ARTS & CULTURE
CAMBRIDGE EDI T ION
FEMALE WRITERS TAKE CENTRE-STAGE THIS MONTH. HERE ARE EIGHT INSPIRATIONAL READS TO DISCOVER
WORDS BY CHARLOTTE GRIFFITHS
LIBERTIE BY KAITLYN GREENIDGE
what the young woman actually wants? The book is threaded with clenched-jaw moments of racist injustice for Libertie, who faces colourist attitudes on all sides, whether within an all-Black community or treating the white women who seek out her mother’s expertise. Still, she surges forward, reaching for freedom and forging her own life rather than the one her mother has determined on her behalf. Though the book spans decades and travels across America, Greenidge’s skill at writing gives the tale an intimate, familial feeling. Like the homeopathic remedies handed out by Libertie’s mother, this is a tale of seeking balance – between mind and body, dreams and reality, trauma and peace – and mothers and daughters.
This epic book shares the story of Libertie Sampson, a young, free black woman living in Kings County, New York, in the 1860s. We join her finding her own path in the world, climbing out from under her mother’s all-consuming love, which manifests as fierce control of her daughter. Libertie’s mother is a talented doctor, who we meet as she ‘raises a man from the dead,’ awakening him from an induced slumber to escape slavery’s clutches, both literally and psychologically. Libertie doesn’t realise how much she’s in her mother’s thrall and is constantly seeking her approval, studying hard and winning a place at medical school so eventually the pair can work as Dr Sampson and Daughter – but is that
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C A M B S E D I T I O N . C O . U K
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