Happy Land
A 2026 NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction
A woman learns the incredible story of a real-life American Kingdom—and her family’s ties to it—in this enthralling novel from the New York Times bestselling, NAACP Image Award-winning author of Take My Hand.
As featured in The Washington Post ∙ People ∙ Harper's Bazaar ∙ NPR ∙ TODAY ∙ ELLE ∙ PopSugar ∙ Reader's Digest ∙ SheReads ∙ Woman’s World ∙ Real Simple ∙ BookBrowse ∙ and more!
Nikki hasn’t seen her grandmother in years. So when the elder calls out of the blue with an urgent request for Nikki to visit her in the hills of western North Carolina, Nikki hesitates only for a moment. After years of silence in her family, due to a mysterious estrangement between her mother and grandmother, she’s determined to learn the truth while she still can.
But instead of answers about the recent past, Mother Rita tells Nikki an incredible story of a kingdom on this very mountain, and of her great-great-great grandmother, Luella, who would become its queen.
It sounds like the makings of a fairy tale—royalty among a community of freed people. But the more Nikki learns about the Kingdom of the Happy Land, and the lives of those who dwelled in the ruins she discovers in the woods, the more she realizes how much of her identity and her family’s secrets are wrapped up in these hills. Because this land is their legacy, and it will be up to her to protect it before it, like so much else, is stolen away.
Inspired by true events, Happy Land is a transporting multi-generational novel about the stories that shape us and the dazzling courage it takes to dream.
A woman learns the incredible story of a real-life American Kingdom—and her family’s ties to it—in this enthralling novel from the New York Times bestselling, NAACP Image Award-winning author of Take My Hand.
As featured in The Washington Post ∙ People ∙ Harper's Bazaar ∙ NPR ∙ TODAY ∙ ELLE ∙ PopSugar ∙ Reader's Digest ∙ SheReads ∙ Woman’s World ∙ Real Simple ∙ BookBrowse ∙ and more!
Nikki hasn’t seen her grandmother in years. So when the elder calls out of the blue with an urgent request for Nikki to visit her in the hills of western North Carolina, Nikki hesitates only for a moment. After years of silence in her family, due to a mysterious estrangement between her mother and grandmother, she’s determined to learn the truth while she still can.
But instead of answers about the recent past, Mother Rita tells Nikki an incredible story of a kingdom on this very mountain, and of her great-great-great grandmother, Luella, who would become its queen.
It sounds like the makings of a fairy tale—royalty among a community of freed people. But the more Nikki learns about the Kingdom of the Happy Land, and the lives of those who dwelled in the ruins she discovers in the woods, the more she realizes how much of her identity and her family’s secrets are wrapped up in these hills. Because this land is their legacy, and it will be up to her to protect it before it, like so much else, is stolen away.
Inspired by true events, Happy Land is a transporting multi-generational novel about the stories that shape us and the dazzling courage it takes to dream.
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Readers say *Happy Land* by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a poignant historical novel inspired by real freed-slave communities facing Klan violence. Reviewe...
Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a powerful, soul-stirring novel that left an indelible mark on my heart. This book is a gift. It was both a moving work of fiction and a deep well of untold African American history. Perkins-Valdez brilliantly brings to light a chapter of Black legacy that has too often been buried or forgotten, the heartbreaking story of land that was once ours, lost to injustice, yet never stripped of its sacredness.
The story gripped me from beginning to end, weaving sorrow and resilience in equal measure. The loss of land and legacy deeply saddened me. Yet, I was overwhelmingly inspired by the spirit of the characters, especially the strength, dignity, and unshakable will to endure and thrive. Their determination to preserve memory and fight for justice is a profound tribute to the generations who came before us.
Mother Rita was my favorite character. She reminded me so much of the elders I grew up around, wise, steadfast, and full of quiet power. She felt like home. Reading her story brought tears to my eyes and memories of the ancestors whose stories, strength, and spirit still live in us.
Perkins-Valdez’s writing is both lyrical and grounded, filled with empathy and purpose. She doesn't just tell a story, she reclaims a history. Happy Land is a necessary read for anyone who wants to understand the richness and pain of the African American experience, and how we continue to stand tall despite the attempts to erase our legacy.
I highly, highly recommend this book. It’s not just a novel, it’s a remembrance, a resistance, and a restoration.
The story gripped me from beginning to end, weaving sorrow and resilience in equal measure. The loss of land and legacy deeply saddened me. Yet, I was overwhelmingly inspired by the spirit of the characters, especially the strength, dignity, and unshakable will to endure and thrive. Their determination to preserve memory and fight for justice is a profound tribute to the generations who came before us.
Mother Rita was my favorite character. She reminded me so much of the elders I grew up around, wise, steadfast, and full of quiet power. She felt like home. Reading her story brought tears to my eyes and memories of the ancestors whose stories, strength, and spirit still live in us.
Perkins-Valdez’s writing is both lyrical and grounded, filled with empathy and purpose. She doesn't just tell a story, she reclaims a history. Happy Land is a necessary read for anyone who wants to understand the richness and pain of the African American experience, and how we continue to stand tall despite the attempts to erase our legacy.
I highly, highly recommend this book. It’s not just a novel, it’s a remembrance, a resistance, and a restoration.
Happy Land was a fantastic story that immediately drew me in. The writing carried a sense of elegance that made me feel like royalty as I turned each page. Beyond the beauty of the storytelling, it sparked a deeper curiosity in me about my own history and heritage. This book wasn’t just entertaining, it was inspiring. It reminded me how powerful stories can be in connecting us to the past while empowering us in the present.
This is both a wonderful work of historical fiction and a coming of age story. I loved learning about Happy Land and following this story of a family finding their way back to each other and the land that sustained their ancestors.
The story of Happy Land is inspired by actual "intentional communities" formed by freed slaves who, after securing their freedom, faced violent persecution by the Ku Klux Klan. Told across a split timeline, the novel follows Luella and the Montgomery brothers in the 1800s alongside their modern-day descendants, who are now fighting to hold onto the land their ancestors built.
The story opens with present-day Nikki visiting her grandmother, Mother Rita, at her home in the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains. Approaching forty, Nikki barely knows the woman. Her own mother left the mountains long ago to build a life elsewhere and rarely brought Nikki back to visit. Now, summoned by her grandmother without explanation, Nikki answers the call hoping to uncover what drove a wedge between her mother and grandmother all those years ago. Instead of answers, Mother Rita offers her something else entirely — the story of their people, of a queen, and of the land over which she ruled.
"We was owned by a white man by the name of Bobo. To say that he did not kill us was to give him a compliment of sorts."
The dual timelines alternate between Nikki in the present and Luella in the past. We meet Luella at twenty, newly freed alongside her father and settled in a nearby town. She is sharp, loyal, and regal. Her father, a minister, has established a church among fellow freed slaves when the Montgomery brothers — William and Robert — join the congregation. As the Klan tightens its grip on South Carolina, the congregation agrees to follow William north into North Carolina, eventually finding a large plot of land to work and eventually buy in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There, they build more than a settlement. They build a kingdom.
"I'm saying we make this place a kingdom, just like back in Africa. I'm saying we need to claim our royal robes."
William, a visionary and storyteller, draws on the history and legacy of African rulers to inspire his people. He urges them to create something that reaches back to the old country — a reminder of who they were and who they still are. Together, they establish a community treasury, a governing committee, and a shared identity. The people choose William as their king, and William chooses Luella as his queen. The Kingdom of Happy Land grows, prospers, and endures — through decades of love and joy, hardship and loss.
"...But one thing we always knew was that we lived a life in that other land across the ocean before we was brought here in the dark of ships and worked to death. So we made something here on this mountain, something to remind us of who we used to be before they tried to kill us."
In the present, their descendants are fighting to hold on to the very land that fed, sheltered, and shaped their ancestors. As that battle unfolds, Nikki deepens her bond with Mother Rita and works to heal the long fracture between her grandmother and mother — all while coming to understand that she is the great-great-great-granddaughter of a queen.
My final word: I loved this book! The author has a remarkable gift for humanizing her characters — laying them bare, rendering them complicated, and refusing to reduce anyone to simply "good" or "bad." The way she threads the past into the present is both graceful and powerful, reminding us that we are products of those who came before us and that our histories are not so distant as we might think. Luella was born to be a queen, and Mother Rita is her great-grandchild through and through. (Upgraded from a rating of 8.5)
This was the best book I’ve read in a long time. The story captivated me from the start until its beautiful end.
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