A Woman's Worth
A Novel
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Embracing the shattered pieces of the soul and championing the resilient nature of the heart, A Woman’s Worth takes readers on a journey of startling depth. From a speakeasy whorehouse in the bottoms of Alabama to a luxurious high-rise apartment in Kenya, acclaimed author Tracy Price-Thompson crosses boundaries of sexuality, gender, and culture to accentuate the core of black identity: the enormous strength of family.
“Ain’t nothing like a Black man. No other man on the face of the earth can hold a light up to him, coming or going. Why do you think women are all the time chasing behind them? Smooth game and all, when a brotha loves you, he loves you right.”
—from A Woman’s Worth
Abeni Omorru is a stunning Kenyan woman who is haunted by piercing memories. Although her father’s wealth ensures her a life of prestige, childhood trauma has left her emotionally damaged and sexually promiscuous. While Abeni takes on many lovers, none come close to healing the wounds of her heart—and only a man who understands her worth can truly claim her soul.
Bishop Johnson is also haunted by his past. Raised by prostitutes in a rural Alabama town, he is a promising teenage boxer—until his dreams are shattered when his parents are murdered during a violent robbery and he takes revenge on the perpetrators. Bishop goes to jail, and when he is released he has a volatile temper and a mean left hook to back it up.
Trouble continues to find Bishop, and he is forced to leave Alabama and travel to Kenya with the Peace Corps. There he falls in love with Abeni, and they marry. When Bishop learns the secret of Abeni’s past, he is force to make a decision that may cost him more than one man should ever have to sacrifice.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After two steamy contemporary romances (Black Coffee; Chocolate Sangria), Price-Thompson changes course (slightly), tackling issues of female circumcision, racial identity and cultural difference in this raunchy, provocative novel. Bishop Johnson was born in a brothel in Alabama and grew up surrounded by liquor, gambling and sex. As a teenager, his parents are killed in a gunfight, and he is sent by the state to live with his abusive uncle. Luckily, he meets a kind family that takes him in and offers him a stable home, but when he beats the local white bully in a fair fight, he must leave town in order to protect his newfound family. He joins the Peace Corps and travels to Kenya, where his world is irrevocably changed. Here he meets Abeni, daughter of a powerful chief, who was forced at age five to undergo the painful genital circumcision rites that are believed to keep women pure until marriage. For Abeni, the ritual throws her into a state of agonizing mental confusion. When a family friend "ruins" her purity, she is sent to a sympathetic doctor, whose efforts to help her end in tragedy. Years of rebellious, frantic sex follow, but Abeni finally gives up her pleasureless trysts and meets and marries Bishop. When their own daughter is threatened with the same initiation rites Abeni endured as a child, she and Bishop are forced to confront their cultural differences and make a choice that will affect the future of their daughter, their relationship and their own lives. Price-Thompson gives weighty issues a tabloid-style spin ("When it comes to circumcising little girls, I'm one narrow-minded motherfucker!") and her prose veers from eloquent to purple, but her passion shines through, making this a charged page-turner. 4-city author tour.
