Promise

“This is a gorgeous and heart-stopping account of the casual and calculated racism endured by a Black family in 1950s Maine as well as the love and strength that sustain them. . . Griffiths’ considerable talent as a poet creates space for descriptions of otherwise unspeakable horrors. . . A stunning and evocative portrait of love, pride, and survival.” —Kirkus, STARRED review

“A beautifully rendered narrative and a startlingly fresh voice. I fell in love with the people between these pages. This is truly the first book in a long time where I had to force myself to stop reading.”
—Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author of Red at the Bone

"At its core Rachel Eliza Griffiths’ novel, Promise, concerns the illusion of security that we, Black Americans, harbor in our souls; that generational ache to believe that we can finally lay down the fear of what potential tragedy awaits us around the next corner, and the one after that. Poetic and powerful, Promise slices through self-delusion with its many faces of heroism, loss, and the grace it takes to find a sense of equality in our hearts." —Walter Mosley, author of Blood Grove

"Promise is forged in a crucible of irrational violence and darkness that paradoxically gives birth to luminous, resilient love. This is a novel so potent, written in such transcendent prose, one wonders if it’s secretly a magic spell. A stunning achievement." —Kiran Desai, author of The Inheritance of Loss

"This is a magical, magnificent novel, that amounts to a secret history of an America we think we know, but never really knew. Where girls reckon with the beauty and terror of girlhood, mortal black bodies reckon with immortal black souls, while America reckons with the terror of it beastly, bloody self. The trajectories collide—how could they not—and the result bowls us over with shock and grief, but eventually fills our hearts with awe and wonder." —Marlon James, author of Moon Witch, Spider King

"Promise is a stunning exploration of the weight and triumph of legacy, of what it has cost Black Americans to make homes in a country where violence and terror pursue them, and of all of the things it can mean to be called home. In this graceful and urgent novel, Griffiths introduces Cinthy, an unforgettable character who must navigate girlhood and grief in a community that has never fully let her be a child, but who finds in both familiar and unexpected places the things that tether her and allow her to become herself." —Danielle Evans, The Office of Historical Corrections