Whistling Past the Graveyard

First I want to thank Simon and Shuster and also Goodreads for the opportunity of reading this novel.

Summer 1963, in Cayuga Springs, Mississippi, feisty 9-year-old Starla is living with Mamie, her strict grandmother, while her father is working in an oil rig and her mother is becoming a famous singer in Nashville.

Afraid of being sent to reform school for misbehaving, she decides to run away and go to Nashville and reunite with her famous mother, the singer she hasn't seen since she was 3. On her way she gets a lift by a black woman Eula and in a basket a baby.. who is white. Starla may be young but in 1963 a black woman and a white baby means trouble.

After Eula's husband Wallace cruelty and an unfortunate accident, Starla and Eula decide that they can only do one thing is to go straight to Nashville. This road trip becomes a life changing course for both of them.

This book into the world of segregation, Starla who is the narrator, we see through her eyes the innocence that and also her eye-opening truth that she never witnessed. It also delves into domestic violence between Eula and Wallace and the truth about her upbringing and the broken spirit that made her take a white baby and raise him even though she knew it was not the right decision.

Never been to Mississippi, the author takes you there, the roads to the colored not being served in restaurants, makes you realize the misery that they lived through. The characters were right on point, to the good (Miss Cyrena, Starla's father), to the bad (Mamie, The Jenkins).

This is a beautiful story about searching for a better life, love, friendship and what the meaning of having a family, bounded by love of not means. After reading the book,i got invested in the characters, I wanted more, where would the characters be after 10-20 years.

A touching book worth reading!