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My Old True Love
- Narrated by: Kate Forbes
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
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My Old True Love
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Summary
The Stantons and the Nortons were families in the truest, oldest sense: extended networks of kin stretching across the mountains, everyone within hiking distance. They’d come from the British Isles and settled in the Appalachians of North Carolina during the 1700s, bringing with them their dearly loved songs and their clannish ways, their ties to the land ultimately becoming as strong as their ties to one another.
So when Larkin Stanton is left parentless at birth in the 1840s, he is taken in by his cousin Arty Norton and, true to the family way, starts singing before he starts talking. As Larkin grows up, he hungrily learns every song he can, as well as the subtleties of ballad singing: how the songs are about the joys and the horrors of life, and how the best singers can produce a song that will summon tears. Going head-to-head with Arty’s brother, Hackley, the cousins’ competitions to produce the finest song soon spill over into the wooing of the finest girl in the community, Mary.
When Hackley wins Mary and then leaves to fight in the Civil War, Larkin, still too young to enlist, finds himself uncontrollably drawn to the woman who’s held his heart for years. What he does about that love defies all he has learned about family and loyalty - and reminds us that these mournful ballads didn’t come just from the imagination, but from imperfections of the heart.
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What listeners say about My Old True Love
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 23-08-16
Heartwarming
Particularly relevant to
Me after returning from a holiday in a location close the the book setting and having seen the author perform some of the songs at the Whitby Festival. I liked the way that the story was told in the first person and used the vernacular. Not knowing that much about the civil war but aware that there were many battles in Tennessee I was interested
In the perspective of mountain folk, especially the women, that was portrayed in this tale.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cass
- 07-10-19
An engrossing story from a master storyteller
This randomly popped up on a search for a different author, and I'm so glad I took a chance on it. Told in the vernacular with an appropriate accent, this story has a fully fleshed out world and solid characters. The writing is lyrical and captivating - I found myself staying up late to listen to more of it. It feels like you've sat down by an old woman's fireplace and she's telling you a story from her youth. The description makes it sound like a romance, but its so much deeper than that. There's no heaving bosoms here, just relationships and all they entail.
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