First published 2001
Viola Price watches her family scatter like leaves in the wind. Her husband Cecil disappears for days at a time, leaving her to manage their four grown children alone. Each child carved out a different path. They return home carrying their own wounds and victories, testing the bonds that tie them to each other and to the woman who raised them. Viola stands at the center of it all, trying to keep everyone connected while her marriage crumbles around her. The Price children must decide whether blood really is thicker than water, and whether the family that shaped them can survive the people they have become. This is a story about the weight of loyalty and the price of independence, told through the voices of people who love each other but cannot always live with each other.
Genres: domestic-fiction, contemporary, family-drama, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
432 pages · Hardcover · Viking
Content warnings: domestic-violence