Both smarter and more serious than her years, eight-year-old Sarah was torn between the traditions, religion, and work ethic of her mid-60s Arkansas community and the progressive civil rights and feminist politics of her mother. With characters as vibrant and evocative as their setting, Mourner’s Bench is the story of a young girl coming to terms with religion, racism, and feminism while also navigating the terrain of early adolescence and trying to settle into her place in her family and community.
Now more than any other time in our history since the civil rights movement, it’s important to get the conversations going about Black History and how racism in America will impact our future. The winner of the 2016 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction, Sanderia Faye‘s Mourner’s Bench is an ideal choice to help navigate these tough and potentially divisive conversations and to help us heal as a community and as a nation.
“Reading [this] story, no matter what you believe history might have taught us since, you feel as if the questions of racial justice are not only unresolved but barely yet asked.”
— Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Brief History of the Dead
With only three months left it’s not too late to secure a speaker to celebrate Black History Month in February. For more information about working with Sanderia Faye, contact Books In Common directly.