REMEMBERED is the debut historical fiction novel by Yvonne Battle-Felton, a story where Spring, an emancipated slave, is forced to relive a haunting past in order to lead her dying son home.
From the Women's Prize for Fiction longlist and the Northern Writer's Award Winner comes. . .
REMEMBERED
'Compares with Toni Morrison's Beloved' Guardian
'Powerful, unapologetic, revealing' The Herald
'This book feels vital for our time' Irish Times 'It's haunting and militant and very visceral and compassionate' Diana Evans
'Some books both break your heart and set you free. Remembered will change you' Rachel Edwards
It is 1910 and Philadelphia is burning . . .
The last place Spring wants to be is in the rundown, coloured section of a hospital surrounded by the groans of sick people and the ghost of her dead sister. But as her son Edward lays dying, she has no other choice.
There're whispers that Edward drove a streetcar into a shop window. Some people think it was an accident, others claim that it was his fault, the police are certain that he was part of a darker agenda. Is he guilty? Can they find the truth?
All Spring knows is that time is running out. She has to tell him the story of how he came to be. With the help of her dead sister, newspaper clippings and reconstructed memories, she must find a way to get through to him. To shatter the silences that governed her life, she will do everything she can to lead him home.
Vital, important and humane. Everyone needs to read this book - Jenn Ashworth
Deftly explores generational trauma and the nature of enterprise, and gives a perspective on slavery not often explored
Remembered has drawn comparisons with Toni Morrison's Beloved: both are unflinching and haunting in how they address the legacy of the slave trade. Battle-Felton's voice is entirely her own, however, and this book feels vital for our time . . . Remembered will stay with you long after reading - Irish Times
It's Philadelphia, 1910, and Battle-Felton's debut historical novel traces the story of Spring from the 1840s to the day of the crash, through the incomprehensible cruelties of not only slavery but the many decades that followed - FT (Summer books of 2019)
Yvonne Battle-Felton's debut, Remembered, longlisted for the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction has been compared to Toni Morrison's seminal 1987 novel Beloved. And rightly so, since both are powerful, unapologetic, revealing works of historical fiction - Herald
Yvonne Battle-Felton was born in Pennsylvania and raised in New Jersey. She holds an MA in Writing from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University. She is a Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. A writer of fiction and creative non-fiction, Yvonne's work has been published in riverSedge, Assisi, Not Somewhere Else But Here: A Contemporary Anthology of Women and Place, Welter, Slices, and The Chesapeake Reader Literary Journal. Yvonne was a recipient of a Northern Writers' Award in 2017 for Remembered.