Bebe, a bookworm with an outlandish imagination, lives a peculiarly privileged life for a Black girl during the Great Depression. Her fearless father owns a hospital and an array of businesses, making him a keen target of the KKK. Her home life is filled with a panoply of distinctive family members, including a psychic mother, a terrifying “spinster” aunt who’s having a secret affair with the local white sheriff, a renegade librarian aunt, a grandmother who might be the great-great-granddaughter of Alexander Hamilton, and Grandmother Betty, a Cherokee medicine woman who suffers no fools.
Guilt over the death of a beloved family member quenches Bebe’s ability to rebel against her father’s suffocating expectations. A tempestuous relationship with her enigmatic boyfriend, and further challenges—both hilarious and heartbreaking—compound Bebe’s inability to live a life of her own choosing, until an unlikely opportunity in post-war Europe arises. Will Bebe relinquish dreams of being the architect of her own destiny, or abandon everything she’s ever known to reinvent herself in an unfamiliar world?
Returning the Bones explores the question—how do you choose between your country, your people, and yourself?—and brings you on a journey of many miles, perspectives, and epiphanies.
Inspired by actual events.
Visit returningthebones.com for the story of how the book came to be, historical photos and stories of the real life characters, and enjoy interviews with the author. Follow @returningthebones for news about the book, historical facts connected to the book, and info on readings coming to a city near you.
About the Author/Narrator
Gin Hammond is a graduate of Harvard University and Moscow Art Theatre. She has performed nationally and internationally at theatres such as the Guthrie, the Long Wharf Theatre, and the Studio Theatre in Washington, DC, where she won a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress. A certified associate teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework, Hammond teaches voice, voiceover, public speaking, and dialect coaching.
