The Undertaker’s Assistant

· Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Allyson Johnson
5.0
2 reviews
Audiobook
11 hr 38 min
Unabridged
Eligible
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About this audiobook

"The dead can't hurt you. Only the living can." Effie Jones, a former slave who escaped to the Union side as a child, knows the truth of her words. Taken in by an army surgeon and his wife during the War, she learned to read and write, to tolerate the sight of blood and broken bodies—and to forget what is too painful to bear. Now a young freedwoman, she has returned south to New Orleans and earns her living as an embalmer, her steady hand and skillful incisions compensating for her white employer's shortcomings.



Tall and serious, Effie keeps her distance from the other girls in her boarding house, holding tight to the satisfaction she finds in her work. But despite her reticence, two encounters—with a charismatic state legislator named Samson Greene, and a beautiful young Creole, Adeline—introduce her to new worlds of protests and activism, of soirees and social ambition. Effie decides to seek out the past she has blocked from her memory and try to trace her kin. As her hopes are tested by betrayal, and New Orleans grapples with violence and growing racial turmoil, Effie faces loss and heartache, but also a chance to finally find her place . . .

Ratings and reviews

5.0
2 reviews
Rochelle Butler
May 7, 2023
absolutely loved this book, well written and narrated. its a must read or listen. i love this book and i ain't lyin:)
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Sharon Schumacher
January 4, 2020
Well written and narrated, good story and characters. Enjoyed!!
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About the author

Amanda Skenandore is a historical fiction writer and registered nurse. Her first novel, Between Earth and Sky, won the American Library Association's Reading List Award for Best Historical Fiction. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. Visit her at amandaskenandore.com. Allyson Johnson began her entertainment career in her hometown of Chicago as an Emmy Award-winning child news anchor. A graduate of Brown University, she is a working actress, singer, and audiobook narrator in the New York City metropolitan area.

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