Golden Poppies

Ibrahim (Paper Wife) explores two generations of friendship and racial solidarity in this bittersweet tale. In 1894, Mattie Freedman, once a slave in Virginia, lives in Chicago and battles an undiagnosed stomach condition that makes her unable to eat. Her daughter, Jordan Wallace, and Jordan’s 19-year-old daughter Naomi, are by Mattie’s side, but Mattie wishes to see her old friend Lisbeth Wainwright, now living in Oakland, one last time before she dies. Mattie had once been Lisbeth’s wet nurse and nanny before escaping from Lisbeth’s family plantation as a young woman, but she always kept in touch with her beloved Lisbeth. Jordan, an embittered former activist for universal suffrage, agrees to invite Lisbeth despite her reservations over “sharing this time with a White woman,” and Lisbeth arrives in Chicago with her daughter, Sadie. Jordan recognizes the calming effect of their presence on Mattie, and before Mattie dies, she instructs Jordan to return with Lisbeth and Sadie to Oakland and cast her cowrie shell—a symbol of freedom—into the sea. Jordan agrees, and returns with the women to Oakland, building a friendship with Sadie and coming together to advocate for suffrage in Oakland. Ibrahim emphasizes the weight of interracial tensions in public and private scenes in piercing prose. Book clubs will find much to love in this impassioned tale of resilient women. (June)