Seven Black Birds

How do you reclaim your life after an abusive marriage? By turns humorous, scandalous, and lyrical, Seven Blackbirds follows Kimberly Baltakis as she stumbles along the road toward wholeness, briefcase in one hand, diaper bag in the other.

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Autographed copies may be obtained by sending a check for $17.00 (includes domestic shipping and handling) to:
Four Elk Press
P.O. Box  25741
Portland, Oregon 97298

 
Click Here to listen to Chapter 1 as read by the author, Helen Black

Click Here to listen to Chapter 19 as read by the author, Helen Black

Click Here to listen to Helen Black on KBOO Radio Interview in Portland, Oregon

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 The Author

Helen Black is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College , University of Chicago , and the University of Tulsa College of Law. She lives in Portland , Oregon with her husband and five children.

 The Reviews

 Helen Winslow Black’s novel Seven Blackbirds  opens with a gut-wrenching scene of a young mother beaten by her husband while she holds her infant in her arms.  Kim Baltakis’s narrative of her journey from abused wife to independent woman is told with intelligence and dexterity. This is tough material, but Black’s control of tone never falters. Seven Blackbirds is rich in memorable characters and vivid settings—from Kim’s single-mother flat in Tulsa , Oklahoma to her family’s waterfront vacation house in Wisconsin . 

Well-educated, well-bred—a cellist as well as a lawyer–Kim is not your typical victim, just as her husband, Larry, does not fit the stereotype of an abusive husband.  Yet that is Black’s point exactly.  The novel explores the complexities behind Kim’s compelling story, and gives the reader fresh insight into the dynamics of domestic abuse.    

–Corinne Demas

Professor of English, Mount Holyoke College

Author of Eleven Stories High: 
Growing Up in the Stuyvesant Town , 1948–1968