God Help the Child Audiobook By Toni Morrison cover art

God Help the Child

A Novel

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God Help the Child

By: Toni Morrison
Narrated by: Toni Morrison
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A New York Times Notable Book • This fiery and provocative novel from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner weaves a tale about the way the sufferings of childhood can shape, and misshape, the life of the adult.

At the center: a young woman who calls herself Bride, whose stunning blue-black skin is only one element of her beauty, her boldness and confidence, her success in life, but which caused her light-skinned mother to deny her even the simplest forms of love. There is Booker, the man Bride loves, and loses to anger. Rain, the mysterious white child with whom she crosses paths. And finally, Bride’s mother herself, Sweetness, who takes a lifetime to come to understand that “what you do to children matters. And they might never forget.”

“Powerful.... A tale that is as forceful as it is affecting, as fierce as it is resonant.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

©2015 Toni Morrison (P)2015 Random House Audio African American Contemporary Fiction Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Magic Magical Realism Heartfelt

Editorial reviews

Editors Select, April 2015 - Let my bias be known: I love Toni Morrison. Being a super fan, I approached God Help the Child with both high expectations and some apprehension. Bride, the main character, is a modern-day woman: almost a cliché of the fashionable and self-absorbed business woman. But under that not-very-interesting surface is a rich, and disturbing, undercurrent. Bride, and the other characters that enter the story, have suffered unspeakable abuse. Morrison uses her magical way of showing where (physically, spiritually, and emotionally) the effects of that abuse lives in each of them. Both modern and timeless, God Help the Child is a short, brilliant work – I cannot wait to listen the author put her voice to this story by narrating. Tricia, Audible Editor

Critic reviews

“Utterly compelling . . . Morrison remains an incredibly powerful writer who commands attention.” –Roxane Gay, The Guardian

“God Save the Child is superb, its story gliding along the tracks of Morrison’s utterly assured prose.” –Charles Finch, USA Today (critic's pick)

“Morrison is such a masterful writer that even those who don’t prefer stream of conscious novels may find them sucked into these minds, turning page after page of this short novel until they’ve finished the book in one sitting.” –Sarah Hutchins, Portland Book Review

Featured Article: 85+ Toni Morrison Quotes on Life, Love, Freedom, and Hardships


The first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Toni Morrison, who passed away on August 5, 2019, left behind a legacy of wisdom in her novels and essays. Her work explores topics like human nature, happiness, love, and enduring hardships, but also delves into the subject of freedom and what that has meant for African Americans. These quotes will get you through tough times, inspire you to look at yourself, and much more.

Featured Article 85+ Toni Morrison Quotes on Life Love Freedom and Hardships
Powerful Storytelling • Poetic Prose • Authentic Voice • Flawed Characters • Emotional Depth • Thought-provoking Themes
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I purchased the hardcover of this book - I purchase the hardcover of all her books, when possible. But, when I learned Toni Morrison recorded the narration for the audiobook I decided to listen instead of read.
If you read Toni Morrison, you understand she is intimately tied to each of her characters, an invisible and unimaginable adhesive binds them, so hearing them brought to life under the guidance of Toni's voice is a rare gift.
This story is not flowery language, it is history and legacy and good words that strike through the marrow to pin to the wall that skeleton all our flesh has hardened over. This book is lesson and warning. What becomes of a child refused basic human kindness?

God Help Us All

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A brief magical story of love and the lies we tell ourselves about it. No doubt Bride's black is beautiful. And listening to Ms. Morrison read her own work is adds an additional layer of magic.

Black Girl Magic

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Great narration. The story was very interesting. A typical Morrison read. Glad I read it.

Read for Book Club

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Beautiful, realistic presentation of the effects of harmful childhood experiences and toxic stresses maturing into and throughout adult life. In the past, these events were not even considered to have such deleterious consequences in life. Tony Morrison's excellent poetic prose, opens our eyes and truly expresses that reality.

Willie Holiday Sings

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I really liked the book. I think the characters were really well thought of and they had good story arcs but it was a little confusing having every chapter be a different character and the story not matching up

fantastic but a little confusing

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If I could start this selection now, I would do it when I am going on a road trip. I would listen to the whole story in a relatively short period of time, because I think its real power is in the depth of its development. The story felt 100 yards wide and 1,000 fathoms deep. By stretching out this listen over weeks, I believe I lost nuances of the characters, and diminshed the impact of the story...but I was still drawn in.

100 yards wide and 1,000 fathoms deep

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Any additional comments?

This book reminds me in some ways of the Bluest Eye. With that being said, I want to be clear. It is not the Bluest Eye which is my favorite book by this author. I always feel that one of the authors greatest strengths is getting deep into the psyche of her characters and illustrating how their history and experiences quite literally shape their perception of the world. This ripple effect is always illustrated beautifully in the way that she weaves her characters together in both their strengths and frailty. This story is no different. I'm always impressed by how well this author depicts the spectrum of human experience even in very raw and uncomfortable ways. Life is messy and in my eyes no one does a better job of creating fallible and vulnerable characters than Toni.

I always enjoy Toni Morrison

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What made the experience of listening to God Help the Child the most enjoyable?

The story. But the author should not have read this book on Audible it's irritating to listen to her at times.

How could the performance have been better?

With a better narrator reading the story

Love story but Morrison should not be the reader

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There is something about listening to Toni Morrison reading her own words. I am transfixed and moved to the knee of elder who's stories end too soon. I want to hear about how happy Bride and Booker end up and what I imagine their children's answers are at the weekend conference.

Another Toni Morrison win!

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If you could sum up God Help the Child in three words, what would they be?

A must read! This book is the book I selected as the hostess for the September book club meeting. This author has always made me feel as if I'd been given a reading assignment with her previous books. This was the first book by Toni Morrison that I truly enjoyed! Perhaps it was because the setting is contemporary. It was enjoyed by the majority of the women who read it. Highly recommended!

Favorite by Toni Morrison

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