"Potent and poetic, personal and choral, this exceptional work explores the experiences of a group of brown women from Queens, New York, through life."
Daphne Palasi Andreades’s Brown Girls is a triumph. Ambitious in scope, and realised with radiance, heart and bone-deep power, it lays bare the lives of a group of brown girls from Queens through blending detail with a chorus of voices (the narrative uses a collective “we”). It’s an all-consuming, all-encompassing musical ode; a beautiful book that takes in the complex, often conflicted ways women’s lives and communities come together, diverge, return and shift, while also taking in themes around immigration, diaspora, class, and colonialism.
The writing is electric from the off: “We live in the dregs of Queens, New York, where airplanes fly so low that we are certain they will crush us. On our block, a lonely tree grows. Its branches tangle in power lines. Its roots upend side-walks where we ride our bikes before they are stolen. Roots that render the concrete slabs uneven.” These opening lines, this opening image, serves as a smart foreshadowing of the girls’ lives.
As we follow them through childhood, girlhood, adolescence, college, careers, motherhood, and beyond, many move beyond their Queens’ roots, some return to their ancestors’ roots for a time, and there are tangles at every turn. The uneven footings and upended paths are perhaps most sharply seen when some of the young women experience alienating visits to their mother and fatherlands, and return to the US to realise all the more sharply that “existing in these bodies means holding many worlds within us”, with white people deeming “us and our families the good immigrants, the hard-working ones,” and the girls expected to be “grateful brown people” in the US.
Then there’s the paradox that those among the girls who become big shots (“paragons of the American dream”) wind up being rendered faceless, leading to existential “Who the fuck are we?” questions. What an extraordinary debut - it’s ablaze with wisdom and love.
'Brown Girls flows like a late night FM-radio dedication to the crew, the block, and the mission. This book's a gift' Paul Beatty, author of The Sellout'An ode to girlhood' Raven Leilani, author of LusterA fiercely poetic coming-of-age novel following a group of young women of colour in Queens, New York.
| Primary Genre | Literary Fiction |
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'Brown Girls flows like a late night FM-radio dedication to the crew, the block, and the mission. This book's a gift' Paul Beatty, author of The Sellout'An ode to girlhood' Raven Leilani, author of LusterA fiercely poetic coming-of-age novel following a group of young women of colour in Queens, New York.Brown Girls dives deep into the lives of a group of young women of colour growing up in Queens, New York.
Brown Girls features in the following genres: General Fiction, Debut Books of the Month, Debuts, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Sharing Diverse Voices, Contemporary lifestyle fiction, Narrative theme: Coming of age, Fiction, Recommendations, Fiction: narrative themes, Literary Fiction
Paperback, Hardback, Ebook. £8.09, down from the £8.99 cover price. In Stock.
Brown Girls was written by Daphne Palasi Andreades and published by 4th Estate an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Brown Girls has 224 pages
£8.09, reduced from £8.99. In Stock.
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