February is Black History Month. Honour and celebrate Black authors with these rich literary historical fiction novels which focus on Black experience, culture, and heritage.
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
The story of two black boys sentenced to a hellish reformatory in Jim Crow-era Tallahassee, Florida and the atrocious conditions they are forced to endure. Based on a real reform school in Florida that operated for 111 years, scarring and damaging the lives of thousands of children.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, a story of twins that take divergent paths which changes the shape of their lives: their families, their communities, and their racial identities. A riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of “white passing”.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
A novel about race, history, ancestry, love and time, charting the course of two sisters torn apart in 18th century Africa through to the present day.
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Delves deep into that dangerous and unstable time in Jamaica's history and beyond. James deftly chronicles the lives of a host of unforgettable characters - gunmen, drug dealers, one-night stands, CIA agents, even ghosts - over the course of thirty years as they roam the streets of 1970s Kingston, dominate the crack houses of 1980s New York, and ultimately reemerge into the radically altered Jamaica of the 1990s.
Conjure Women by Afia Atakora
After the Civil War, midwife May Belle, her precocious and observant daughter Rue, who is reluctant to follow in her mother's footsteps, and their master's daughter Varina are all affected in different ways by the birth of an accursed child, who sets the townspeople alight with fear and a spreading superstition that threatens their newly won, tenuous freedom.
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
A Virginia slave narrowly escapes a drowning death through the intervention of a mysterious force that compels his escape and personal underground war against slavery.
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
A Cold War FBI intelligence officer joins an undercover task force to seduce a revolutionary African Communist president she secretly admires and comes to love, in a story inspired by true events.
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Two estranged siblings delve into their mother’s hidden past—and how it all connects to her traditional Caribbean black cake—in this immersive family saga, a character-driven, multi-generational story that’s meant to be savored.