Gin Hammond's Debut Historical Fiction Novel, Returning the Bones

RETURNING THE BONES BookHeadshot_8220 (2) - Copy copy

How do you choose between your country, your people, and yourself?

Do you fight for change or get out while you can?

1946. Bebe Hammond, a shy bookworm with a wild imagination yearns to find her own voice in the world, but is held captive by the expectations of her family and the realities of the Jim Crow south. When faced with an odds-defying opportunity, does she risk her life in the fight for Civil Rights, or abandon her home, and fiancé, and flee to Paris to live a life she’s always dreamed of? Returning the Bones is a novel that will transport you through many miles, perspectives, and epiphanies.

Returning the Bones is an epic, globe-trotting adventure inspired by Gin’s aunt Caroline (aka Bebe), an African American, barrier-breaking doctor from the small town of Bryan, Texas, who was determined to lead a quiet life as a librarian, until a life-altering family tragedy forced her to choose whether to follow in her father’s footsteps and take over his role as a civil right crusader or to at last pursue her own deferred dreams. Returning the Bones is also a love letter to the role of historically black universities in African American history, and an ode to the passionate romance she fought for despite her family’s objections.

The main question the book raises is: How do you choose between your people, your country, and yourself? In other words, when your country is at its ugliest, do you fight for the country you wish it to be, or do you abandon it and the people who feel like home, and save yourself by leaving it all behind? Is it actually even possible to leave it all behind, or do we become homeless within our own skin when we do? The book also brings up how having the ability to choose is a privilege, and that due to dire circumstances, some people never get the chance to decide for themselves.

Asked why she felt compelled to write her aunt’s story, Hammond said: “I think it’s important to tell my aunt’s story because most of us, eventually, face hard choices at some point in our lives around existential questions such as, ‘How do I choose between my people, my country, and myself?’”

The book was originally written as a play, which has been performed at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, The Book-It Repertory in Seattle, and the Summer Play Festival (SPF) in Seattle.

About the Author

Gin Hammond is a graduate of Harvard University and Moscow Art Theatre. She has performed nationally and internationally at theaters such as the Guthrie, the Long Wharf Theatre, and the Studio Theatre in Washington, DC, where she won a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress. A certified associate teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework™, Hammond teaches voice, voiceover, public speaking, and dialect coaching.

For Hammond, art somewhat imitated life. Hammond’s father was a dentist who hoped that she would one day take over his practice. She spent summer breaks as her father’s dental assistant but would sneak off during the school year to perform in school plays. Upon being accepted to the American Repertory Theater Institute at Harvard, Hammond called her family and said, “I’m going to Harvard!” to which they responded, “For what?”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S AUNT, CAROLINE BEATRICE HAMMOND MONTIER (BEBE)
Bebe was a pioneer in her field, worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, was among the first African American women to helm a hospital, received a degree in psychiatry from Yale, and was invited to President Obama’s first inauguration.