From the Women's Prize-winning author of An American Marriage
A yearning for their missing mothers pulls Vernice and Annie apart. It will take a devastating tragedy to bring them back together.
Vernice and Annie are born days apart in Honeysuckle, Louisiana. More than friends, closer than sisters, together they navigate a childhood bound by love, loyalty, and the shadow of absence — both are destined never to know their mothers. But this is the American South in the 1950s. Black girls like Vernice and Annie have to fight for every opportunity they can.
Gradually, inevitably, the girls drift apart. But when Annie is lured away by the promise of a heady first love affair, a growing obsession with finding her mother pulls her into a world of danger. It is Vernice, her oldest friend, who must risk everything to save her — in this exuberant, richly told story about sisterhood, friendship and a lifelong bond that is as dangerous as it is unbreakable.
Praise
“Smart and funny and deftly profound. This is Tayari Jones's very best work.” — Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake
“A riveting and deeply moving portrait of indelible female friendship, found family and finding your way… This gorgeous novel already feels like a future classic.” — Róisín O'Donnell, author of Nesting
About the author
Tayari Jones is the author of An American Marriage, winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction and an Oprah's Book Club selection, as well as Silver Sparrow, The Untelling and Leaving Atlanta.
Cover design © Oneworld · Illustration by Aurore Swithenbank
