The Chosen One, Echo Brown
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The Chosen One
A First-Generation Ivy League Odyssey

Author: Echo Brown

Narrator: Echo Brown, Joniece Abbott-Pratt

Unabridged: 9 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/04/2022


Synopsis

This memoir filled with “overwhelming emotions and power” (The Mary Sue) testifies to the disappointments and triumphs of a Black first-generation college student in this exploration of the first-year experience.

There are many watchers and they are always white. That’s the first thing Echo notices as she settles into Dartmouth College. Despite graduating high school in Cleveland as valedictorian, Echo immediately struggles to keep up in demanding classes. Dartmouth made many promises it couldn't keep. The campus is not a rainbow-colored utopia where education lifts every voice. Nor is it a paradise of ideas, an incubator of inclusivity, or even an exciting dating scene. But it might be a portal to different dimensions of time and space—only accessible if Echo accepts her calling as a Chosen One and takes charge of her future by healing her past. This remarkable challenge demands vulnerability, humility, and the conviction to ask for help without sacrificing self-worth.

In mesmerizing personal narrative and magical realism, Echo Brown confronts mental illness, grief, racism, love, friendship, ambition, self-worth, and belonging as they steer the fates of first-generation college students on Dartmouth’s campus. The Chosen One is an unforgettable coming-of-age story that bravely unpacks the double-edged college transition—as both catalyst for old wounds and a fresh start. 

Author Bio

Echo Brown is a storyteller from Cleveland, Ohio, who strives to inspire and provoke. She is a multi-talented artist who has written a celebrated one woman show, speeches for celebrities, and two critically acclaimed novels. Her debut novel, Black Girl Unlimited, and her sophomore novel, The Chosen One, have been covered in The New York Times, NPR, Esquire, and elsewhere. As a novelist, Echo writes mold-breaking, autobiographical young adult fiction that is infused with magical realism. She is currently based in Cleveland, Ohio, after relocating from Paris, France.

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