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THE NOVELS |
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Nowhere is a Place
McFadden weaves together a terrific multigenerational family tale that, like Alex Hailey's Roots, will inspire readers to research their family history. Writing in a mystical style similar to that of Gloria Naylor's Bailey's Cafe, McFadden is an imaginative storyteller who mesmerizes readers with her words."
- Library Journal
From Bernice L. McFadden, whom the novelist Adriana Trigiani calls “a master story teller,” comes a touching new novel about a young woman uncovering a surprising family history filled in measure with dark secrets and life-affirming wisdom
Her spectacular debut novel Sugar established Bernice L. McFadden as a writer to watch in African-American literary fiction. In Nowhere is a Place, she limns a fully realized and memorable portrait of a young woman on a journey of self-discovery.
Sherry has struggled all her life to understand who she is, where she comes from, and, most importantly, why her mother slapped her cheek one summer afternoon. The incident has haunted Sherry and it causes her to dig into her family’s past. Like many family histories, it is fractured and stubbornly reluctant to reveal its secrets, but Sherry is determined to know the full story. In just a few days’ time her extended family will gather for a reunion and Sherry sets off across the country with her mother, Dumpling to join them. What Sherry and Dumpling find on their trip is far more important than a scenic site here and there—it is the assorted pieces of their family’s past. Pulled together, they reveal a history of amazing survival and abundant joy.
Nowhere is a Place is a graceful, richly imagined work by McFadden; it promises to bring a new audience of admirers.
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an Excerpt
| Camilla's Roses
" The poignant tale of a woman who discovers
the fragility of life and strength of a family's love, from
an author praised by Toni Morrison for "searing expertly
imagined scenes."
Camilla and her husband have successful careers and a beautiful young daughter. Then she discovers a lump in her breast and realizes too late that she has turned her back on the people whose support she needs the most. Generations of women in her family, moving from a southern small town to Queens, New York, have carried the middle name Rose, and some have carried a legacy of breast cancer. But Camilla has been estranged from her unruly family since she went to college, leaving behind a drug-addicted mother, a grandmother raising scads of abandoned grandchildren, and an addled great-aunt. Ashamed of her family and her race, she lightened her skin and adopted a false background. She is living a complete lie when tragedy strikes. McFadden, author of Sugar (2000) and This Bitter Earth (2002), will enrapture readers again as she moves between the past and the present and the perspectives of different characters to tell a story of family and reconciliation. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Loving Donovan
Toni
Morrison called her writing "searing and expertly
imagined"; Terry McMillan said she's "a welcomed
voice in the literary world." Bernice L. McFadden,
bestselling author of three award winning novels, unfurls
a bittersweet love story in three parts: Her, Him,
Them.
The
first section of this unconventional love story belongs
to Campbell. Despite being born to a faithless father,
Campbellstill believes in the power of love...if she can
ever find it. Living in the same neighborhood, but unknown
to Campbell until a chance meeting brings them together,
is Donovan, the "little man" of a shattered home
- a family torn apart by anger and bitterness. In the face
of the se daunting obstacles,
Donovan dreams of someday marrying, raising a family, and
playing for the NBA. But deep inside, Campbell and Donovan
live with the histories that have shaped their lives. What
they discover
- together and apart - forms the basis of this compelling,
sensual and surprising novel.
A
deeply thoughtful novel about hope, forgiveness, and the
cost of loving Donovan. |
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This Bitter Earth
Bestselling
author Bernice L. McFadden returns with a novel that continues
the story of Sugar Lacey, the unforgettable heroine of McFadden's critically
acclaimed debut novel.
This
Bitter Earth picks up where Sugar left off: on the dirt
road leading to Sugar's childhood home in Short Junction,
Arkansas. Here, Sugar hears a shocking revelation about
unrequited love, and about one man's hatred--and the
black magic that has cursed generations. Her travels take
Sugar to St. Louis, where the bonds of an old friendship
test the limits of her courage and compassion--and the
sacrifices she will make for another young woman in desperate
need of a caring friend.
Filled
with the lyrical language, haunting imagery, and compelling
voice that imbued Sugar with its power and grace, This
Bitter Earth is a novel about the inexorable power that
the past exerts over us and about our ability to triumph
over adversity and sorrow. Earthy and richly evocative,
it is a testament to the ultimate triumph of the human
spirit. |
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The Warmest December
"Riveting.
The Warmest December so nicely avoids the sentimentality
that swirls all around the subject matter. I am as impressed
by its structural strength as by the searing and expertly
imagined scenes."
--Toni
Morrison
With an engaging
vitality, second-novelist McFadden explores a daughter's troubled
relationship with her abusive alcoholic father. McFadden has
perfect emotional pitch and one, telling it like it is.... A
well-rendered tale."
--Kirkus Reviews
In
her second novel, THE WARMEST DECEMBER, published by Dutton
in January 2001, Bernice L. McFadden establishes herself
as a writer whose lyrical prose and ability to tackle difficult
topics will move even the most stoic of readers.
Set
in Brooklyn, NY, McFadden's birthplace and current residence,
narrator Kenzie Lowe tells an intensely moving story that
begins with her childhood in the 1970's growing up with
her abusive, alcoholic father, Hy-Lo. Everyday young Kenzie
lives in fear that her too loud footsteps, her too high
voice, will unleash the animal that lurks within her father.
With every sip of liquor, with every hurtful word and stinging
slap, Kenzie's fear and hatred of her father grows. To
get through each painful day, Kenzie dreams of escaping
Hy-Lo's prison and fleeing from apartment A5 forever.
Eventually,
Kenzie does grow up and leaves A5. She goes to school,
she holds odd jobs and develops her own craving for the
bottle. Twenty years have passed- it is now the 1990's-
but not everything has changed for Kenzie. She is still
haunted by her childhood. Learning that her father is in
the hospital, Kenzie is shocked at her desire to be with
him during his final hours. She returns day after day to
her father's bedside in search of a way to quell her pain.
These
trips to the hospital teach Kenzie that some of us, like
Hy-Lo, have stories that "started out bad, curdled andsouredin the middle and ended up worse." Kenzie learns
that some of us can't help what we do but for many, there
is still hope for change. Understanding this, Kenzie begins
toreclaim her own life, allowing her scars to heal and
her heart to forgive.
Bernice
L. McFadden explains that she wrote THE WARMEST DECEMBER, "because
children of addictive and/or abusiveparents walk the thinnest
line between love and hate, sanity and madness, life and
death." Shechose this topic because she "wanted more… to
help someone choose love, sanity and life." In a bleak
and chaotic world where violence is all too rampant, THE WARMEST DECEMBER
teaches us that nothing is beyond our
control.
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Read
an Excerpt
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Sugar
"One
of the most compelling and thought-provoking novels I've
read in years. Bernice McFadden is truly a welcomed voice
in the literary world."
- Terry McMillan
"Sugar
contains fragments of people I've known over the years.
Her eyes belong to a friend, her color to a cousin. Her
dreams are partly mine, and her endurance is my mother's.
Her world is one I've seen in black and white snap shots
and heard rolled off a tongue during Christmas dinner.
She is a gathering of my ancestors, their lives."
--Bernice
L. McFadden, author of Sugar
Set
in the fictionalized town of Bigelow, Arkansas, circa
1950, Sugar is
a rich and moving story that traces the lives of two
unforgettable women and the small community they change.
After the horrible death of her young daughter, Jude,
Pearl Taylor turns to the church for support, suppressing
her own desires. But when Sugar, a beautiful, uninhibited
spirit (who resembles Judewith eerie similarity) moves
into the neighboring home
at 10 Grove Street, Pearl's life is irrevocably and dramatically
changed. Over sweet potato pie the two woman learn to
trust and confide in each other, but when the local gossips
discover that Sugar is a prostitute, Pearl shocks the
once quiet town-and herself-by remaining loyal to her
new friend. Filled with lyrical prose, McFadden reveals
her talent for using language with an almost spiritual
grace to describe the vivid and mysterious details found
in everyday life. Sugar is a timeless story of what it
means to accept and to forgive.
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Bernice
McFadden's Books are available on-line at these fine booksellers...
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