All I Need to Get By

“Facing memories that she would rather forget, Crita struggles to reconcile a tumultuous past with a calmer, quieter present. Needing help along the way, she may even learn to lean on Tree, the only man who could ever give her "what she needs to get by." In this riveting debut novel, Sophfronia Scott speaks for anyone that knows just how hard it is to go back home again.”

Scott, Sophronia

The Darkest Child

“Phillips's searing debut reveals the poverty, injustices and cruelties that one black family suffers—some of this at the hands of its matriarch—in a 1958 backwater Georgia town. Thirteen-year-old Tangy Mae Quinn loves her mother, Rozelle, but knows there's "something wrong" with her—which, as it soon becomes clear, is an extreme understatement.” – Publishers Weekly

Phillips, Delores

Delta Sisters

“From Essence bestselling author Kayla Perrin comes the compelling story of three generations of African-American women---of their deepest secrets and most cherished lies.”

Perrin, Kayla

Eden, Ohio

“Established by twelve runaway slave families who named their new home after paradise, Eden’s picturesque landscape is deceptively lush. Though Eden was founded on freedom, an undercurrent of violence burdens all the town’s inhabitants.”

Johnson, Shawne

A Family Affair

“Marcus Major brings back the beloved characters from his Blackboard bestselling debut novel, hailed for its "wise commentary on the modern black family . . . hilarious, entertaining, sometimes outrageous." – Publishers Weekly

Major, Marcus

The Full Matilda

The Full Matilda is wickedly funny, but also bittersweet. David Haynes has created an unforgettably vibrant and intricate portrait of family, unquestioned duty, and the price of propriety as well as the enslavement that comes from clinging to the past.

Haynes, David

Leaving Cecil Street

Two block parties held in a middle-class black neighborhood in west Philadelphia in the summer of 1969 frame the intricate complexities of neighboring families. Joe, a steadily employed family man, is occasionally haunted by a longing for his former life as a saxophone player. – Booklist

McKinney-Whetstone, Diane

Lemon City

Set in Lemon City, an isolated town in the foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains settled by freed slaves before the Civil War, Brown's inspiring, slyly amusing novel marks the debut of a welcome new voice in African-American fiction. – Publishers Weekly

Brown, Elaine Meryl

My Fine Lady

Bestseller Joe's latest gives a nod to My Fair Lady—and, like the musical, it's predictable but plenty of fun. Imani Holland has a voice like "velvet on fire," and she raps the lyrics her boyfriend, Taz, writes; together they're gonna make it big. – Publishers Weekly

Joe, Yolanda

Eden

In Vernon's debut novel, 14-year-old Maddy Dangerfield, who is reminiscent of Celie in Alice Walker's The Color Purple or Ellen Foster in Kaye Gibbons's eponymous novel, must grapple with a cruel, impoverished existence. – Library Journal

Vernon, Olympia

Getting Mother’s Body

Parks, winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for her play Topdog/Underdog, puts her dramatic skills to good use in this fluid, assured debut novel, the story of a sweaty road trip from Texas to Arizona in July 1963. – Publishers Weekly

Parks, Suzan-Lori

Knee-Deep in Wonder

In August of 1987, Helene Strickland travels from Washington, D.C., to a small, rural, black town in Lafayette County, Arkansas, for her Aunt Annie B's funeral and to reunite with her mother, who didn't raise her. – Booklist

Reynolds, April