More African American Fiction

 

Yellow Wife is a novel by Sadeqa Johnson. Pheby Delores Brown was born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia and lives a sheltered life. She is shielded by her mother’s position as the estate’s medicine woman and is cherished by the Master’s sister. This sets her apart from the others on the plantation, belonging to neither the white nor the black world. She was promised freedom on her eighteenth birthday, but instead of the idyllic life she had imagined with her true love, she is forced to leave the only home she has ever known. Pheby unexpectedly finds herself thrust into the vileness of slavery at the infamous Devil’s Half Acre, a jail in Richmond where the enslaved are broken, tortured, and sold on a daily basis. There she is not only exposed to her jailer’s cruelty, but also to his contradictions. If Pheby wants to survive, she’ll have to outwit him, even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice.

Luster is the debut novel of writer Raven Leilani. Edie is like most people in their twenties—listlessly going through life, clocking in and out of her admin job, and making a series of questionable sexual choices. She occasionally gives heat and air to the art that is burning inside of her. Edie then meets Eric, a digital archivist with a family in New Jersey. Eric’s wife has agreed to an open marriage—with rules. When Edie finds herself unemployed, she receives an invitation to Eric’s home, but not by Eric. She becomes an uneasy ally to Eric’s wife and a de facto role model to his adopted daughter. This is a haunting depiction of how hard it is to believe in your own self-worth and of the unexpected influences that help us to become ourselves.

Fifty Words for Rain is a novel by Asha Lemmie. Eight-year-old Noriko “Nori” Kamiza’s first lesson is this: “Do not question, do not fight, do not resist.” She is the product of her married mother’s affair with an African American GI and, as such, considered a pariah to her aristocratic grandparents.  So, Nori will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents’ imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her skin tone. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life despite her natural curiosity and intellect. That changes, however, when her older half-brother Akira comes to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him an unlikely ally with whom she forms a powerful bond. Their formidable grandparents cannot allow this bond, however, because it will forever change the lives they were meant to lead. But now that Nori has had a taste of a world in which there is actually a place for her, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—even if it costs her everything.

Butterfly: Book 3 is by Ashley Antoinette."The hardest thing Morgan Atkins has ever done is let go of love. After losing Messiah, she never thought she’d find someone who understood her again. Until she reunited with Ahmeek Harris and their friendship quickly transformed into something deeper, but there was one problem... she was engaged to a man she didn’t love and he’s holding a deadly secret over her head. If that wasn’t enough, her long lost love Messiah returned to claim her as his own. Three men plus one woman equals inevitable heartbreak. Morgan wants to follow her heart and take the risk of a lifetime, but she risks destroying her family in the process. Will Morgan enter a loveless marriage? Or will Messiah and Ahmeek fix their brotherhood and work together to save the woman they both love?" (from Amazon.com)