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Start giftingThe Seamstress of New Orleans
This audiobook uses AI narration.
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Learn moreThe year 1900 ushers in a new century and the promise of social change, and women rise together toward equality. Yet rules and restrictions remain, especially for women like Alice Butterworth, whose husband has abruptly disappeared. Desperate to make a living for herself and the child she carries, Alice leaves Chicago far behind, offering sewing lessons at a New Orleans orphanage.
Constance Halstead, a young widow, has thrown herself into charitable work. Meeting Alice at the orphanage, she offers lodging in exchange for Alice's help creating a gown for the Leap Year ball of Les Mysterieuses, the first all female krewe of Mardi Gras. During Leap Years, women have the rare opportunity to take control in their interactions with men, and upend social convention. Piece by piece, the breathtaking gown takes shape, becoming a symbol of strength for both women.
But Constance carries a burden that makes it impossible to feel truly free. Her husband, Benton, whose death remains a dangerous mystery, was deep in debt to the Black Hand, the vicious gangsters who controlled New Orleans's notorious Storyville district. Benton's death has not satisfied them. And as the Mardi Gras festivities reach their fruition, a secret emerges that will cement the bond between Alice and Constance even as it threatens the lives they're building . . .
Diane C. McPhail is an artist, a minister, and the acclaimed author of Follow the Stars Home, The Abolitionist's Daughter, and The Seamstress of New Orleans, which was a finalist for the Thomas Wolf Fiction Award and the Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters Award. A graduate of Ole Miss, Duke Writers, University of Iowa Distance, and the Yale Writers' Conference, she is a member of NC Writers Network and the Historical Novel Society. She was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, only miles from the Mississippi River and now lives in Highlands, North Carolina, with her husband and dog.
Jessica Marchbank is a classically trained vocalist based in Bloomington, Indiana. She spends her days working for a national reproductive justice nonprofit organization, and her nights in her professional home studio bringing stories to life with her clear, warm voice and energetic spirit. Jessica has an unbridled enthusiasm for long hours at the microphone and a fanatical attention to detail which she brings to every project.