Friends and Family

Best Book of Fall 2026: Oprah Daily

“The highly anticipated second novel from the author of Queen Sugar—which was adapted into an acclaimed TV series created by Ava DuVernay and produced by Oprah herself—excavates the often unspoken complexities of interracial friendship…. This is the kind of novel that practically demands a post-reading debrief; expect your group chat to be buzzing.” —Oprah Daily

“Raw and frank…. Baszile wrestles with questions of race and allyship that are personal to both herself and her family.” —NPR’s All Things Considered

“This is the epitome of “book club fiction,” as the commentary on race, privilege and friendship will give you so much to discuss at your next meeting!” —Country Living

“The gifted Natalie Baszile returns with an intimate, wholly engaging contemporary novel about a cross-racial divide.” —Alta Journal

“Friends and Family is a strong character study that mines the scary realization that deep intimacy can be undone not just by large betrayals but by small ones: a single word choice, a glance down instead of forward. It is enriched by its penetrating examination of the sinuous emotional arcs of long-term relationships of all stripes.” —KQED

“This cinematic story is about family, and friends who become family…. the pages fly by. Baszile deftly employs San Francisco itself, with its staggering wealth disparities and craggy physical landscape, as both the setting and the perfect metaphor for the nuanced challenges even the closest friends and family face.” —Booklist, starred review

“Resonant…. Baszile treats all her characters with compassion in this evenhanded story. Readers will be left with much to chew on.” —Publishers Weekly

“A sharp, emotionally rich story about friendship, loyalty, and the ways love can be tested by race, identity, and politics.” —BET

“Tenderness meets tough love in this page-turning story of two friends—one black, one white—who face life-altering choices as a crisis threatens to divide them. This story explores identity, privilege, friendship, and family in an upscale San Francisco setting, but it mines those gray areas that can be found in relationships everywhere. A compelling reminder that it’s one thing to be loved, another to feel seen.” —Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake and Good Dirt

“Beautifully written and emotionally resonant, Baszile raises profound questions about what truly makes a family, what sustains our closest friendships, and how race shapes even our most intimate relationships. Baszile has given us more than a story to savor; she’s given us an opportunity to reflect on race, love, and belonging. I absolutely loved this novel.” —Victoria Christopher Murray, New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Personal Librarian and Harlem Rhapsody

“Baszile returns her unsparing and insightful focus to the complicated terrain of friendships, families, and communities, particularly where they each collide with race and class. What happens when Black folks stop worrying about what white folks think? What happens when we stop trying to prove them wrong? What will interrogations of ourselves and each other vis a vis whiteness, cost us? Baszile captures it all in this cinematic, profound, and deeply intimate novel. This is a book with a raging yet tender heart.” —Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies and The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman

“Friends and Family is a soulful gumbo that brims with the spice of nuance and the richness of real people facing impossible decisions. I gobbled up Natalie Baszile’s sumptuous prose by the spoonful, but it’s the hearty themes of this book—the importance of found family, self-assertion, and self-reflection—that will stay with me for a long time.” —Zakiya Dalila Harris, New York Times bestselling author of The Other Black Girl

“Friends and Family is as intoxicating as a California sunset. This is a novel to be read, discussed, and read again. Natalie Baszile’s sensitive rendering of our messy and imperfect relationships is perfect for this moment.” —Dolen Perkins-Valdez, New York Times bestselling author of Happy Land and Take My Hand

“Natalie Baszile lays out the intricacies of prejudice and forgiveness with clarity and empathy. As her protagonists confront the limits of their understanding of race, motherhood, and each other, Baszile explores how we might find grace in today’s turbulent world. This is exactly the kind of book I want to read right now, from a sure voice we know and love.” —Katie Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Girls and Trucks and Embassy Wife

“Friends and Family is a timely and topical, masterfully layered story chock full of characters who shine on every page. Baszile writes boldly and beautifully about family, betrayal, love, and cross-racial friendships. Everyone in America should read this book.” —Bernice L. McFadden, author of Sugar and Firstborn Girls

“Baszile illuminates modern race and class dynamics with a cast of characters so entangled and a story so electric, you won’t be able to put Friends and Family down nor let it go. Addictive, enlightening and unforgettable.” —Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of On The Rooftop

“This book is an open call to us all to not just stay in our lives, but to fully show up for our lives. It is an honest reckoning with the ways race impacts even our most intimate relationships—with our families, friends, and with ourselves. Over the course of Friends and Family, we see the sometimes blessed often messy journey of a woman who is Black transitioning into a Black Woman.” —Tiphanie Yanique, author of Land of Love and Drowning and Monster in the Middle

“Friends and Family is a masterful exploration of race and racism in America and of betrayal, forgiveness, and hope. This is a powerful, gut-wrenching book that everyone needs to read.” —Patmeena Sabit, author of Good People

“Grab hold of this rare, necessary portrayal of friendship, marriage, sisterhood and parenthood that, with sympathy and grace, tells the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” —Kathryn Ma, author of The Chinese Groove

“An emotional, mental, and spiritual exploration of what friendship means, and that family is not always determined by blood, [with] characters [who] are rich, real and full-bodied. Friends and Family is a gem of a novel that will continue to shine long after the last word is read.” —Donna Hill, author of Nola and Baldwin, and I Am Ayah

“An action-driven story with memorable characters… this book encourages the reader to simply enjoy, and to take a few treasured ideas into contemplation of one’s own friendships.” —48Hills

“A page-turning novel about friendship, race, identity, and parenting.” —The Modern Mrs. Darcy