The Weight of Cloth, by Dee Mallon

South Carolina in the mid-1700s.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello with the WZ Book Club. I'm Jordan Rich. As
you know, it's my pleasure to highlight the work of
great local writers. So here's a new novel by D.
Mallin called The Weight of Cloth. The Weight of Cloth
takes us to South Carolina in the mid seventeen hundreds,
and the story of slavery is told unflinchingly. Stories gleaned
from the letters of Eliza Lucas Pinkney, who as the

(00:20):
teenage daughter of an often absent landowner with an overbearing mother,
to say the least, a young white woman who faces
many a challenge, surviving disease, finding a man to marry,
dealing with the family's slaves, and ultimately a slave rebellion.
The story is based on extensive research. The letters are fictitious,
but along with those of Eliza are the letters of
three slaves, Melody, Julie and Saffron. And that's where and how.

(00:43):
This novel about slavery delivers a devastating punch, multiple storylines
with characters suffering pain and indignities but having the courage
to go on. The book, in my opinion, a masterpiece.
The Weight of Cloth by local novelist D. Mallin, that's
part of the book club right here. On WBZ, Boston's
news radio