The Mothers: A Novel

"The Mothers follows three young adults growing up in a black Southern California community. Nadia, the protagonist, loses her mother to suicide, and finds herself making the kind of choices that will affect the rest of her life. It’s hard to say more than this about the book — which delivers lines that you’ll want to savor and read out loud — because it’s a story about secrets and betrayals, and part of the pleasure is your own sighs and gasps. It’s both intimate and epic in scope. The mothers of the novel’s title are a kind of Greek chorus — the “mothers” of the church community — but the book is really about being motherless. It hums along at a brisk, emotional pace — the kind of story that feels like it’s moving fast, but really, it’s moving deep."