African American Literature Fiction

When Patsy gets her long-coveted visa to America, it comes after years of yearning to leave Pennyfield, the beautiful but impoverished Jamaican town where she was raised. More than anything, Patsy wishes to be reunited with her oldest friend, Cicely, whose letters arrive from New York steeped in the promise of a happier life and the possible rekindling of their young love. But Patsy's plans don't include her overzealous, evangelical mother - or even her five-year-old daughter, Tru. Patsy gives voice to a woman who looks to America for the opportunity to choose herself first.

From childhood games to career challenges, Trymm, Dallas, Kohl, and Blitz have stayed the best of friends, and each others' toughest competition. These bachelors live to party up, sex it down, and get it all. And now they're betting on which of them can "date-and-dump" the most women in a month, and post the proof on social media. Winner takes all: a cool million dollars. But this game is about to get all-too-real.

Qua loves Wynner. Wynner loves Qua. Easy enough, right? But Wynner came with two brothers who couldn't stand Qua with their baby sister. Qua couldn't stand not having Wynner with him, even if he didn't have his life together. With faith, his word, and love, he grabs his love's hand and marries her at the court house. Flash forward five years, and all the promises that Qua has made Wynner he has come through on them. To stay true, secure the bag, and be her ace through all her pain. With Wynner always being sick, everyone babies her and is always worried about her.

Dontay Walker had it rough growing up in the projects with a drug-addicted mother who forced him to become a man at the young age of 15. His father was a rolling stone, having multiple children with many women. Dontay always fought for his father's attention - until taking his spot became more important than gaining his love. Now, at the age of 30, Don is the leader of one of the most successful and most feared drug organizations in the city of Philadelphia.

Kimera Davis finds comfort in dating married men. It's easier that way. Her needs are taken care of, and she doesn't have to give more of herself than she wants to. No messy feelings involved. But when the man she's seeing poses an unexpected question, Kimera quickly realizes she's not the only woman pulled in by his charm. Their new arrangement doesn't require much from Kimera, but she soon discovers someone else is pulling the strings. She's not looking for complications, yet she can't help feeling there's something devious at play.

While Dena Jones definitely has what it takes to succeed, she wants out. She's determined to make it out of "Crooklyn" by any means necessary and doesn't have a problem manipulating men to get what she wants.

T'was the night before Christmas and all through house a whole family slept soundly, three kids, two grandchildren, a husband and his spouse...Ezra "Ethic" Okafor and his family are finally complete. After years of loneliness Ethic has met his match in Alani. She's the queen of his castle and is a doting mother figure to his children. Only a few months have passed since they wed, but they've spent them happily and peacefully. Alani can't wait to start new traditions with her family and she is determined to make the 12 days before Christmas memorable for them all.

After being thought dead, Animal resurfaces on the streets of New York to keep true to his promise and make it rain blood over Harlem. All those who had wronged him would feel his wrath, including Shai Clark, boss of the New York underworld. But touching a man like Shai Clark proves easier said than done. Using Animal's soul mate, Gu­cci, as bait, Shai sets a trap for the young killer.

Neither of them was looking for the other. Neither of them intended to fall in love. And now, neither of them wants to let go.

Dream, a once-happy girl gets caught in an abusive and frustrating love life with her boyfriend, Cheez, a ruthless and top game player in the underworld. Dream realizes the life she had always dreamed of will never happen with Cheez, who treats her like a punching bag while he’s also busy running the drug connect for his boss, Gomez. Dream decides to escape with her friend, child, and all the cash she can carry along with her. Cheez feels Dream leaving him is a sign of weakness as the overseer of the Gomez Cartel, and he will do anything to stop her.

Set in the wake of the Mau Mau rebellion and on the cusp of Kenya's independence from Britain, A Grain of Wheat follows a group of villagers whose lives have been transformed by the 1952-1960 Emergency. At the center of it all is the reticent Mugo, the village's chosen hero and a man haunted by a terrible secret. As we learn of the villagers' tangled histories in a narrative interwoven with myth and peppered with allusions to real-life leaders, including Jomo Kenyatta, a masterly story unfolds in which compromises are forced, friendships are betrayed, and loves are tested.

No matter how tough the odds, Ricky, Derrick, and Jamal learned to unite and fight during their time at the Branch Avenue Boys' Youth Institute. But their adult lives have driven them apart - and set off a series of events their friendship may not survive. All Jamal's political achievements can't erase his bargain with DC's corrupt mayor. And when he finds himself the latest target on Mayor Johnson's hit list, he'll risk everything to end the mayor's deadly reign - even if it's the last move he ever makes.

Reesa's a savvy financial planner with one goal - to have a baby before 35. But to do that, she's got to do one of two things: dump her current man, Simon, and find another man more suitable to be husband and father, or settle with Simon and work overtime trying to train him for the starring role. At 33, getting rid of Simon to find Mr. Right is a chance Reesa's not willing to take. But when she's had enough of Simon's antics and kicks him to the curb, will her goal change?

When G Double D, the founder of the gangsta rap label Explicit Content, seduces her singing partner, Leila "Fatal Beauty" Aponte, into splitting up their act to pursue solo stardom, Cassie Rivers is driven to find her own path to success, but her competitive nature could lead to danger when she uncovers dark secrets about G and his Explicit Content company.

In a daring and fierce debut work of fiction - the likes of which comes along once in a generation - Virginia’s landscapes, emblems, and Thomas Jefferson’s historic plantation set the stage for a cast of unforgettable characters fighting for their right to exist in America. Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s precisely imagined debut explores burdened inheritances and extraordinary pursuits of belonging.

Teenager Kath Ella Sebolt wants desperately to escape the town that she equates with deprivation and lack of opportunity. Months after her boyfriend is killed during a clash between young people in the village and Halifax constables, she moves with her infant son to Montreal. After attending college as a single mother and ultimately marrying a white man, she discovers that as much as she tries, severing ties to her former village is not easy.

Jean Toomer's Cane is one of the most significant works to come out of the Harlem Renaissance, and is considered to be a masterpiece in American modernist literature because of its distinct structure and style. First published in 1923 and told through a series of vignettes, Cane uses poetry, prose, and play-like dialogue to create a window into the varied lives of African Americans living in the rural South and urban North during a time when Jim Crow laws pervaded and racism reigned.

Jemistry Daniels is a bitter woman and not trying to hide it. Even though she is beautiful, intelligent, and makes six figures a year as a high school principal in Washington, DC, one man after another has failed her. So she decides to give up and join the party by adapting the entire "friends with benefits" mentality with a couple of men that she beds on the regular but refuses to hold any kind of real conversation with, in fear that she might actually catch feelings.

In this 1983 short story - the only short story Morrison ever wrote - we meet Twyla and Roberta, who have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable then, they lose touch as they grow older, only later to find each other again at a diner, a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and at each other's throats each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them.

Meet Darryl Graham, or as his new neighbors call him, The Man in 3B. Darryl's new to the Jamaica, Queens building, but from day one he's made quite an impression on his neighbors. He has made it very clear he greatly values his privacy, but he is the man every woman wants and every man wants to be, so inquiring minds want to know. Unfortunately, in Darryl's world, what you know can hurt you. And when he winds up dead, those inquiring minds become the prime suspects.