For fans of The Vanishing Half a new American classic about love resilience and family.
'This story truly touched my soul' PRIMA BOOK OF THE MONTH 'If ever there was a novel that
reflects how the past can shape us and how we can change our story it's this stunning debut'
WOMAN AND HOME 'An incredible read' BELLA 'A rhapsodic hymn to Black women' NEW YORK TIMES
BOOK REVIEW Joan can't change her family's past. But she can create her future. Joan was only
a child the last time she visited Memphis. She doesn't remember the bustle of Beale Street on a
summer's night. She doesn't know she's as likely to hear a gunshot ring out as the sound of
children playing. How the smell of honeysuckle is almost overwhelming as she climbs the porch
steps to the house where her mother grew up. But when the front door opens she does remember
Derek. This house full of history is home to the women of the North family. They are no
strangers to adversity resilience runs in their blood. Fifty years ago Hazel's husband was
lynched by his all-white police squad yet she made a life for herself and her daughters in the
majestic house he built for them. August lives there still running a salon where the
neighbourhood women gather. And now this house is the only place Joan has left. It is in
sketching portraits of the women in her life her aunt and her mother the women who come to
have their hair done the women who come to chat and gossip that Joan begins laughing again
begins living. Memphis is a celebration of the enduring strength of female bonds of what we
pass down from mother to daughter. Epic in scope yet intimate in detail it is a vivid
portrait of three generations of a Southern black family as well as an ode to the city they
call home.
