Today’s GalleyCrush is LaTanya McQueen’s When the Reckoning Comes, forthcoming from Harper Perennial on August 3, 2021.
Perfect pitch: “A haunting novel about a Black woman who returns to her hometown for a plantation wedding and the horror that ensues as she reconnects with the blood-soaked history of the land and the best friends she left behind.”
First lines: “They are coming. In life, heavy was the crown of chains meant to keep their bodies down, but their spirits soon will rise.”
Book buzz: “Whether we know it or not, we are all haunted by history. LaTanya McQueen’s When the Reckoning Comes makes that fact both startlingly real and beautiful. And while McQueen serves up stark lucidity and beauty, she doesn’t hide from the darkness of the past, instead she makes meaning of it. This book is a wonder.” —Rion Amilcar Scott
Book notes: Paperback, fiction, 256 pages.
Author bio: LaTanya McQueen has an MFA from Emerson College, a PhD from the University of Missouri, and was the Robert P. Dana Emerging Writer Fellow at Cornell College. She is an assistant professor of English and creative writing at Coe College in Iowa.
