The House Girl

Books | Fiction / General

3.6

(237)

Tara Conklin

A stunning New York Times bestselling novel that intertwines the stories of an escaped slave in 1852 Virginia and an ambitious young lawyer in contemporary New York and asks: is it ever too late to right a wrong? Lynnhurst, Virginia, 1852. Seventeen-year-old Josephine Bell decides to run away from the failing tobacco farm where she is a slave and nurse to her ailing mistress, the aspiring artist Lu Anne Bell. New York City, 2004. Lina Sparrow, an ambitious first-year associate in an elite law firm, is given a difficult, highly sensitive assignment that could make her career: finding the “perfect plaintiff” to lead a historic class-action lawsuit worth trillions of dollars in reparations for descendants of American slaves. It is through her father, the renowned artist Oscar Sparrow, that Lina discovers Josephine Bell and a controversy rocking the art world: are the iconic paintings long ascribed to Lu Anne Bell really the work of her house slave, Josephine? A descendant of Josephine’s—if Lina can locate one—would be the perfect face for the reparations lawsuit. While following the runaway house girl’s faint trail through old letters and plantation records, Lina finds herself questioning her own family history and the secrets that her father has never revealed: how did Lina’s mother die? And why will he never speak about her?

Historical Fiction

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More Details:

Author

Tara Conklin

Pages

400

Publisher

Harper Collins

Published Date

2013-02-12

ISBN

1443413550 9781443413558

Ratings

Google: 4.5

Community ReviewsSee all

"Finally made it through...ugh! I really loved the whole idea of this book but man does she drone on and on sometimes. About nothing really. Josephine and Dorothea were the only characters I liked. Lina was a bore. The whole mystery of her mother was not believable. I could’ve read dots letters and Josephine’s part and Caleb’s and been satisfied. This book made me tired every time I read it. Didn’t even get exciting until 3/4 way in, and even then I was underwhelmed. I’m eager to move on to something else."

J O

Jacquie Oermann

"EXCELLENT "

Valley Mom

"Not one of my favorite books but definitely a good book. Parts are very drawn out but I think it was to give alot of detail. The letters are the best part and when Lina quit the firm after what they did. Have a box of tissues ready you will shed more than a few tears. And shame I. Lina’s dad for letting her believe her mom was dead all those years."

Daisy

"Love the dichotomy and connection between two time periods and investigation into history… deeply personal while also very telling of society"

C B

Caroline Brinkman

"Waste of my time. So much informaiton in the book was not pertinant to the story and really didnt add anything. The charachters were not engaging and there were some big stretches in the story. Often when reading I had no idea what the author was getting at. Crappy."