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HISTORICAL FICTION BY BLACK AUTHORS February 2024 |
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Harlem shuffle
by Colson Whitehead
A furniture salesman in 1960s Harlem becomes a fence for shady cops, local gangsters and low-life pornographers after his cousin involves him in a failed heist, in the new novel from the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad.
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The personal librarian
by Marie Benedict
Hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library, Belle de Costa Greene becomes one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she keeps.
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One blood
by Denene Millner
Discovering she's adopted, Rae, about to become a mother herself, knows there is an important reckoning that must be faced about herself and her two mothers, in a novel spanning from the Great Migration to the civil unrest of the 1960s to the quest for women's equality in the early 2000s.
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Yonder : a novel
by Jabari Asim
Meeting at Placid Hall, a plantation in an unspecified part of the American South, Cato and Willian, subjected to the whims of their tyrannical and eccentric captor, find their friendship fraying when a visiting pastor fills their heads with ideas about independence and love.
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Take my hand
by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
In 1973 Montgomery, Alabama, Civil Townsend, a young black nurse working for the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, grapples with her role when she takes two young girls into her heart and the unthinkable happens, and nothing will ever be the same for any of them.
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The great Mrs. Elias : a novel
by Barbara Chase-Riboud
The author of the award-winning Sally Hemings now brings to life Hannah Elias, one of the richest black women in America in the early 1900s, in a novel swirling with atmosphere and steeped in history.
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Ramadan Ramsey : a novel
by Louis Edwards
When Ramadan Ramsey, the son of a ninth generation New Orleans African American and a Syrian refugee, turns 17, he sets off to find the father he has never known—an adventure-filled journey filled that takes him from NOLA to Egypt, Istanbul and finally Syria..
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Scattered seed : a novel
by Francine Thomas Howard
Timbuktu, western Africa, 1706. Folashade, the fourteen-year-old daughter of a professor of linguistics, is sent south with her older sisters, Bibi and Adaeze, to endure the painful ceremony that a girl on the cusp of womanhood is expected to. In Djennâeon the banks of the Niger, the sisters' fate and that of their fellow Bambara is changed forever when they're kidnapped, marched toward grueling indignities on Goreâe Island, and eventually hauled aboard an English slaver bound for the Americas. Before they are inevitably separated, Folashade, Bibi, and Adaeze plot to keep their memories alive
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The rib king : a novel
by Ladee Hubbard
Exploited by the white family that took him in as a servant 15 years earlier, a Black orphan becomes tragically enraged by how his employers mindlessly profit from the talents of a hired black cook..
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Palmares
by Gayl Jones
In a world impacted by greed, conquest and colonial desire, Almeyda, a Black slave girl who, after a fugitive slave settlement called Palmares is destroyed, embarks on a life-altering journey across Brazil to find her husband, lost in battle.
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Shallow waters : a novel
by Anita Kopacz
Cast into mid-1800s America, Yemaya, a deity in the religion of Africa's Yoruba people, as she grows into her powers, must confront the greatest evils of this era while searching for the man who sacrificed his own freedom for the chance at hers.
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The book of Harlan
by Bernice L McFadden
Lured across the Atlantic Ocean to perform at a popular cabaret in the Parisian enclave of Montmartre during World War II, African-American musician Harlan and his best friend, Lizard Robbins, are thrown into a concentration camp when the City of Light falls under Nazi occupation, which changes the course of both their lives. .
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Over the fence
by Mary Monroe
Depression-era Southern bootleggers Milton and Yvonne Hamilton discover their neighbors are involved in dubious businesses themselves and threaten to blackmail them in order to hide their own dirty secrets, in the second novel of the series following One House Over.
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Wench : a novel
by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Slave mistresses Lizzie, Reenie and Sweet travel to a resort in Ohio each year with their white masters, until Mawu shows up and encourages the three others to escape, forcing them to choose between freedom and leaving their friends and families--and the emotional and psychological ties that bind them to their masters.
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On the rooftop : a novel
by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
The talk of the Jazz-Era Fillmore, The Salvations—sisters Ruth, Esther and Chloe—find their personal ambitions on a collision course with those of their mother, whose dreams of musical stardom for them forces her to confront the parts of her life that threaten to splinter..
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Look for me and I'll be gone : stories
by John Edgar Wideman
In his sixth story collection, the masterful writer revisits themes that have infused his work for the duration of his career—family, loss, the penal system, Pittsburgh, physical and emotional life, art and memory. .
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Things past telling : a novel
by Sheila Williams
Recalling the last 100-plus years of her triumphant and tumultuous life, the narrator shares how her midwifery skills allowed her to sometimes transcend the racial and class barriers of her enslavement and how she never lost her sense of self..
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The last thing you surrender
by Leonard Pitts
A novel from a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author follows the story of three characters from the Jim Crow south and how their lives are transformed by the events surrounding World War II. Original.
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Another Brooklyn
by Jacqueline Woodson
Torn between the fantasies of her youth and the realities of a life marked by violence and abandonment, August reunites with a beloved old friend who challenges her to reconcile past inconsistencies and come to terms with the difficulties that forced her to grow up too quickly. Reading-group guide available. By a National Book Award-winning author. (general fiction).
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The light always breaks
by Angela Jackson-Brown
"In her distinctive Southern literary style, award-winning author Angela Jackson-Brown delivers a moving story of a star-crossed romance and the way love has the power to change everything"
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Passing
by Nella Larsen
"First published to critical acclaim in 1929, Passing firmly established Nella Larsen's prominence among women writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Passing is a story of two women who cross the color line in 1920s New York - together with a new Introduction by the Obie Award-winning playwright and novelist Ntozake Shange." "Irene Redfield, the novel's protagonist, is a woman with an enviable life. She and her husband, Brian, a prominent physician, share a comfortable Harlem town house with their sons. Her work arranging charity balls that gather Harlem's elite creates a sense of purpose and respectability for Irene. But her hold on this world begins to slip the day she encounters Clare Kendry, a childhood friend with whom she had lost touch. Clare - light-skinned, beautiful, and charming - tells Irene how, after her father's death, she left behind the black neighborhood of her adolescence and began passing for white, hiding her true identity from everyone, including her racist husband. As Clare begins inserting herself into Irene's life, Irene is thrown into a panic, terrified of the consequences of Clare's dangerous behavior. And when Clare witnesses the vibrancy and energy of the community she left behind, her burning desire to come back threatens to shatter her careful deception."--BOOK JACKET
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The nickel boys : a novel
by Colson Whitehead
A follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning, The Underground Railroad, follows the harrowing experiences of two African-American teens at an abusive reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.
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In West Mills : a novel
by De'Shawn Charles Winslow
A woman in mid-20th-century rural North Carolina, determined to live on her own terms in spite of community gossip, finds unexpected support from a veteran fixer who struggles with an inability to correct his own troubled past.
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Black cloud rising : a novel
by David Wright Faladâe
Sergeant Richard Etheridge, the son of a slave and her master, must prove that his troops in the African Brigade are skilled and trustworthy as they raid the areas occupied by the Confederate Partisan Rangers in the fall of 1863.
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X : a novel
by Ilyasah Shabazz
Co-written by the best-selling author of Malcolm Little and daughter of Malcolm X, a novel based her father's formative years describes his father's murder, his mother's imprisonment and his challenging effort to pursue an education in law.
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The awakening of Malcolm X
by Ilyasah Shabazz
A fictionalized account of Malcolm X's adolescent years in prison, written by his daughter and a Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award-winning author, depicts Malcolm Little's struggles with race, politics, religion and justice before his emergence as a civil rights leader.
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Roll of thunder, hear my cry
by Mildred D. Taylor
Young Cassie Logan endures humiliation and witnesses the racism of the KKK as they embark on a cross-burning rampage, before she fully understands the importance her family attributes to having land of their own
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Girls like us
by Randi Pink
In the summer of 1972, three girls from very different backgrounds struggle to come to terms with being pregnant
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For Lamb
by Lesa Cline-Ransome
In 1930s Jackson, Mississippi, quiet, studious and naïve girl Lamb tentatively accepts the friendly overtures of a white girl, which sets in motion a series of events that end in tragedy.
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Let me hear a rhyme
by Tiffany D. Jackson
Three Brooklyn teens plot to turn their murdered friend into a major rap star by pretending he is still alive, in a vibrant standalone novel by the NAACP Image Award-nominated author of Monday's Not Coming.
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All the days past, all the days to come
by Mildred D. Taylor
A long-awaited conclusion to the story that began in the Newbery Medal-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry finds young adult Cassie Logan searching for a sense of belonging before joining the Civil Rights Movement in 1960s Mississippi. .
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Crook manifesto : a novel
by Colson Whitehead
A furniture store owner and ex-grifter leaves the straight and narrow path when he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter in 1971 Manhattan, in the new novel by the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Nickel Boys.
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Island queen : a novel
by Vanessa Riley
A former slave rises above the harsh realities of being owned and colonialism on Montserrat working hard to buy freedom for herself her mother and her sister and becoming an entrepreneur, merchant, hotelier and planter. .
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Sister mother warrior : a novel
by Vanessa Riley
When a war breaks out on Saint Domingue, two extraordinary women—the first Empress of Hair and a West African-born warrior—finally meet and play pivotal roles in the revolution that will eventually lead to full independence for Haiti and its people. .
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The two lives of Sara
by Catherine Adel West
During the racially divided 1960s, a Black young, unwed mother named Sara, working for Mama Sugar at a popular boarding house in Memphis, Tennessee, finds friendship and refuge until secrets from Mama Sugar's are revealed, forcing Sara to make a decision that will reshape the rest of her life. 100,000 first printing.
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Yellow wife : a novel
by Sadeqa Johnson
Born on a plantation, but set apart from the others by her mother’s position as a medicine woman, a young slave is forced to leave home at 18 and unexpectedly finds herself in an infamously cruel jail. 60,000 first printing.
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The vain conversation : a novel
by Anthony Grooms
A novel based on the officially unsolved lynching of two African American couples in Walton County, Georgia, in 1946 examines the crime from the points of view of a victim, a perpetrator, and a ten-year-old witness
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The sweetness of water
by Nathan Harris
"In the waning days of the Civil War, brothers Prentiss and Landry, freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, seek refuge on the homestead of George Walker and his wife, Isabelle. The Walkers, wracked by the loss of their only son to the war, hire the brothers to work their farm, hoping through an unexpected friendship to stanch their grief. Prentiss and Landry, meanwhile, plan to save money for the journey north and a chance to reunite with their mother, who was sold away when they were boys. Parallel to their story runs a forbidden romance between two Confederate soldiers. The young men, recently returned from the war to the town of Old Ox, hold their trysts in the woods. But when their secret is discovered, the resulting chaos, including a murder, unleashes convulsive repercussions on the entire community. In the aftermath of so much turmoil, it is Isabelle who emerges as an unlikely leader, proffering a healing vision for the land and for the newly free citizens of Old Ox"
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Between the devil and the deep blue sea : a novel by Andrâe Lewis CarterIn the early 1970s, Câesar Alvarez enlists in the Navy to escape a life of crime; while the decision saves him from the streets, it also lands him amid volatile racial tensions at a crucial moment in US history
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Let us descend : a novel
by Jesmyn Ward
In the years before the Civil War, Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, struggles through the miles-long march, seeks comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother, opening herself to a world beyond this world.
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Love, honor, betray
by Mary Monroe
With their sham of a marriage in danger, Jessie and Hubert Wiggins, desperately trying to maintain their devout facade and respectable standing, must decide whether or not to reveal the person who might be behind the serial murders plaguing their town, which would risk their own web of lies being exposed.
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Viper's dream : a novel
by Jake Lamar
"Harlem, 1936. Clyde "The Viper" Morton boards a train from Alabama to Harlem to chase his dreams of being a jazz musician. When his talent fails him, he becomes caught up in the dangerous underbelly of Harlem's drug trade. In this heartbreaking novel, one man must decide what he is willing to give up and what he wants to fight for. Viper's Dream is a fast-paced story that is charged with suspense. A snappy, provocative voice and a stark look at Viper's Black American experience weave with endless plot twists to offer readers a stunningly original, achingly beautiful read"
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Empty vows
by Mary Monroe
Popular, generous, forty-something widow Jessie Tucker decides to make herself indispensable to recently widowed Hubert Wiggins but is disappointed when he is not everything she dreamed he would be and instead turns her attentions to a much younger man
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Homeward : a novel
by Angela Jackson-Brown
"Homeward follows Rose's path toward self-discovery and growth as she becomes involved in the Civil Rights Movement, finally becoming the woman she has always dreamed of being"
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Washington Black
by Esi Edugyan
Unexpectedly chosen to be a family manservant, an 11-year-old Barbados sugar-plantation slave is initiated into a world of technology and dignity before a devastating betrayal propels him throughout the world in search of his true self.
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Deacon King Kong : a novel
by James McBride
In the aftermath of a 1969 Brooklyn church deacon's public shooting of a local drug dealer, the community's African-American and Latinx witnesses find unexpected support from each other when they are targeted by violent mobsters. Tour.
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The water dancer : a novel
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
A Virginia slave narrowly escapes a drowning death through the intervention of a mysterious force that compels his escape and personal underground war against slavery. By the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me.
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Mrs. Wiggins
by Mary Monroe
A tale set in the world of the award-winning Mama Ruby series follows the experiences of a woman from an at-risk family who marries a preacher to establish a safer life before discovering her husband’s desperate secret.
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The old drift : a novel
by Namwali Serpell
Three generations of a cursed family traverse from India and Italy to England and ultimately a fantastical Zambia of the near future, where an interstitial Greek chorus of mosquitoes traces their vibrant human experiences as children, parents and grandparents.
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The prophets : a novel
by Robert Jones
Two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation find refuge in each other while transforming a quiet shed into a haven for their fellow slaves, before an enslaved preacher declares their bond sinful. A first novel.
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A mercy
by Toni Morrison
In exchange for a bad debt, an Anglo-Dutch trader takes on Florens, a young slave girl, who feels abandoned by her slave mother and who searches for love--first from an older servant woman at her master's new home, and then from a handsome free blacksmith--in an evocative novel set against late seventeenth-century America, by the Nobel Prize-winning author of Beloved.
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The known world
by Edward P. Jones
When a plantation proprietor and former slave--now possessing slaves of his own--dies, his household falls apart in the wake of a slave rebellion and corrupt underpaid patrollers who enable free black people to be sold into slavery.
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Homegoing
by Yaa Gyasi
Two half-sisters, unknown to each other, are born into different villages in 18th-century Ghana and experience profoundly different lives and legacies throughout subsequent generations marked by wealth, slavery, war, coal mining, the Great Migration and the realities of 20th-century Harlem.
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Wild women and the blues
by Denny S. Bryce
In an award-winning debut novel, a sharecropper's daughter navigates celebrity encounters, bootlegging and gangster activities in Jazz Age Chicago before sharing her story with a grieving film student nearly a century later. Original.
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