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The Birds of Opulence

By: Crystal Wilkinson
Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
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Publisher's summary

From the critically acclaimed, award-winning author of Blackberries, Blackberries and Water Street comes an astonishing new novel. A lyrical exploration of love and loss, The Birds of Opulence centers on several generations of women in a bucolic Southern Black township as they live with and sometimes surrender to madness.

The Goode-Brown family, led by matriarch and pillar of the community Minnie Mae, is plagued by old secrets and embarrassment over mental illness and illegitimacy. Meanwhile, single mother Francine Clark is haunted by her dead, lightning-struck husband and forced to fight against both the moral judgment of the community and her own rebellious daughter, Mona. The residents of Opulence struggle with vexing relationships to the land, to one another, and to their own sexuality. As the members of the youngest generation watch their mothers and grandmothers pass away, they live with the fear of going mad themselves and must fight to survive.

Crystal Wilkinson offers up Opulence and its people in lush, poetic detail. It is a world of magic, conjuring, signs, and spells, but also of harsh realities that only love - and love that's handed down - can conquer. At once tragic and hopeful, this captivating novel is a story about another time, rendered for our own.

©2016 The University Press of Kentucky (P)2021 Tantor
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What listeners say about The Birds of Opulence

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Just ok

Not sure what I was expecting, but this was a bit underwhelming. I grow weary of these novels that are centered in Black trauma and pain. 😞

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The listening to the narrator’s voice captured my interest.

Saying that I enjoyed this book doesn’t seem right, given the life struggles of the characters. Still it is a book that I’ve had in my personal library for years. When I found it on audio books I started listening to it right away.
The narrator’s voice blended beautifully with the story making it hold my interest. It’s a book worth the reading and listening.

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Opulent

Masterful and Elegant. Sopping with culture, honesty and remembrance of home. Lexington Kentucky 💙 Ohio St Native

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A master storyteller

Crystal Wilkinson continues to amaze me sentence by sentence. The story of these women and of the man who came to love them, unforgettable!

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