Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Red at the Bone

Jacqueline Woodson

This elegiac series of vignettes, written in an evocative jazzy prose style, deals with the impact of class and race on a black American family, leaving a raw emotional legacy across the generational lines. The narrative is told from alternating perspectives, with a poignancy and universality which will find resonance in the current climate of identity politics. The audio version is highly recommended for a fully immersive experience.

Extract
... now I knew there were so many ways to get hung from a cross - a mother's love for you morphing into something incomprehensible. A dress ghosted in another generation's dreams. A history of fire and ash and loss. Legacy
Parallels
  • On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
  • Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
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Explicit sexual content