Books With Black Families at the Center
Through groundbreaking classics like The Color Purple and award-winning bestsellers like Transcendent Kingdom, readers are reminded of the importance and power of seeing the Black family on the written page. Whether it be a bond of blood or one of choice, portrayals of Black familial joy, struggle, and resilience are revolutionary. With expansive heart and hope, they provide a portal for reflection, illuminate our sense of self, and reaffirm the significance of our past and our future as a people. Each of the books on this list are an enduring testament to the limitlessness of love, community, and survival. These stories beautifully highlight the way family—on and off the page—shapes who we are or hope to become.
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1
Add to BookshelfThe Vanishing Half
by Brit Bennett
In her intergenerational bestseller, Brit Bennett ushers readers into the lives of the Vignes twins, as they reckon with their shared history while navigating the tumultuous differences that divide them as adults. Reminiscent of Nella Larsen’s Passing and Toni Morrison’s debut novel, The Bluest Eye, The Vanishing Half is a luminous meditation on race, self-hood, and the complexities of familial closeness. Much like The Mothers, Bennett’s latest is an immersive testament to her prowess as a storyteller.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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2
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Memphis
by Tara M. Stringfellow
Set in the summer of ’95, Tara M. Stringfellow’s Memphis opens with Joan, her sister, and her mother’s escape from her father’s rage. In hopes of finding solace from the fissures of their past life, they attempt to reimagine and rebuild their lives in Memphis, a city shrouded by the specter of familial secrets. As an adult, Joan’s work as an artist delves her deeper into her family’s history and the many sacrifices that the women who came before her made to ensure their survival. Memphis is an invigorating and kaleidoscopic testament to the transformative power of confronting one’s past.
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$27.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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3
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Black Cake
by Charmaine Wilkerson
A New York Times-bestselling novel, Black Cake takes place in California as a mother’s passing coincides with an unexpected inheritance — a traditional Caribbean black cake and a voice recording sharing long-held secrets. As Benny and Byron navigate the loss of their mother and the history of the cake, whose origins are rooted in the escape of an alleged murderer, a larger mystery takes shape, leaving the two to question their shared history and their mother’s past. An immersive novel about tradition, trust, and what we inherit, Black Cake is a delectable tour-de-force from a rising literary visionary.
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$28.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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4
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Red at the Bone
by Jacqueline Woodson
In National Book Award-winner Jacqueline Woodson’s highly acclaimed novel, a 16-year-old girl named Melody stands at the threshold of womanhood on the staircase of her grandparents’ brownstone in Brooklyn. At the novel’s beginning, Melody confesses that she herself is “a narrative, someone’s almost forgotten story. Remembered.” With lyrical eloquence and an indelible rhythm, Woodson tells the story of two families whose fates are stitched together by Melody’s birth. With every page, Red at the Bone envelops its reader within the luminous song of a masterful storyteller.
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$16.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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5
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The Garden of Broken Things
by Francesca Momplaisir
The Garden of Broken Things unfolds in the wake of a cataclysmic earthquake in Haiti in 2010. At the novel’s center are Genevieve and her son Miles — in search of solace and answers about their family’s history — who arrive in Port-au-Prince just as the city is irrevocably altered by the earthquake. An urgent and unforgettable portrayal of motherhood, self-discovery, and strength, Francesca Momplaisir’s The Garden of Broken Things reminds readers that healing can bloom in the most unexpected moments.
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$28.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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6
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What the Fireflies Knew
by Kai Harris
When young protagonist KB’s father succumbs to an overdose and the financial fallout of his passing leads to her family losing their home in Detroit, KB and her sister Nia are sent to Lansing, Michigan to live with their grandfather — who they barely know — for the summer. Throughout the duration of their stay, KB tries to make sense of her new life alongside her mother’s grief, her increasingly distant sister, her grandfather’s stoicism, and the countless secrets no one is willing to share with her. A spellbinding bildungsroman that flawlessly breaks the mold, Kai Harris’ What the Fireflies Knew is undeniably luminescent.
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$26.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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7
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The House of Deep Water
by Jeni McFarland
Kimbilio Fiction Fellow Jeni McFarland’s expansively vibrant debut novel, The House of Deep Water, interweaves with precision and heart the paths of three women — Linda, Paula, and Beth — eager to leave River Bend, Michigan. Although each gets the opportunity to build their lives elsewhere, fate pulls them back, forcing them to grapple with their past loves, losses, and fractured hopes. Through the voices of an arresting chorus, McFarland examines how the familiar can become a catalyst for transcendent change.
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$17.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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8
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The Color Purple
by Alice Walker
Since its publication, Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple, remains an innovative exemplar of storytelling. Written in the form of letters penned across two decades, Walker’s beloved bestseller documents a correspondence between sisters as they weather the weight of distance, abuse, anger, and furloughed joy. Through the eyes of Celie, Nettie, Sofia, and Shug Avery, Walker’s audience witnesses the limitlessness of love, endurance, and forgiveness. The Color Purple is a testament to the lasting power of Walker’s vision and voice.
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9
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If Beale Street Could Talk (Movie Tie-In)
by James Baldwin
An enduring classic by literary titan James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk intertwines the promise of young love with the weight of loss. Narrated by nineteen-year-old Tish, Baldwin’s fifth novel maps out Tish’s romance with Fonny as the couple attempts to hold onto each other and their future plans when Fonny is arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. At the intersection of hope, fear, and yearning, Baldwin’s protagonists fight for their American dream, despite the many injustices that eclipse it. Poignant and timeless, If Beale Street Could Talk is an inarguable must-read for any fan of Baldwin.
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10
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Between the World and Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
In Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates unblinkingly unpacks America’s past and its tumultuous present. Throughout this groundbreaking work of nonfiction, Coates wrestles with his nation’s history via a series of questions in a letter to his son, which makes each page a revelatory portal for readers, leading them toward a possible exorcism of what haunts America. Even in the earliest pages of this compelling epistle, Coates’ audience will understand why Toni Morrison hailed Between the World and Me as “required reading.”
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11
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Transcendent Kingdom
by Yaa Gyasi
Award-winning author Yaa Gyasi’s novel, Transcendent Kingdom, examines with intimate depth the complexities of loss, faith, and trauma. Following Gifty, a promising neuroscience Ph.D. candidate at Stanford, Gyasi’s narrative captures the relentlessness of grief and how it can appear in even the most unexpected corners of a person’s life. As readers watch Gifty search for solace, they’ll reconsider the role that redemption and forgiveness play in their own lives. Transcendent Kingdom is another stunning example of Gyasi’s breadth as a storyteller.
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12
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All That She Carried
by Tiya Miles
National Book Award Winner Tiya Miles’ All That She Carried tells the story of an artifact, a family, and a nation. A bag, embroidered with a wish, becomes a doorway to the past, transporting readers into a deeply stirring history that begins with a rupture — a young girl’s separation from her enslaved mother — and ends in reclamation. A woven narrative tapestry of rigorous research and luminous prose, Miles’ All That She Carried is a groundbreaking celebration of Black womanhood, resilience, and the limitlessness of love.
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$18.99Buy from Other Retailers:
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13
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The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
by Ayana Mathis
Following Hattie Shepherd, as she leaves Georgia for Philadelphia in the midst of the Great Migration of 1923 in search of a new life, Ayana Mathis’ national bestseller traces Hattie’s legacy through her children and grandchildren. Through the lives of the Shepherds, a complex history is crystallized with prismatic depth and precision. Reminiscent of Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns and Mildred D. Taylor’s All the Days Past, All the Days to Come, Mathis’ debut is a striking homage to the possibility of choice and new beginnings.
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