Home and Away

Spanning eighty years, from Nashville in the 1930s and 1940s to present-day Chicago, this sweeping novel draws on the turbulent history of the Negro Baseball Leagues, as the granddaughter of a former player sets out to tell her family’s story—and redefine her own.

Harper Fleming is done with being passed over. As a journalist for a Chicago newspaper, she’s been refused a shot at the sportswriter position she longs for. And her on again/off again relationship is going nowhere. Leaving both behind, she heads to Nashville, Tennessee, where she plans to interview her great-grandfather, Kelton Fleming, for a book about his time in the Negro Baseball Leagues.
 
When Kelton suffers a stroke within days of her arrival, Harper helps with his recovery while overseeing his legal affairs. In his attic, she discovers a trove of letters, journals, and clippings encompassing his career. But some stories are too personal to print without dishonoring the memory of her great-grandmother. Instead, with Kelton’s approval, Harper begins weaving them into a novel, telling her great-grandfather’s story through the eyes of the fictional Moses Gillian.
 
Chapters flow effortlessly as Harper breathes life into each memory. Particularly intense are Kelton’s recollections of the Green Book, an annual guidebook that helped African Americans navigate the segregated South. Negro League teams relied on it as they traveled between games, hurrying out of unwelcoming towns before sundown to avoid the Klan.
 
As Harper delves into Kelton’s past, a piece of her own resurfaces in the form of Cheney, the brother of a childhood friend. And though Harper came to Nashville to honor her grandfather’s life, she’s finding inspiration to defy others’ expectations, and take her own in a bold new direction . . .