Thirteen year old Anniston Harlan and her family live on
and operate a pecan orchard in Bay Spring, Alabama. A well
-known and longtime family of the area, they are looked up
to by the other residents. Anni lives in town with her
mother Oralee and father Rey. On the orchard grounds live
her grandmother Princella and grandfather Vaughn. Her aunt
Comfort lives in a small house not far from the main house
and has just announced her engagement to her boyfriend,
Solly, at the thanksgiving dinner, enraging her brother
Cole.
Anni's uncle Cole has always caused dissension within
the family and has always been favored and protected by her
grandmother. Princella was pregnant with Cole and deserted
by his father while in college. Vaughn, always taken with
Princella, stepped in and raised Cole as his own. Comfort
arrives bloody and hysterical at Anni's house with Cole
close on her heels. A fight ensues, with the brothers
shooting each other dead. This begins the isolation of her
aunt and the secrets that have been covered for generations,
secrets involving incest and its unbearable pain. Meeting
Jed Manon, a foster kid, is the beginning of Anni's healing
as he reveals his abuse with the foster family, which shows
her that she isn't alone. When Jed is feared dead and the
truth about her grandmother's history is known, Anni is
faced again with her need to search for that "normal" family
she desires.
HOW SWEET THE SOUND is a heart-rending tale of a young
girl striving for understanding of her very dysfunctional
family. While trying to deal with the death of her father
and a new young love, Anni's family history comes back to
haunt her. Faith in God, hope, and the will to move on are
lessons this young girl must learn. This is such a sweet,
nostalgic story of the south with many twists and turns
throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed HOW SWEET THE SOUND and
couldn't put it down until I had turned the very last page.
I have never read any works by Amy K Sorrells, but can't
express enough the depth in which she writes.
From a distance, the Harlans appear to be the perfect
Southern family. Wealth and local fame mask the drama and
dysfunction swirling through their family line. But as the
summer heats up, a flood tide of long hidden secrets surface.
Devastation from a rape followed by the murder of two
family members brings three generations of the Harlans
together on their pecan plantation in Bay Spring, Alabama.
Chief among them is Anniston, who by the time she turned
thirteen thought she’d seen it all. But as her heart
awakens to the possibility of love, she begins to deal with
her loneliness and grief.
This tender coming-of-age tale, inspired by the story of
Tamar in 2 Samuel 13, shows how true healing and hope comes
only from God. Though our earthly family can wound and
disappoint, our heavenly Father brings freedom to those
long held captive through His mercy and grace.
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