First published 2022
Fourteen-year-old Jael sits in the pews each Sunday, stealing glances at the preacher's wife while wrestling with feelings she cannot name. In the same congregation, another woman rises before dawn every Monday to bake peach cobbler for her weekly rendezvous with the married Pastor. Down the street, childhood friends Eula and Caroletta maintain their decades-long tradition of finding comfort in each other's embrace every New Year's Eve. These women move through their church community carrying secrets that would scandalize their fellow congregants. They balance their public roles as devoted church ladies against private yearnings that pull them toward intimacy, pleasure, and connection. Each woman must decide how much of herself to reveal and how much to protect. Philyaw captures the tension between spiritual devotion and human desire, showing how these women create space for their authentic selves within the constraints of their religious community. Their stories reveal the courage required to pursue fulfillment while navigating judgment and expectation.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, african-american, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, secrets
Setting: Church
Period: 21st-century
224 pages · Hardcover · One - Puskin Press
Content warnings: sexual-content