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Gutter Child
- Narrated by: Phoenix Pagliacci
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
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Gutter Child
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Publisher's Summary
A fierce and heartbreaking debut from FOLD founder Jael Richardson about a young woman with the courage to determine her own future
Imagine a world in which the hopeless and vulnerable are forced to buy their freedom by working off their debt to society. Imagine a world divided into the privileged Mainland and the policed Gutter. In that world lives Elimina Dubois, one of only 100 children selected as a social experiment by the Mainland government to be taken from their mothers in the Gutter and raised in the land of opportunity.
But when her Mainland mother dies when Elimina is just a teenager, Elimina finds herself all alone, forced into an unfamiliar life of servitude, unsure of who she is and where she belongs. When she makes friends with Gutter children, each making their own way through the crushing cycle of the Gutter System in whatever ways they know how, Elimina will discover that the thing she needs more than anything may not be the freedom she imagined after all.
Gutter Child takes us on the journey of a young woman in a fractured world of heartbreaking disadvantages and horrific injustices. Richardson’s Elimina is a modern heroine in an altered but all too recognizable reality, who, must find the strength within herself to determine her own future and defy a system that tries to shape her destiny.
Jael Richardson is the Artistic Director of The FOLD literary festival, the books columnist on CBC Radio’s ‘q’ and an outspoken advocate on issues of diversity. She is the author of The Stone Thrower: A Daughter’s Lesson, a Father’s Life, a memoir based on her relationship with her father, CFL quarterback Chuck Ealey. The book received a CBC Bookie Award and earned Richardson an Acclaim Award and a My People Award as an Emerging Artist. A children’s book called The Stone Thrower was published by Groundwood Books in 2016. Her essay “Conception” is part of Room’s first Women of Colour edition, and excerpts from her first play, my upside down black face, are published in the anthology T-Dot Griots: An Anthology of Toronto’s Black Storytellers. Richardson has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph, and she lives in Brampton, Ontario.
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What listeners say about Gutter Child
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2021-05-15
Ending not good
The ending leaves you completely hanging. So many unanswered questions. Good story and message . I enjoyed the book
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- VL
- 2022-05-10
Dystopian or not??
Characters and story move at a decent clip with interesting events. Not intriguing but interesting nonetheless. The narration sounds juvenile - but maybe that's what they want to portray the young female protagonist.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2023-01-22
speed it up!
recommend listening to it at 1.4x speed minimum. otherwise well done. the story is well written and the characters are well created
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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
- Andrea
- 2022-11-01
A Good stp
I can't wait for the next book hope it go into what happens after her son gets older
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Norman
- 2024-10-11
Hard lessons
This is almost an allegory about the haves and the have-nots.
Although set in a world that is not our own, the story deals with very familiar topics:
Residential schools.
Racism.
Cultural appropriation.
Fake news.
Slavery.
Although none of these phrases are used, the concepts are obvious and chilling.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Farhan Samir
- 2021-04-13
Depressing
The book is woefully depressing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — there are other books that deal with sombre themes and narratives (e.g., the bluest eye) that i enjoyed. But I found every character apart from Josephine and maybe Rowan to be exceedingly dull. I found this a real slog to get through.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- michelle aspden
- 2023-02-28
A Solid Four
This book is a solid four. The story so applies to today. It is well worth the read.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- C. Bermingham
- 2022-04-03
Beautifully written
This book is beautifully written, with real and complex characters, a world built from the colonial realities of our own world, and a story that moved in unexpected directions. Would absolutely recommend!
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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
- Caeli
- 2022-03-26
So powerful, must read!
This book gives such great insight of not too long ago history. The stories depicted are so raw and emotional and the writing truly illustrates the book perfectly. If you’re unsure of what book to read next, look no further.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Pamela J Hansen
- 2022-09-18
Great story
will be looking for more from this author. I can see this being the future if attitudes toward marginalized peoples doesn't change.
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