviews

"Smith has woven a compelling, character-driven narrative in which readers should quickly become emotionally invested . . . Her prose is matter-of-fact and laden with poignant details that unlock the darkness that haunts the story . . . An engrossing tale of romantic and familial love set against the exciting radicalism of the '40s and '50s music, drug, and political cultures." -- Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Reviews