Red at the Bone

An unexpected teenage pregnancy pulls together two families from different social classes. Sixteen years later, it is the evening of that child's coming-of-age ceremony in her grandparents' Brooklyn brownstone. She is surrounded by loved ones and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, in a dress originally intended for her mother a generation earlier. Moving backward and forward in time, Red at the Bone is the story of these families and how they arrived at this moment and beyond.
Jacqueline Woodson movingly considers not just her characters' private hopes and successes, but also the tolls they've paid for striving to overcome expectations and escape the pull of history. Exploring themes of sexual desire and identity, mother-daughter relationships, loss and grief, prejudice, class, education, ambition, and gentrification, Red at the Bone is a taut, powerful story of family, love, and legacy.