There You Are

by Mathea Morais

Overview

Growing up in the '80s and '90s in St. Louis, Octavian Munroe and Mina Rose found a future in music. Between the stacks at Rahsaan's Records, the two fell in love to the sounds of Prince and A Tribe Called Quest. But in the wake of grief and heartbreak, they drifted apart, ultimately leaving the city for fresh starts.

Decades later, Rahsaan's Records is closing for good. Seeking closure of their own, Octavian and Mina travel homeward, reckoning with the ghosts of the past they left behind and the uncertain future they must create.

Insightful and nostalgic, There You Are is a wise novel of love, loss, and the power of community, backed by a phenomenal soundtrack of hip hop, soul, and jazz.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781948705585
Publisher:	Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	10/22/2019
Edition description:	None
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Mathea Morais grew up in St. Louis and earned a degree in Literature from NYU. She began her career writing about hip hop culture and music for The Source and Trace Urban Magazine. Her work has gone on to appear in The New Engagement, Slush Pile Magazine, Arts & Ideas, and Anti-Heroin Chic. She is the Director of the Noepe Center for Literary Arts on Martha's Vineyard and has taught creative writing to children and young adults for over fifteen years. She lives with her husband, her three daughters, and a beloved dog.

Editorial Reviews

Author featured in article on her position as director of the newly reopened Noepe Center for Literary Arts —Vineyard Gazette, https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2019/03/27/next-chapter-noepe-returns
 


Article on author's position as director of the newly reopened Noepe Center for Literary Arts —Martha's Vineyard Times, https://www.mvtimes.com/2019/03/27/noepe-center-literary-arts-reopens-featherstone/


Author quoted on the Roots' album Things Fall Apart in "Things Fall Apart: A Critics Roundtable" —Red Bull Music Academy, http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/


"Mathea Morais is a really gifted writer. It is a special joy for those of us who are fortunate enough to have read her coming-of age, personal and intimate story of a time in St. Louis circling the death of Michael Brown." —Harry Belafonte, activist, actor, singer, author


"...for readers who enjoy a story of robustness and fragility of love, Morais' work is a must-read." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

★ 2019-09-10
Two St. Louis residents, united by music and a local record store, fall in love in Morais' nostalgic debut novel.

Although it opens in 2014, most of this story unfolds during the 1980s and '90s as it follows Octavian Munroe and Mina Rose during their childhood and teenage years. Octavian, the African American son of a professor and a poet, comes from a more stable household, although the death of his mother from cancer and his brother Francis' issues with drug dependency cause complications. Mina, the daughter of an attorney who's as eccentric as she is formidable, has a less stable home life, but she has the unquestionable advantage of being white in a city that's rife with race-related issues. Octavian and Mina's first meeting is in the fifth grade; later, they bond with friends at Rahsaan's Records, where they later work, and they form a friendship that not even the tidal forces of their lives can tear apart. Morais conjures a very specific milieu—urban St. Louis in the 1980s and '90s—in a way that makes it feel lived-in, and she populates the setting with a panoply of rich characters who express themselves with varying degrees of forthrightness. Although readers of the main characters' generation may relate to the novel more than others due to its many specific cultural references, Morais gives it universality as well as specificity—particularly in her depiction of Octavian and Mina's believable, multidimensional relationship. They talk, argue, reconcile, and razz friends in language that's heightened but never strained or unrealistic. Readers who have a low tolerance for nostalgia may want to look elsewhere, but for readers who enjoy a story of the robustness and fragility of love, Morais' work is a must-read.

A novel that effectively intertwines ruminations on race, music, romance, and history.

Kirkus Reviews