One Sister’s Song by Karen DeGroot Carter

ISBN: 0-9673867-3-X

Review by Girl On Demand, anonymous host of the POD-dy Mouth blog on print-on-demand publishers, authors, and books (www.girlondemand.blogspot.com), December 2005:

We’ve already considered this plot in our books and movies: What is it like to be a black person in a white world? And we’ve considered this, too: What is it like to be a white person in a black world? But what about this: What is it like to be a biracial person in a world that is almost always black or white and nothing in between?

Karen DeGroot Carter addresses this idea in her melodic novel, One Sister’s Song, published by Pearl Street Publishing (www.PearlStreetPublishing.com), which uses Print-on-demand for its production model.) Actually, this book touches on (and deals effectively with) many issues besides race (family issues, grief, love—among others) but never before have I read a novel that captures the essence of the shifting nature of racial identity. 

One Sister’s Song tells the story of Audrey Conarroe (who is biracial) who is forced to move back to her hometown—a white, tight-knit town in western New York—when she becomes the guardian of her nephew. Here she experiences a chain of events that makes her question who she is—and what is of real importance in life. … (This) novel is deep on many levels (not heavy deep, but makes you think about things the way you did when you read The Lovely Bones—if you finished it, I mean.) This is literature—and a book that will leave you thinking.

This novel is wonderfully written and edited to the core—seriously. I found it a relaxing and delightful read—and refreshing from style to plot points.