This Bitter Earth
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
This powerful sequel to Bernice L. McFadden’s bestselling debut Sugar follows a young African-American woman back to her Arkansas hometown, where she must confront difficult truths about her parentage and a curse in her family’s past.
When Sugar Lacey returns to Short Junction to find the aunts who raised her, she hopes they will be able to tell her the truth about her parents. What she discovers is not just a terrible story of unrequited love, but also a tale of black magic that has cursed generations of Lacey women.
Armed with newfound knowledge and strength in the face of adversity, Sugar must push through the pain to find her absent father and discover the truth about the curse that has befallen her family line in hopes of breaking it before she passes it on to her own child.
A powerfully realized novel that brings back the unforgettable characters from Sugar, This Bitter Earth is a testament to the ultimate triumph of the human spirit.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a heartfelt but lackluster sequel to her critically acclaimed debut, Sugar, McFadden follows Sugar as she attempts to heal her physical and emotional wounds. In the winter of 1955, Sugar Lacey leaves her man, the evil Lappy Clayton, in Bigelow, Ark., to return to Short Junction only 10 miles, but a world away. The Lacey sisters, who raised Sugar from birth and employed her in their house of ill repute, welcome her back and answer her questions about her parents. When all three sisters die, Sugar receives her inheritance, and would live comfortably if not for the ghosts of the past that won't leave her in peace. Finally, in 1965, she is drawn to St. Louis to seek out her old friend Mary. Appalled to discover that Mary's home has become a heroin den and her granddaughter a junkie, Sugar bravely and selflessly tries to save the young girl. This ordeal and a subsequent bus trip to Bigelow featuring a harrowing episode of racial intimidation are the best scenes in the novel as McFadden captures the horrors of drug addiction and the zeitgeist of a racist South. Unfortunately, the rest of the novel is too full of Sugar's victimization: suffering the pain of her past, she lacks much of the fiery fighting spirit that made her appealing and sympathetic in the first novel. Agent, James Vines.
