Tayvie's Story (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781953686367)

Chicago, IL - December 1923

Terrified, racing from an irate shopkeeper who has accused her of stealing, her comatose mother sprawled in a dark hallway, four-year-old Tayvie Jackson falls asleep while hiding in a car. Hours later, Tayvie, who understands almost no English, awakens many miles from a home she barely knew. Forced to live with deceitful relatives during the Depression in the Jim Crow south, Tayvie and her adopted mother later escape, hoping to build on young Tayvie's fledgling career as a jazz singer.

In 1938, Tayvie innocently signs a six-month contract to appear at the Moulin Rouge in Paris. Almost immediately, distorted allegations erupt surrounding her involvement with the historically devastating Kristallnacht, the propaganda broadcasts called Charlie and His Orchestra, and the elite Nazi playgrounds in Berlin and Paris, all of which force her into a demoralizing relationship with a strategic member of Hitler's most despised inner clique, Dr. Joseph Goebbels.

An extraordinary coming-of-age journey of a talented, young, biracial jazz singer, who struggles to perfect her craft on two continents during the volatile 1930s & '40s despite appalling circumstances.