What's Mine and Yours (Hardback)

Naima Coster (author)

£14.99

Hardback 352 Pages
Published: 27/05/2021

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Synopsis

Filled with tension and scorching beauty, What’s Mine and Yours is an arresting story of tragedy, race, accountability and two families whose lives become messily and irrevocably entangled.

When a county initiative in the Piedmont of North Carolina forces the students at a mostly black public school on the east side to move across town to a nearly all-white high school on the west, the community rises in outrage. For two students, quiet and aloof Gee and headstrong Noelle, these divisions will extend far beyond their schooling. As their paths collide and overlap over the course of thirty years, their two seemingly disconnected families begin to form deeply knotted, messy ties that shape the trajectory of their lives.

On one side of the school integration debate is Jade, Gee's steely, single, black mother, grieving for her murdered partner, and determined for her son to have the best chance at a better life. On the other, is Noelle's enterprising mother, Lacey May, who refuses to see her half-Latina daughters as anything but white. The choices these mothers make will resound for years to come. And twenty years later, when Lacey's daughters return home to visit her in hospital, they're forced to confront the ways their parents' decisions continue to affect the life they live and the people they love.

What's Mine and Yours is a sweeping, rich tapestry of familial bond and identity, and a sharp, poignant look at the ways race affects even the closest of relationships. With gorgeous prose, Naima Coster explores the unique organism that is every family: what breaks them apart and how they come back together.

Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
ISBN: 9781398703322
Number of pages: 352
Weight: 560 g
Dimensions: 238 x 160 x 38 mm

MEDIA REVIEWS

'A deeply layered but lightly crafted look at what it means to be a family. If you loved The Vanishing Half, you'll love What's Mine And Yours.' - Red

'With clear focus, Coster looks at race, class and family in an original, gripping and compassionate way... A heart-wrenching generous story about deep love and passion' - Adele Parks

'What's Mine and Yours is a book about parents who try and fail and then try again. An extraordinary cast of characters, nuanced and full of insight. It's about children who hold their loved ones accountable. It reveals in absolutely engrossing and tension-filled prose how a tragedy haunts a family. Coster is a master storyteller through and through. Read this book.' - Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana

'At its heart, What's Mine and Yours is a coming-of-age story - one that, in its foreground, examines the unraveling of marriages, complexities of siblinghood and reckonings with parents. Beneath it all lie tragedy and myriad loves that are tender and rich and fraught.' - The New York Times

'Naima Coster is definitely a writer to watch. Her clear-eyed writing interrogates race, class, and family in a refreshing and thoroughly engaging way.' - Jacqueline Woodson, author of Red at the Bone

'A multi-generational story about class, motherhood and race ... written with such passion, it would make a great TV series' - Prima

'The novel discusses how the actions of a parent can permanently impact a child, exploring race, class and identity over a 20-year period.' - Refinery29