The Mothers. A novel

It begins with a secret. It is the last season of high school life for Nadia Turner, a rebellious, grief-stricken, seventeen-year-old beauty. Mourning her mother's recent death, she takes up with the local pastor's twenty-one-year-old son, Luke. They are young ; it's not serious. But the secret that results from this teen romance - and the subsequent cover-up - will have an impact that goes far beyond their youth.
As Nadia hides the truth from everyone, including Aubrey, her best friend, the years move quickly. Soon, Nadia, Luke, and Aubrey are full-fledged adults, still shadowed by the choices they have made in their youth, and by the constant, nagging question : What if they had chosen differently ? The possibilities of the road not taken are a relentless haunt.

An urgent and provocative debut from an important new voice, The Mothers is a book about community and ambition, love and friendship, and living up to expectation in contemporary black America.