Gathering of Waters by Bernice McFadden

I've admired words for a very long time. As a child I've spent hours to myself with my thumb in my mouth soaking in characters, scenes, plots, and imagining myself as one of the characters in the story.  But what I love the most is reading a story that gives my words a face. And only a few authors give me that vision.

Bernice L. McFadden does that for me. I see the features of each character as plain as day. And there's no better way to read a story.

Ms. McFadden is hands down my favorite author of my time. She's my Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison rolled up in one. She's an ancestral griot packed into a modern day mind. I have never picked up one of her books and had the need to say..."I bet this is a refurbished plot from a story I read long ago." No! Every one of her books introduces a character you're yet to meet, and a story that is yet to be told.

Gathering of Waters published by Akashic Books is a story narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi. A story narrated by a town? Who better to tell a story, than the town itself?  Money made me cry, laugh, think, imagine, applaud, sigh, and shiver (I looked over my shoulders in fear a few times).  The power of Bernice McFadden's words held me captive. I only put the book down when I had to drive, get off the metro, actually tend to a motion and memo at work, and to sleep. It was captivating. Enchanting. Haunting. Mesmerizing. Historic. All the while inviting you to a taste of history and how it could have possibly occurred.

This latest novel by Bernice L. McFadden is far more than a story being told through the eyes of a town. Its a compilation of the authors mind, inviting us to see how history is relevant. If you didn't know about Emmett Till, you definitely would want to research about him now. She gave him a side that I never imagined him to have. She gave him life. He was just a teenager brutally murdered who sparked the Civil Rights movement. Now! He is a brutally murdered teenage boy who has come to life.

When words in a novel move you to feel passion, dedication and a burning desire to learn...its a novel written beyond its expectation.

You'd have to read it yourself order your copy at Akashic Books and read a story that's going to move you mind, body and spirit.

Beautifully written and worthy of its praises. When history meets fiction the way this story is told...there's no option left but to give a standing ovation.