This is my first read by Ms. Murray.
She is an excellent resarcher. You'll feel as if you're in the time period in all the locations.
She masterfully navigates you cheering for the heroine while explaining the complicated affair she had without making any characters unllikelable, which is challenging to do. Of course, these were real peopls as this is historical fiction.
It was wonderful to have this piece of history, the Harlem Rennaissance, brought to my attention, and learn about the experiences these people had with creating their art and sending it into the world.
A great piece of fiction to learn history through a brilliant author's lens.
The audiobook narrator was fantastic!
What historical fiction novel has taught you something new?
In 1919, a high school teacher from Washington, D.C arrives in Harlem excited to realize her lifelong dream. Jessie Redmon Fauset has been named the literary editor of The Crisis. The first Black woman to hold this position at a preeminent Negro magazine, Jessie is poised to achieve literary greatness. But she holds a secret that jeopardizes it all.
W. E. B. Du Bois, the founder of The Crisis, is not only Jessie’s boss, he’s her lover. And neither his wife, nor their fourteen-year-age difference can keep the two apart. Amidst rumors of their tumultuous affair, Jessie is determined to prove herself. She attacks the challenge of discovering young writers with fervor, finding sixteen-year-old Countee Cullen, seventeen-year-old Langston Hughes, and Nella Larsen, who becomes one of her best friends. Under Jessie’s leadership, The Crisis thrives…every African American writer in the country wants their work published there.
When her first novel is released to great acclaim, it’s clear that Jessie is at the heart of a renaissance in Black music, theater, and the arts. She has shaped a generation of literary legends, but as she strives to preserve her legacy, she’ll discover the high cost of her unparalleled success.
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