A WOMAN OF ENDURANCE

A thoroughly engaging narration by Tracey Leigh re-creates the depravity rampant in the Puerto Rican slave trade in the nineteenth century. Leigh's voice is clear, her Spanish diction is exceptional, and her pacing and tone bring life to the period and the large cast. Pola, a young African woman, is captured and sent to a Puerto Rican plantation to be a breeder. With an impressive range of voices, Leigh's descriptions of the Middle Passage are harrowing. She captures Pola's despair as she experiences continual rape, inhumane conditions, and babies ripped from her arms at birth. Sold to another plantation, Pola finds kindness among her fellow slaves. In this harrowing story of unspeakable cruelty and the triumph of the human spirit, Leigh doesn't miss a nuance. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2022]