When the Ground Is Hard
By
Malla Nunn
Read by
Bahni Turpin
Release:
06/04/2019
Runtime:
8h 6m
Unabridged
Quantity:
★ “Turpin reads with a musical African accent. She makes fine distinctions among the characters’ voices and embodies Adele’s swiftly shifting emotions. American missionaries have clipped accents, and male characters sound credible. The richly evoked setting may be strange to American readers, and the vivid racism may be shocking, but teens will be drawn into the girls’ growing friendship and search for self.
Booklist, starred review on audiobook
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature
YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults
A YALSA Pick for Best Fiction
Shortlisted for the Davitt Award for Young Adult Crime Novels
WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE • In this poignant coming-of-age tale, two black girls break all the rules on race, class, and gender to bravely become more themselves.
“Accidents, lies, thefts … secrets … dead bodies, and illicit rendezvous make for riveting reading.”—School Library Journal
Two girls from different worlds. One powerful bond.
At Keziah Christian Academy, a boarding school in the heart of Swaziland, sixteen-year-old Adele Joubert is one of the top girls. She’s well-mannered, a good student, and most importantly, has a white father who can pay her school fees. But on the bus back to Keziah after holiday break, Adele discovers her best friends have replaced her with a new top girl—one whose father is wealthier than her own. Worse, now booted from the top girls’ quarters, Adele has to share a room with Lottie Diamond, a poor outcast who likes to fight and doesn’t follow the rules. Adele is determined to win her top spot back, but instead slowly finds herself caught in Lottie’s gravitational pull.
Lottie forces Adele to think about things she’s never considered before, like whether her father might love her mother and what future could possibly exist for a colored girl from Swaziland—even one who follows all the rules. Adele is soon forced to make a choice: betray Lottie to regain her social status or forge ahead with her new friend and become an outcast herself. Before Adele can decide, tragedy strikes the school, and the two girls find themselves investigating the suspicious circumstances of a classmate’s disappearance. Their investigation doesn’t lead where either girl expects.
“Accidents, lies, thefts … secrets … dead bodies, and illicit rendezvous make for riveting reading.”—School Library Journal
Two girls from different worlds. One powerful bond.
At Keziah Christian Academy, a boarding school in the heart of Swaziland, sixteen-year-old Adele Joubert is one of the top girls. She’s well-mannered, a good student, and most importantly, has a white father who can pay her school fees. But on the bus back to Keziah after holiday break, Adele discovers her best friends have replaced her with a new top girl—one whose father is wealthier than her own. Worse, now booted from the top girls’ quarters, Adele has to share a room with Lottie Diamond, a poor outcast who likes to fight and doesn’t follow the rules. Adele is determined to win her top spot back, but instead slowly finds herself caught in Lottie’s gravitational pull.
Lottie forces Adele to think about things she’s never considered before, like whether her father might love her mother and what future could possibly exist for a colored girl from Swaziland—even one who follows all the rules. Adele is soon forced to make a choice: betray Lottie to regain her social status or forge ahead with her new friend and become an outcast herself. Before Adele can decide, tragedy strikes the school, and the two girls find themselves investigating the suspicious circumstances of a classmate’s disappearance. Their investigation doesn’t lead where either girl expects.
Release:
2019-06-04
Runtime:
8h 6m
Format:
audio
Weight:
0.0 lb
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781984890689
Publisher:
Penguin Random House
Praise