**20th Anniversary Edition—with a New Foreword by Kimberly EliseA novel by a critically acclaimed voice in contemporary fiction, praised by Ebony for its “unforgettable images, unique characters, and moving story that keeps the pages turning until the end.”**A young prostitute comes to Bigelow, Arkansas, to start over, far from her haunting past. Sugar moves next door to Pearl, who is still grieving for the daughter who was murdered fifteen years before. Over sweet...

This powerful sequel to Bernice L. McFadden’s bestselling debut Sugar follows a young African-American woman back to her Arkansas hometown, where she must confront difficult truths about her parentage and a curse in her family’s past.When Sugar Lacey returns to Short Junction to find the aunts who raised her, she hopes they will be able to tell her the truth about her parents. What she discovers is not just a terrible story of unrequited love, but also a t...

Sugar is young, confident and hoping to start over.'Poignant and bittersweet, this novel is a joy' Richard & JudyWhen she arrives in the southern town of Bigelow, it isn’t long before the neighbourhood is alight with gossip and suspicion. Sugar fears her past is catching up with her. Then she meets Pearl, a woman trying to forget her own trauma. As these next-door neighbours become unlikely friends, they wonder if their lives could finally ...

From award-winning author and creative writing professor at Tulane University comes an intimate and powerful memoir exploring inherited trauma, family secrets, and the enduring bonds of love between mothers and daughters.On her second birthday in 1967, Bernice McFadden died in a car crash near Detroit, only to be resuscitated after her mother pulled her from the flaming wreckage. Firstborn Girls traces her remarkable life from that moment up to the publica...

The Bernice L. McFadden Collection features four novels from the three-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalis"McFadden works a kind of miracle--not only do her characters retain their appealing humanity; their story eclipses the bonds of history to offer continuous surprises." --New York Times, on Gathering of Waters"Riveting...so nicely avoids the sentimentality that swirls around the subject matter. I am as impressed by its stru...

Following her best-selling, award-winning novel Glorious , McFadden produces a fantastical historical novel featuring the spirit of Emmett Till.—One of *Essence'*s "Best Books of the Decade"—A New York Times Notable Book of 2012— Gathering of Waters was a finalist for a Phillis Wheatley Fiction Book Award."McFadden works a kind of miracle—not only do [her characters] retain their appealing humanity; their sto...

From award-winning author and creative writing professor at Tulane University comes an intimate and powerful memoir exploring inherited trauma, family secrets, and the enduring bonds of love between mothers and daughters.On her second birthday in 1967, Bernice McFadden died in a car crash near Detroit, only to be resuscitated after her mother pulled her from the flaming wreckage. Firstborn Girls traces her remarkable life from that moment up to the publica...

During WWII, two African American musicians are captured by the Nazis in Paris and imprisoned at the Buchenwald concentration camp."Simply miraculous . . . As her saga becomes ever more spellbinding, so does the reader's astonishment at the magic she creates. This is a story about the triumph of the human spirit over bigotry, intolerance and cruelty, and at the center of The Book of Harlan is the restorative force that is music." — Washington ...

A long-awaited reissue of this deeply thoughtful novel about hope, forgiveness, and the cost of loving Donovan, a complex man with a shattered history"Bernice L. McFadden was one of the best writers to emerge in the post– Waiting to Exhale explosion that introduced at least a dozen Black female novelists. Loving Donovan has generated near-cult status among readers. After more than a decade since it appeared, Donovan is being reissued. How...

Award-winning novelist Bernice McFadden's highly anticipated new historical novel set amidst the Harlem Renaissance.— Glorious was a finalist for the 2011 NAACP Image Award for Fiction."McFadden's lively and loving rendering of New York hews closely to the jazz-inflected city of myth. . . . McFadden has a wonderful ear for dialogue, and her entertaining prose equally accommodates humor and pathos." — New York Times Book Review

The long-awaited reissue of McFadden's best-selling second novel praised by Toni Morrison, USA Today, Washington Post, and others—published simultaneously with McFadden's new novel Gathering of Waters ."McFadden's reissued second novel takes an unflinching look at the corrosive nature of alcoholism . . . This is not a story of easy redemption . . . McFadden writes candidly about the treacherous hold of addiction." — Publishers Weekly

The long-awaited reissue of McFadden's classic novel about a young woman on a journey of self-discovery"An engrossing multigenerational saga . . . With her deep engagement in the material and her brisk but lyrical prose, McFadden creates a poignant epic of resiliency, bringing Sherry to a well-earned awareness of her place atop the shoulders of her ancestors, those who survived so that she might one day, too." —Publishers WeeklyNothing can...