Balm: A Novel
(OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen)
The New York Times bestselling author of Wench returns to the Civil War era to explore the next chapter of history—the trauma of the War and the end of slavery—in this powerful story of love and healing about three people who struggle to overcome the pain of the past and define their own future.
The Civil War has ended, and Madge, Sadie, and Hemp have each come to Chicago in search of a new life.
Born with magical hands, Madge has the power to discern others' suffering, but she cannot heal her own damaged heart. To mend herself and help those in need, she must return to Tennessee to face the women healers who rejected her as a child.
Sadie can commune with the dead, but until she makes peace with her father, she, too, cannot fully engage her gift.
Searching for his missing family, Hemp arrives in this northern city that shimmers with possibility. But redemption cannot be possible until he is reunited with those taken from him.
In the bitter aftermath of a terrible, bloody war, as a divided nation tries to come together once again, Madge, Sadie, and Hemp will be caught up in a desperate, unexpected battle for survival in a community desperate to lay the pain of the past to rest.
Beautiful in its historical atmosphere and emotional depth, Balm is a stirring novel of love, loss, hope, and reconciliation set during one of the most critical periods in American history.
If you are having problem transferring a title to your device, please fill out this support form or visit the library so we can help you to use our eBooks and eAudio Books.
Dolen Perkins-Valdez. (2015). Balm: A Novel. Unabridged HarperAudio.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Dolen Perkins-Valdez. 2015. Balm: A Novel. HarperAudio.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Balm: A Novel. HarperAudio, 2015.
MLA Citation (style guide)Dolen Perkins-Valdez. Balm: A Novel. Unabridged HarperAudio, 2015.
| Library | Owned | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Digital Collection | 1 | 0 |
OverDrive Product Record
- images
- cover:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0293-1/{C5C54B94-C677-4A00-AED3-464D7554986D}Img100.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- thumbnail:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0293-1/{C5C54B94-C677-4A00-AED3-464D7554986D}Img200.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- cover150Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0293-1/C5C/54B/94/{C5C54B94-C677-4A00-AED3-464D7554986D}Img150.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- cover300Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0293-1/C5C/54B/94/{C5C54B94-C677-4A00-AED3-464D7554986D}Img400.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- cover:
- formats
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780062395160
- name: OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
- id: audiobook-mp3
- identifiers:
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780062395160
- name: OverDrive Listen
- id: audiobook-overdrive
- identifiers:
- mediaType
- Audiobook
- primaryCreator
- role: Author
- name: Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- title
- Balm
- dateAdded
- 2016-03-25T12:43:00-04:00
- contentDetails
- href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=2206198
- type: text/html
- account:
- name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
- id: 1151
- sortTitle
- Balm A Novel
- crossRefId
- 2206198
- subtitle
- A Novel
- id
- c5c54b94-c677-4a00-aed3-464d7554986d
- starRating
- 3
OverDrive MetaData
- isPublicDomain
- False
- formats
- duration: 09:14:41
- fileName: Balm_9780062395160_2206198
- partCount: 8
- fileSize: 266306174
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780062395160
- rights:
- type: PlayOnPC
- value: 1
- type: PlayOnPCCount
- value: -1
- type: BurnToCD
- value: 1
- type: BurnToCDCount
- value: -1
- type: PlayOnPM
- value: 1
- type: TransferToSDMI
- value: 1
- type: TransferToNonSDMI
- value: 1
- type: TransferCount
- value: -1
- type: CollaborativePlay
- value: 0
- type: PublicPerformance
- value: 0
- type: TranscodeToAAC
- value: 1
- name: OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
- isReadAlong: False
- id: audiobook-mp3
- onSaleDate: 5/26/2015
- samples:
- source: Part 1
- formatType: audiobook-mp3
- url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-425/0293-1/2206198-Balm.mp3
- source: Part 1
- formatType: audiobook-overdrive
- url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=C5C54B94-C677-4A00-AED3-464D7554986D&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
- duration: 09:14:44
- fileName: Balm9780062395160
- partCount: 0
- fileSize: 266272387
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780062395160
- name: OverDrive Listen
- isReadAlong: False
- id: audiobook-overdrive
- onSaleDate: 5/26/2015
- samples:
- source: Part 1
- formatType: audiobook-mp3
- url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-425/0293-1/2206198-Balm.mp3
- source: Part 1
- formatType: audiobook-overdrive
- url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=C5C54B94-C677-4A00-AED3-464D7554986D&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
- creators
- role: Author
- fileAs: Perkins-Valdez, Dolen
- bioText:
Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Wench. In 2011 she was a finalist for two NAACP Image Awards and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for fiction. She was also awarded the First Novelist Award by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She lives in Washington, D.C. @Dolen / dolenperkinsvaldez.com
- name: Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- role: Narrator
- fileAs: Pitts, Lisa Renee
- name: Lisa Renee Pitts
- imprint
- HarperAudio
- publishDate
- 2015-05-26T00:00:00-04:00
- edition
- Unabridged
- isOwnedByCollections
- True
- title
- Balm
- fullDescription
The New York Times bestselling author of Wench returns to the Civil War era to explore the next chapter of history—the trauma of the War and the end of slavery—in this powerful story of love and healing about three people who struggle to overcome the pain of the past and define their own future.
The Civil War has ended, and Madge, Sadie, and Hemp have each come to Chicago in search of a new life.
Born with magical hands, Madge has the power to discern others' suffering, but she cannot heal her own damaged heart. To mend herself and help those in need, she must return to Tennessee to face the women healers who rejected her as a child.
Sadie can commune with the dead, but until she makes peace with her father, she, too, cannot fully engage her gift.
Searching for his missing family, Hemp arrives in this northern city that shimmers with possibility. But redemption cannot be possible until he is reunited with those taken from him.
In the bitter aftermath of a terrible, bloody war, as a divided nation tries to come together once again, Madge, Sadie, and Hemp will be caught up in a desperate, unexpected battle for survival in a community desperate to lay the pain of the past to rest.
Beautiful in its historical atmosphere and emotional depth, Balm is a stirring novel of love, loss, hope, and reconciliation set during one of the most critical periods in American history.
- reviews
- premium: True
- source:
- content: Lisa Renee Pitts narrates this moving audiobook with a deliberate pace and arduously precise pronunciation. Although her tempo doesn't enliven the production, it may be fitting for the story of three people who strive to find their identities amid difficult circumstances in post-Civil-War Chicago. Sadie is a white woman who is widowed immediately after her unhappy marriage to a near stranger. Pitts portrays her without embellishment, except for her near hysteria as she discovers her ability to communicate with the dead. Pitts provides more depth for Madge, an unsophisticated free black woman from Tennessee with a gift for healing, and Hemp, a former Kentucky slave who is seeking his lost wife. As their lives intertwine, they begin to rely on each other, and their healing begins. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
May 4, 2015
The elegantly crafted second novel from Perkins-Valdez (after Wench) captures the fierce energy, diversity, and suffering of Civil Warâera Chicago. At its heart are three strangersâtwo black, one whiteâwhose lives intersect after each arrives in their new hometown. Expecting to join her new husband in Chicago, Sadie Walker discovers that his sudden death has left her a wealthy widow. Her mourning is briefâher father arranged the unwelcome marriageâbut then the voice of a recently slain Union soldier invades her mind. She uses his intercession to offer séances for the bereaved, hiring a freed black woman named Madge as a servant. Descended from a line of skilled female herbalists, Madge is a gifted healer raised by an unloving mother and aunts. At one of Sadie's séances she meets Hemp Harrison, a freed slave seeking his wife, Annie, who was sold to another owner before abolition. Though Madge and Hemp share a powerful attraction, Annie's unknown fate and the emotional scars from Madge's Tennessee childhood keep them apart. Perkins-Valdez moves gracefully among her three protagonists' viewpoints as they struggle to claim their authentic gifts and free themselves of the pain of their pasts. Her spare, lyrical voice is unsentimental yet compassionate, echoing Madge's belief that "in a land so devastated by death, the best healing balm is hope."
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
December 1, 2014
After the daring "Wench", a "New York Times" best-selling debut about masters and their slave mistresses, Perkins-Valdez travels with three characters to post-Civil War Chicago. Madge intuits the suffering of others but cannot mend herself, Sadie's gift for communing with the dead will fail her if she cannot reconcile with her father, and Hemp won't find happiness until he reunites with his missing family. With a 100,000-copyfirst printing.Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
April 15, 2015
When Madge, a freeborn black woman from Tennessee skilled in the art of making healing ointments, teas, and balms from herbs and bark, takes a maid's position with Sadie, an unhappy, white widow in Chicago who speaks with the dead, both women are hesitant to reveal their secrets, remembering past hurts. The two main male characters are equally troubled. Sadie's doctor friend, Michael, is racked with guilt over not enlisting during the Civil War, and Hemp, a former slave, has to fight off his feelings of attraction to Madge while he searches for his wife, who was sold off before the war. In their individual ways, they are all walking wounded--in need of spiritual soothing. The author deftly weaves her characters' longings with the gritty realities of American life after war's devastations. VERDICT No sophomore slump is in evidence here. Readers who were captivated by Perkins-Valdez's first novel, Wench, will be intrigued by the post-Civil War lives of three Southern transplants to Chicago. [See Prepub Alert, 11/10/14.]--Laurie Cavanaugh, Holmes P.L., Halifax, MA
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
December 1, 2014
After the daring Wench, a New York Times best-selling debut about masters and their slave mistresses, Perkins-Valdez travels with three characters to post-Civil War Chicago. Madge intuits the suffering of others but cannot mend herself, Sadie's gift for communing with the dead will fail her if she cannot reconcile with her father, and Hemp won't find happiness until he reunites with his missing family. With a 100,000-copyfirst printing.
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- popularity
- 190
- links
- self:
- href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/c5c54b94-c677-4a00-aed3-464d7554986d/metadata
- type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json
- self:
- id
- c5c54b94-c677-4a00-aed3-464d7554986d
- starRating
- 3
- images
- cover:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0293-1/{C5C54B94-C677-4A00-AED3-464D7554986D}Img100.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- thumbnail:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0293-1/{C5C54B94-C677-4A00-AED3-464D7554986D}Img200.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- cover150Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0293-1/C5C/54B/94/{C5C54B94-C677-4A00-AED3-464D7554986D}Img150.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- cover300Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0293-1/C5C/54B/94/{C5C54B94-C677-4A00-AED3-464D7554986D}Img400.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- cover:
- isPublicPerformanceAllowed
- False
- languages
- code: en
- name: English
- subjects
- value: Fiction
- value: African American Fiction
- value: Literature
- value: Historical Fiction
- publishDateText
- 05/26/2015
- otherFormatIdentifiers
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780062395160
- mediaType
- Audiobook
- shortDescription
The New York Times bestselling author of Wench returns to the Civil War era to explore the next chapter of history—the trauma of the War and the end of slavery—in this powerful story of love and healing about three people who struggle to overcome the pain of the past and define their own future.
The Civil War has ended, and Madge, Sadie, and Hemp have each come to Chicago in search of a new life.
Born with magical hands, Madge has the power to discern others' suffering, but she cannot heal her own damaged heart. To mend herself and help those in need, she must return to Tennessee to face the women healers who rejected her as a child.
Sadie can commune with the dead, but until she makes peace with her father, she, too, cannot fully engage her gift.
Searching for his missing family, Hemp arrives in this northern city that shimmers with possibility. But redemption cannot be possible until he is reunited with those taken from him.
In the...
- sortTitle
- Balm A Novel
- crossRefId
- 2206198
- subtitle
- A Novel
- publisher
- HarperAudio
- bisacCodes
- code: FIC000000
- description: Fiction / General
- code: FIC014000
- description: FICTION / Historical / General
- code: FIC049040
- description: Fiction / African American & Black / Historical
