Don't Cry for Me: A Novel
Don't miss Daniel Black's next novel Isaac's Song coming January 2025
From the Georgia Author of the Year Award Winner
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK IN ESSENCE MAGAZINE, THE MILLIONS AND BOOKISH
"Don't Cry for Me is a perfect song."--Jesmyn Ward
A Black father makes amends with his gay son through letters written on his deathbed in this wise and penetrating novel of empathy and forgiveness, for fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robert Jones Jr. and Alice Walker
As Jacob lies dying, he begins to write a letter to his only son, Isaac. They have not met or spoken in many years, and there are things that Isaac must know. Stories about his ancestral legacy in rural Arkansas that extend back to slavery. Secrets from Jacob's tumultuous relationship with Isaac's mother and the shame he carries from the dissolution of their family. Tragedies that informed Jacob's role as a father and his reaction to Isaac's being gay.
But most of all, Jacob must share with Isaac the unspoken truths that reside in his heart. He must give voice to the trauma that Isaac has inherited. And he must create a space for the two to find peace.
With piercing insight and profound empathy, acclaimed author Daniel Black illuminates the lived experiences of Black fathers and queer sons, offering an authentic and ultimately hopeful portrait of reckoning and reconciliation. Spare as it is sweeping, poetic as it is compulsively readable, Don't Cry for Me is a monumental novel about one family grappling with love's hard edges and the unexpected places where hope and healing take flight.
From the Georgia Author of the Year Award Winner
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK IN ESSENCE MAGAZINE, THE MILLIONS AND BOOKISH
"Don't Cry for Me is a perfect song."--Jesmyn Ward
A Black father makes amends with his gay son through letters written on his deathbed in this wise and penetrating novel of empathy and forgiveness, for fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robert Jones Jr. and Alice Walker
As Jacob lies dying, he begins to write a letter to his only son, Isaac. They have not met or spoken in many years, and there are things that Isaac must know. Stories about his ancestral legacy in rural Arkansas that extend back to slavery. Secrets from Jacob's tumultuous relationship with Isaac's mother and the shame he carries from the dissolution of their family. Tragedies that informed Jacob's role as a father and his reaction to Isaac's being gay.
But most of all, Jacob must share with Isaac the unspoken truths that reside in his heart. He must give voice to the trauma that Isaac has inherited. And he must create a space for the two to find peace.
With piercing insight and profound empathy, acclaimed author Daniel Black illuminates the lived experiences of Black fathers and queer sons, offering an authentic and ultimately hopeful portrait of reckoning and reconciliation. Spare as it is sweeping, poetic as it is compulsively readable, Don't Cry for Me is a monumental novel about one family grappling with love's hard edges and the unexpected places where hope and healing take flight.
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Community Reviews
This book makes me sad.
My wish is that every shitty parent realizes they're a shitty parent and apologizes to their children.
My wish is that every shitty parent realizes they're a shitty parent and apologizes to their children.
Beautifully written and insightful! Definitely gave our book club so much to discuss. Relationships between black fathers and sons, masculinity, how our parents functioned that were brought up in that same time frame, and of course, also male sexuality. It was very eye! Definitely left us with a lot to think about. And if anybody reads this recommendation, although I recommend this book, I absolutely 1000% Recommend his other book. Perfect Peace!!
This story is so beautifully written. This story touched my heart in so many places… I understand the father’s struggles through life and how he raised his son. But struggled with the father. It being able to break the generational curses he endured before his end came. The love he had for his son and his son for him but they couldn’t never connect
Reading through this novel reminded me of what it must feel like to have a daydream come to us while resting in a forest. Which I imagine is what the author and also the recipient of these fictionalized letters partly experienced when composing this novel. Each revelation is like the light breaking through the trees. Each section of luminescence holding a memory and a wish of closure.
The unique narrative style really enhanced this reading for me. So many walls are broken in the experience. We the reader experience the journey from a first person perspective and a one direction conversation. The missing response is filled by our imaginations which further enhances the overall story. We are reacting and imagining the reaction of the author at the same time. While the author is imagining the entire experience from the onset.
Philosophically, this is an excellent experiment and Daniel Black did not waste a single opportunity to add in additional social commentaries through the imagined voice of his father. Race, sexual, patriarchal, and economic realities are not shied away from and are thoughtfully critiqued. At the same time, the author gives enough context to allow room for understanding on the most sensitive topics.
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