Talking Bones - Couverture souple

Talking Bones is set in Ancestor’s Books & Breakfast, a half empty bookstore in a small Southern town, where three generations of women, Ruth, her daughter Baybay and her grand daughter Eila, hear the ancestors through a broken hearing aid, whispers in the dark and in talking bones. The ancestors bring a message about love, faith and family. Ruth, the matriarch, needs to settle her affairs before she dies. She interprets the voices she hears as those of the ancestors guiding her. Baybay wants to be free of her mother’s traditions. Eila, tries to build a bridge between the two women while creating a place for new rituals and new beginnings. It’s a complex journey for all, but in the end, the ancestors can be heard whispering – joyous and hopeful.

Shay Youngblood is the author of the novels Black Girl in Paris, Winter Prophet, Black Power Barbie and a collection of short fiction, The Big Mama Stories. Her plays, Amazing Grace, Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery, and Talking Bones, have been widely produced. Her other plays include Flying Blind, Square Blues and Communism Killed My Dog. She has worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in the eastern Caribbean, as an au pair, artist's model, and poet's helper in Paris, and as a creative writing instructor in a Rhode Island women's prison. She was a Japan U.S. Friendship Commission, Creative Artist Fellow (2011) and Dallas Museum of Art, Writer in Residence (2013).