Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass-only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family’s trajectory. Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Boston Globe, NPR, BuzzFeed, Glamour, PopSugar.

LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE Tara Stringfellow will be an author to watch for years to come.”-Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author of Red at the Bone “I fell in love with this family, from Joan’s fierce heart to her grandmother Hazel’s determined resilience. “A rhapsodic hymn to Black women.”- The New York Times Book Review A spellbinding debut novel tracing three generations of a Southern Black family and one daughter’s discovery that she has the power to change her family’s legacy.READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY.Inspired by the author's own family history, Memphis-the Black fairy tale she always wanted to read-explores the complexity of what we pass down, not only in our families, but in our country: police brutality and justice, powerlessness and freedom, fate and forgiveness, doubt and faith, sacrifice and love. That the sole weapon she needs is her paintbrush. It is only when Joan comes to see herself as a continuation of a long matrilineal tradition-and the women in her family as her guides to healing-that she understands that her life does not have to be defined by vengeance. Unfolding over seventy years through a chorus of voices, Memphis weaves back and forth in time to show how the past and future are forever intertwined.

Longing to become an artist, Joan pours her rage and grief into sketching portraits of the women of North Memphis-including their enigmatic neighbor Miss Dawn, who seems to know something about curses.

This wasn't the first time violence altered the course of Joan's family's trajectory, and she knows it won't be the last. Half a century ago, Joan's grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass-only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in Memphis. In the summer of 1995, ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father's violence, seeking refuge at her mother's ancestral home in Memphis. A spellbinding debut novel tracing three generations of a Southern Black family and one daughter's discovery that she has the power to change her family's legacy.

Tara m stringfellow books