A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR A spectacular novel that
only this legend can pull off. -Ibram X. Kendi #1 New York Times-bestselling author of HOW TO
BE AN ANTIRACIST in The Atlantic An exquisite tale of family legacy….The power and poetry of
Woodson's writing conjures up Toni Morrison. - People In less than 200 sparsely filled pages
this book manages to encompass issues of class education ambition racial prejudice sexual
desire and orientation identity mother-daughter relationships parenthood and loss….With Red
at the Bone Jacqueline Woodson has indeed risen - even further into the ranks of great
literature. - NPR This poignant tale of choices and their aftermath history and legacy will
resonate with mothers and daughters. -Tayari Jones bestselling author of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE
in O Magazine An unexpected teenage pregnancy pulls together two families from different social
classes and exposes the private hopes disappointments and longings that can bind or divide
us from each other from the New York Times-bestselling and National Book Award-winning author
of Another Brooklyn and Brown Girl Dreaming. Moving forward and backward in time Jacqueline
Woodson's taut and powerful new novel uncovers the role that history and community have played
in the experiences decisions and relationships of these families and in the life of the new
child. As the book opens in 2001 it is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody's coming of age
ceremony in her grandparents' Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and
friends making her entrance to the music of Prince she wears a special custom-made dress. But
the event is not without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier that very dress was measured and
sewn for a different wearer: Melody's mother for her own ceremony-- a celebration that
ultimately never took place. Unfurling the history of Melody's parents and grandparents to show
how they all arrived at this moment Woodson considers not just their ambitions and successes
but also the costs the tolls they've paid for striving to overcome expectations and escape the
pull of history. As it explores sexual desire and identity ambition gentrification education
class and status and the life-altering facts of parenthood Red at the Bone most strikingly
looks at the ways in which young people must so often make long-lasting decisions about their
lives--even before they have begun to figure out who they are and what they want to be.
