The Price of a Child

WithPrice of a Child--the story of Ginnie Pryor (cook, mistress and servant to a Virginia planter) and her struggle with slavery in 1855--Cary continues has created a work that elevates the reputation she created withBlack Ice, her memoir which won her comparisons to Maya Angelou and Richard Wright. In a novel that examines the price of freedom and the value of a child's life,Price of a Childis "a stunning achievement...a deeply engrossing story.... Cary's impeccable research and seamless narrative carry us along" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Lorene Cary’s new novel <b>Pride</b> (Nan A. Talese/ Doubleday, 1998; Anchor 1999) is told in the voices of four friends–“subtle, idiosyncratic characters...whose personalities seem utterly, and affectingly, distinctive,” according to <i>The New York Times Book Review</i>. It also praises the book’s ability to shift “between the staccato directness of black slang and the more formal cadences of standard English....”<br><br><b>The Price of A Child</b> has been selected as the first city-wide One Book, One Philadelphia<b> </b>choice. The novel traces one woman’s escape from slavery and brings alive Philadelphia’s Underground Railroad history. A <i>New York Times</i><b> </b>reviewer called the writer “a powerful storyteller, fra