Happy Land
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Perkins-Valdez (Take My Hand) shines in this exquisite tale of a woman who learns about her Black family's trailblazing history from her estranged grandmother. Nikki Lovejoy-Berry, a real estate agent in Washington, D.C., grew up without ever visiting her mother's hometown in North Carolina, or knowing why her mom remains estranged from her grandmother, Mother Rita. So when Mother Rita mysteriously summons Nikki to the mountain town of Zirconia, N.C., where Nikki's mom grew up, she's intrigued. It turns out Mother Rita is terminally ill and needs help fighting a developer who's trying to force her off her land. As Nikki attends court dates and provides her grandmother with advice, she learns about her ancestors, who established the area as the Kingdom of the Happy Land, a self-sufficient community for formerly enslaved people after the Civil War. In a parallel narrative, the reader learns about Nikki's ancestor Luella, who became the community's queen after migrating there from South Carolina. It's a beautifully rendered depiction of a lost world, one that gains even more power as Nikki comes to terms with the struggles her ancestors faced and the truth about her family's recent discord. Readers will be deeply satisfied.
