First published 2022
Twyla and Roberta first meet as eight-year-old girls in a state shelter, each marked by maternal absence and social instability. Their connection spans decades, cutting across racial lines and social divisions. They encounter each other repeatedly—at a diner, a protest, a grocery store—each meeting revealing layers of their complicated relationship and the unspoken tensions between them. As they navigate personal transformations and broader social changes, their shared history becomes a prism through which race, memory, and identity refract and reshape themselves. Their connection defies simple categorization, challenging readers' assumptions about friendship, race, and perception.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, american-fiction, african-american, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Period: 21st-Century
96 pages · Hardcover · Knopf