by Nina LaCour
First published 2026
In 1944 New Orleans, Odette Honore stands apart from her glamorous sisters in their Creole community. While her older siblings embrace roles as wives and mothers, Odette yearns for something different. She shares her deepest secrets only with her beloved cousin Delphine in their hidden garden refuge: Odette loves a woman and dreams of becoming an artist. Delphine carries her own forbidden secret, a white lover she meets in shadows. Together they imagine futures filled with passion and creative freedom. Five years later, their lives have taken unexpected turns. Odette finds herself a widowed mother in Los Angeles, far from her artistic dreams. Delphine has chosen to pass as white, and the cousins have drifted apart. When Delphine reaches a crisis point, Odette faces an impossible decision that will determine whether she can keep her fractured family whole. This multigenerational story follows the cousins through decades of choices about love, identity, and survival during the Great Migration.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, lyrical, poignant, thought-provoking
Tropes: dual-timeline, found-family, impossible-choice, second-chance
Setting: New Orleans, Los Angeles
Period: 1944, 1949, Great Migration
400 pages · Paperback · Flatiron Books
Content warnings: homophobia, racism