Lavina

Returning to her Southern hometown, a woman grapples with the fate of two families, one white and one black: "A novel of weight and heart" (Library Journal).

Growing up in Louisiana in the early sixties, Mary Jacob never felt like she really fit in with those in her community—or even in her own home. One exception, though, was Lavina, the black woman who cooked and cleaned for her family, and whom Mary Jacob considered her best friend.

Decades later, she has made a new life for herself in New York, married to a son of Holocaust survivors whom she loves in spite of the problems in their relationship. When she learns that her estranged, disapproving father is seriously ill, she returns to the South, where she must cope with a spiteful sister; a town still mired in the past; the heartbreaking memory of Lavina's son—who grew up to be a legendary musician whose star burned much too bright—and to the echoes of a fateful day decades earlier, when three lives changed forever.

"One of the best books I've read in a long time . . . [a] complex story of heartache, courage, and love." —Diane Chamberlain, New York Times–bestselling author of Big Lies in a Small Town

"Thoughtful fiction that once again exposes the dark enigma of America's racist past and present." —Kirkus Reviews

"Lovers of The Help and civil rights–era literary fiction will enjoy this book." —Library Journal