Length1h 13m
About this audiobook
Left Blood. Right Brain. — Volume One: Born in War is a Poetic Cinema memoir about a boy growing up inside a changing New York City and the two survival languages that gradually develop within him.
Vernon is Left Blood—memory, compassion, family, love, grief, and the part of himself that continues reaching toward humanity. Benson is Right Brain—observation, strategy, pattern recognition, awareness, and the protector shaped by experience. They are not two personalities. They are two responses within one human being learning how to survive the same world.
Beginning in the Bronx and moving into Washington Heights, Born in War follows childhood, family, immigration, neighborhood culture, music, friendship, poverty, changing streets, and the education that happens outside a classroom. The flower growing through concrete becomes the memoir’s central image: roots as ancestry and memory, petals as experience, storms as hardship, and sunlight as hope.
Audiobook details
GenreBiography and Memoir
Length1 hr 13 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateSep 22, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1A Poetic Cinema Memoir
26Chapter Three
2To my mother...
27Others were Puerto Rican.
3BEFORE YOU ENTER THIS GARDEN
28Some spoke of islands.
4From the streets of New York...
29As neighbors.
5WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK
30Life introduces them by stories.
Show all chaptersShow less
6Photographs fade.
31But I noticed.
7Through music floating from apartment windows.
32Merengue from another.
8Longer than my name.
33Voices.
9One remembers.
34The smell of summer after rain.
10One feels.
35Chapter Five
11A Poetic Cinema Memoir
36When the Neighborhood Began Speaking
12It is Benson.
37A quiet nod.
13Dates.
38A neighborhood.
14Learning.
39Every block another chapter.
15What I survived.
40Childhood protects us that way.
16HOW TO READ THIS MEMOIR
41Chapter Six
17THE WITNESS
42About friends.
18Some inherit wealth.
43Some with hard work.
19The relief of laughter after a difficult day.
44Some with businesses.
20Chapter One (Continued)
45Only curiosity.
21Not all at once.
46Chapter Seven
22Chapter Two
47The Education No School Could Teach
23Washington Heights.
48Patterns.
24Through conversation.
49Chapter Eight
25Through arguments.
50Where laughter echoed.
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