Absalom’s Daughters

Feldman’s resonant and engrossing debut is a tale of sisterly adventure set in 1950s Mississippi. The book breathes new life into the road trip story both with its inclusion of magical realism and with its memorable pairing of two teenagers—Cassie, who’s black, and Judith, who’s white—who have recently discovered that they have the same father. When Judith finds a letter explaining that they may be heirs to a rumored family fortune, she decides it’s her chance to get enough money to run off to New York City to be a singer. And Cassie, who’s destined to be matched with a white man by her black relatives, who are trying to whiten their family with each new generation of biracial offspring, realizes this may be her only opportunity to escape. They steal a car, and with a ham, a gun, and a map so old that state lines are blurred, they head north. Feldman’s novel is about how even the sweetness of sisterhood isn’t immune to poisonous racial dynamics. This warm story with two endearing leads offers a new frame of understanding for what it means to seek freedom, and what the seeker must give up in exchange. Agent Lisa Grubka, Fletcher & Co. (July)