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    Tomorrow's Bread
    Tomorrow's Bread
    Tomorrow's Bread
    Audiobook8 hours

    Tomorrow's Bread

    Written by Anna Jean Mayhew

    Narrated by Allyson Johnson

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    In 1961 Charlotte, North Carolina, the predominantly black neighborhood of Brooklyn is a bustling city within a city. Self-contained and vibrant, it has its own restaurants, schools, theaters, churches, and night clubs. There are shotgun shacks and poverty, along with well-maintained houses like the one Loraylee Hawkins shares with her young son, Hawk, her Uncle Ray, and her grandmother, Bibi. Loraylee's love for Archibald Griffin, Hawk's white father and manager of the cafeteria where she works, must be kept secret in the segregated South.

    Loraylee has heard rumors that the city plans to bulldoze her neighborhood, claiming it's dilapidated and dangerous. The government promises to provide new housing and relocate businesses. But locals like Pastor Ebenezer Polk, who's facing the demolition of his church, know the value of Brooklyn does not lie in bricks and mortar. Generations have lived, loved, and died here, supporting and strengthening each other. Yet street by street, longtime residents are being forced out. And Loraylee, searching for a way to keep her family together, will form new alliances-and find an unexpected path that may yet lead her home.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateMar 26, 2019
    ISBN9781684417797
    Author

    Anna Jean Mayhew

    Anna Jean (A.J.) Mayhew’s first novel, The Dry Grass of August, won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, and was a finalist for the Book Award from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. She has been writer-in-residence at Moulin à Nef Studio Center in Auvillar, France, and was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the North Carolina Writers' Network. A native of Charlotte, NC, A.J. has never lived outside the state, although she often travels to Europe with her Swiss-born husband. Her work reflects her vivid memories of growing up in the segregated South. A.J.—a mother and grandmother—now lives in a small town in the North Carolina Piedmont with her husband and their French-speaking cat.

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    Reviews for Tomorrow's Bread

    4.5/5

    23 ratings5 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Anna Jean Mayhew's latest novel, TOMORROW'S BREAD, is a work of southern fiction that pulls quietly, persistently at the heart. The story's time is 1961, the setting an almost all black community nestled within the greater city of Charlotte, North Carolina, known as Brooklyn, a self-sufficient, thriving, close knit neighborhood where families have lived for generations.

      Times are changing, progress is on the march and with it comes the idea that Brooklyn is not good for Charlotte. "Blight" is the word used to describe the area, yet for those who only know it as home, it is their safe haven. Houses are to be torn down, residents moved from the only place they've ever lived, and their sense of unity, belonging, is sure to be broken. It is shocking, what will they do? Where will they go? Mayhew perfectly captures the essence of how this must seem to the inhabitants with this quote at the beginning of one of her chapters. It is from Langston Hughes who said, "Misery is when you heard on the radio that the neighborhood you live in is a slum, but you always thought it was home."

      From the very first page, I was eager to spend time with Loraylee Hawkins, her young, bi-racial son, Hawk, her grandmother, Bibi, and Uncle Ray, the pastor Eben Polk, and all the rest, because they were realistic, and became characters I cared about. Mayhew has given us a wonderful, original account of a time that reminded me of another place similar to Brooklyn, the small community known as Soul City in Warren County NC. Mayhew's TOMORROWS' BREAD is a story that is pertinent even today, a distinctive work at once engaging and provocative.
    • 4/5
      I received a digital ARC from NetGalley ages ago and finally got around to reading it. I'm glad I did - it was a well written story full of hope, history and interesting characters. I loved The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew and encourage anyone who enjoyed it to read this as well.
    • 3/5
      The cover of this book is what made me want to read it. I did not even read to see what the book was about. The story was kind of slow starting out, but not to the point of wanting to put it down. If your looking for a lite, easy read this is it. Its just a story, nothing suspenseful or exciting to keep you on the edge of your seat but the story itself was good. Sometimes it's just nice to read a story that is like sitting down with a new friend and having them tell you about there life. That's what I felt with this one. The characters where all like able and I really felt like I wanted to get to know them better.I gave it 3 stars
    • 5/5
      In the early 60s, many large cities started a plan called urban renewal - it was a way to make space for the new large buildings that they planned in the future. In many places, urban renewal meant displacement of the people who lived in the neighborhoods that were being destroyed to make way for the future. Tomorrow's Bread is about urban renewal in Charlotte, NC, where an entire area was wiped out called Brooklyn. The residents of Brooklyn were mostly black and poor but they had a community of friends and a pride in their area that had existed there since the end of the civil war. This story is told from three viewpoints - Loraylee who lives in a home with her mother, her uncle and her son. She is in love with the white manager of the cafeteria she works at and he is the father of her son - something that had to stay secret during this time. Pastor Ebenezer Polk is the leader of a church that will be demolished with a graveyard that must be moved. There is also a white viewpoint from the wife of one of the men on the planning board who are in charge of the demolition of Brooklyn. She feels the wrongness but knows that there is little she can do. With these three divergent voices, we learn about how urban renewal will affect the families of the people who have lived in Brooklyn for generations. I especially enjoyed the life journey that Loraylee was on. She worked full time, took care of her son and her senile mother but still tried to do the best she could for her neighbors and friends. She knew that leaving Brooklyn would be difficult because generations had lived there and supported each other through the years. This was a well-written, well-researched novel about a little known area of Charlotte, NC in the 1960s. After I finished the book, I wanted more information about it and found several interesting articles. I love it when I enjoy a book and also learn about a part of history that I had no idea happened. This is one of those books - you will love these characters and ache with them as they leave their old lives behind and work to create new lives in areas very different from the life they've always known.Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
    • 5/5
      I can't say anything about this touching book because the last Langston Hughes poem in it says it all:"Misery is when you heard on the radio that the neighborhood that you live in is a slum but you always thought it was home", Langston Hughes.