by Gayl Jones
First published 1987
Eva Median Canada sits behind bars, convicted of murdering her lover in a shocking act of violence. As she reflects on her past, Eva pieces together fragments of memory and imagination that reveal the forces that shaped her inability to trust or love. Her childhood and adult life were marked by sexual violence and emotional isolation that left deep scars. Through her recollections, Eva traces how years of abuse created barriers to intimacy that proved impossible to overcome. The boundaries between what actually happened and what Eva imagines blur as she constructs her story from her cell. Her narrative moves between different time periods, weaving together incidents of brutality and neglect that explain how she became a woman capable of such extreme violence. Eva's voice carries the rhythms and cadences of oral storytelling as she attempts to make sense of a life dominated by trauma and silence.
Genres: american-fiction, abuse, 20th-century, african-american, crime, biographical-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Period: 20th-century
180 pages · Paperback · Beacon Press
Content warnings: abuse, domestic-violence, sexual-assault