Belle City

by Penny Mickelbury

Overview

This interracial, intergenerational saga of love, land and loss is told from the disparate perspectives of Ruth Thatcher, who is Black, and Jonas Thatcher, who is White, and spans nearly a century. The story begins in 1917 when Ruth and Jonas are farm children and ends in 2005 as their descendants struggle to unravel and understand the legacies of this star-crossed pair. During the course of their lifetimes, Ruth and Jonas-- and their respective families-- have evolved and ultimately have prospered, but it is left for their descendants to come to grips with the long-unacknowledged truth that the two families are actually one.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780989897129
Publisher:	Whitepoint Press
Publication date:	08/11/2014
Pages:	438
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.97(d)

About the Author

Penny Mickelbury is the author of ten mystery novels in three successful series: The Carole Ann Gibson Mysteries, the Mimi Patterson/Gianna Maglione Mysteries, and the Philip Rodriguez Mysteries. Mickelbury is also an accomplished playwright and was a pioneering newspaper, radio and television reporter based primarily in Washington, D.C., an experience which provided the basis for her richly drawn characters and their myriad experiences. She is a fifth generation Georgian.

Editorial Reviews

"From Annette Gordon-Reed's works on the lives of the Hemingses and Jeffersons in Monticello, Virginia, to the new book by author Chris Tomlinson on his familial connections with African-American running back LaDainian Tomlinson, much has been written recently about America's tangled multiracial family tree. Penny Mickelbury, one of the founders of black LGBTQ fiction, joins that group with her new novel Belle City...One of the novel's strongest scenes occurs early on, at a Juneteenth celebration in 1918. Mickelbury captures the strong sense of the connection in the black Carrie's [Crossing] community well—their joy at being together, and their sense of fragility and insecurity when they are unexpectedly approached by a white interloper. Often, Mickelbury also drives home the importance of the land to the people of these communities, both black and white—which will later play an important role in the surprises found in the wills of both Ruth and Jonas at the novel's end."

Lambda Literary - Reginald Harris