Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her fathers explosive temper and seek refuge at her mothers ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the familys trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joans grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass—only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets...

A rhapsodic hymn to Black women' New York Times Book ReviewFAMILY CAN HOLD YOU TOGETHER. AND TEAR YOU APART. Joan was only a child the last time she visited Memphis.

She doesn't remember the bustle of Beale Street on a summer's night or the smell of honeysuckle as she climbs the porch steps to her aunt's house. But when the front door opens, she immediately remembers her cousin Derek. As Joan learns more about her family's past she discovers she's not the only North woman to have experienced ...