Transportive Fiction by Black Voices You Need to Read
From the opening of a chocolate chip cookie store in 1970’s Los Angeles to the sounds of vivacious music in a fantastical version of New Orleans to modern day Bristol, UK where a young man is faced with a life-changing decision. We’ve gathered some of the best new fiction by explosive debut authors and seasoned pros, all written by dynamic Black voices that are sure to transport you to a new time and place entirely.
A “vivid, urgent debut” (Entertainment Weekly) that “recalls Zadie Smith’s masterpiece White Teeth” (Kirkus, starred review) and follows a young man faced with a fraught decision: escape a dangerous past alone, or brave his old life and keep the woman he loves. Rippling with authenticity and power, Moses McKenzie’s dazzling debut brings to life a vibrant and teeming world we have read too little about. In its sheer lyrical power, An Olive Grove in Ends recalls the work of James Baldwin and marks the arrival of an exciting and formidable new voice.
It’s a summer of family, friendship, and fun fiascos in this semi-autobiographical novel that’s as irresistible as a fresh-baked cookie. Partially based on Shawn Amos’s own experiences growing up the son of Wally “Famous” Amos in a mostly white area, and packed with humor, heart, and fun illustrations, this debut novel sings with the joy of self-discovery, unconditional love, and belonging.
Music is magic in this vibrant and imaginative debut novel set in a fantastical version of New Orleans where a battle for the city’s soul brews between two young mages, a vengeful wraith, and one powerful song.
Nola is a city full of wonders. A place of sky trolleys and dead cabs, where haints dance the night away and Wise Women help keep the order. To those from Away, Nola might seem strange. To Perilous Graves, it’s simply home. In a world of everyday miracles, Perry might not have a talent for magic, but he does know Nola’s rhythm as intimately as his own heartbeat. So when the city’s Great Magician starts appearing in odd places and essential songs are forgotten, Perry realizes trouble is afoot.
In this “warm, funny” novel (Good Housekeeping), Jamaican immigrant Hubert Bird rediscovers the world he’d once turned his back on as he learns to find happiness after staying in isolation for so long.
In weekly phone calls to his daughter in Australia, widower Hubert Bird paints a picture of the perfect retirement, packed with fun, friendship, and fulfillment. But it’s a lie. In reality, Hubert’s days are all the same, dragging on without him seeing a single soul.
Until he receives some good news—good news that in one way turns out to be the worst news ever, news that will force him out again, into a world he has long since turned his back on. The news that his daughter is coming for a visit.
From the author of the PEN/Faulkner Award winner Delicious Foods comes the raucous, irreverent, and harrowing story of a trans woman’s reentry into life on the outside after more than twenty years in a men’s prison, over one eventful Fourth of July weekend in Brooklyn.
Carlotta Mercedes has been misunderstood her entire life. When she was pulled into a robbery gone wrong, she still went by the name she’d grown up with in Fort Greene, Brooklyn—before it gentrified. But not long after her conviction, she took the name Carlotta and began to live as a woman, an embrace of selfhood that prison authorities rejected, keeping Carlotta trapped in an all-male cell block, abused by both inmates and guards, and often placed in solitary.
In her fifth appearance before the parole board, Carlotta is at last granted conditional freedom and returns to a much-changed New York City.
