All the Forgivenesses

By: Elizabeth Hardinger

Narrated by: Stephanie Einstein

Growing up on their hardscrabble farm in rural Kentucky, 15-year-old Albertina "Bertie" Winslow has learned a lot from her mama, Polly. She knows how to lance a boil, make a pie crust, butcher a pig, and tend to every chore that needs doing. What she doesn't know, but is forced to reckon with all too soon, is how to look after children as a mother should...

When Polly succumbs to a long illness, Bertie takes on responsibility for her four younger siblings and their dissolute, unreliable daddy. Yet no matter how hard she tries to hold the family together, the task is overwhelming. Nine-year-old Dacia, especially, is resentful and stubborn, hinting at secrets in their mama's life. Finally, Bertie makes the only choice she can - breaking up the family for its own survival, keeping the girls with her, sending the boys off to their grown brothers, long gone from home.

Ever pragmatic, Bertie marries young, grateful to find a husband willing to take on the care of her sisters, and eventually moves to the oil fields of Kansas. But marriage alone cannot resolve the grief and guilt she carries over a long-ago tragedy, or prepare her for the heartaches still to come. Only by confronting wrenching truths can she open herself to joy - and learn how to not only give, but receive, unfettered love.

©2019 Elizabeth Hardinger (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Kept Me Wanting To Hear More

I enjoyed this story very much! There is so much truth in it that it could be someone's true story. And the performance by Stephanie Einstein was fantastic. I will be looking for more by this writer & the narrator.

Outstanding story & narration.

This was the best, most moving story I have read in a long, long time. The narration was perfect as well! Highly recommend!

fantastic

great book and fantastic narration. I did feel like it just ended though.......I wasn't expecting that to be it.

I enjoyed the entire book

The book got down to the nuts and bolts of a truly believable poor southern family. I loved the narration.


It was one of the best I have listened to.

A solid 4

Great story of families with all its trappings. Growing up in the south, that’s Florida when it use to be south…the story had a truthful ring. Life is always full of surprise’s some you want and some you could have done without but that’s the truth of most families they’re yours and you can’t trade them so you make do.

I had a traditional family but there were certainly times that marked time and you weren’t sure how you knew that that time would again manifest but you paid attention because you knew it was important for a later day. But if you wait long enough you’ll find out.

Love and laughter, tears and fears, heart ache and grief, Gods domain.
We, or at least I, am still thankful for the life it all made, mine.
The writer has a gift that will only get better and I’ll read something else she wrote just for a comparison!
Try this book and enjoy the characters. And don’t let the dialect put you off. Back at the turn of the century many Floridians spoke in similar fashion and if Kentucky was anything like Georgia or Alabama? It was pretty rough around the grammar. The big difference in the southern drag was if you lived in the City or the country. I wasn’t born until after mid 1900’s but I had plenty of kin that had come from both. It’s still in Florida if you meet the ones who’ve been there since the 1800’s (?), the drawl is as strong as ever.

Enjoyed the book. I reserve 5 stars for exceptional books, and hard to compete with but this book is a solid 4!