Carrie’s Song

CARRIE’S SONG by Dale Marie Taylor is a sweeping historical novel set in 1890’s Nashville. Thirty years after slavery, blacks still face lynching, inequity, and prejudice. Then, there’s the caste system within their own community, depending on how dark or light their skin. Carrie is a talented musician at Fisk University, studying under W.E.B. Du Bois, and attending rallies where Ida B. Tarbell speaks on the subjects of women’s suffrage and lynching. As she falls in love with Edward Smith, her younger sister falls in love with a white man, the catalyst for even more trouble. The historical complexities are meticulously researched and detailed, and the weaving of the tumultuous change and how it affects daily life is skilled. The novel ends on a cliffhanger, as this is the first book in Taylor’s The Flight of the Heart Series.