Mischief Makers

A vibrant and sensual story of four women in a mixed-race family across the rapidly changing landscape of twentieth-century Michigan.

Raphael de Baptiste takes a train headed north, away from her home in Detroit, and, by her parents’ design, away from her Black autoworker lover. A new identity awaits in Leelanau County: she’ll be a nurse to a country doctor, and she’ll be passing as white. But soon she meets Mishe, a prosperous Chippewa landowner, and their connection—erotic and earthy—is undeniable.

From the fearless and beloved author of Fish Tales, Mischief Makers is a story of interracial love and desire of many kinds across the twentieth century. Tracking the lives of Raphael and her daughters, from Detroit to Leelanau and back again, Nettie Jones writes with remarkable frankness about suppressed histories, strong-willed women, and the fact that desire is what makes a family. A lost classic from one of America’s most audacious voices, Mischief Makers is a sweeping and sensual novel about connection across generations.