The Two Lives of Sara
A Novel
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Ms. Magazine, The Root, Popsugar, Bustle, and many more!
“An utterly absorbing and dazzling novel about the stories we tell to stay alive and the secrets we keep to protect ourselves.” — Nancy Jooyoun Kim, New York Times Bestselling author of The Last Story of Mina Lee
In 1960s Memphis, a young mother finds refuge in a boardinghouse where family encompasses more than just blood and hidden truths can bury you or set you free.
Sara King has nothing, save for her secrets and the baby in her belly, as she boards the bus to Memphis, hoping to outrun her past in Chicago. She is welcomed with open arms by Mama Sugar, a kindly matriarch and owner of the popular boardinghouse The Scarlet Poplar.
Like many cities in early 1960s America, Memphis is still segregated, but change is in the air. News spreads of the Freedom Riders. Across the country, people like Martin Luther King Jr. are leading the fight for equal rights. Black literature and music provide the stories and soundtrack for these turbulent and hopeful times, and Sara finds herself drawn in by conversations of education, politics and a brighter tomorrow with Jonas, a local schoolteacher. Romance blooms between them, but secrets from Mama Sugar’s past threaten their newfound happiness and lead Sara to make decisions that will reshape the rest of their lives.
With a charismatic cast of characters, The Two Lives of Sara is an emotional and unforgettable story of hope, the limitations of resilience and unexpected love.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The Two Lives of Sara, set in early ’60s Memphis, not only grounds you in its place and time—it gets you under the characters’ skin. Sara is a young, single Black mother who ran from troubled circumstances in Chicago to start a new life in Memphis, where she lives and works at the boarding house of the nurturing, bighearted Mama Sugar. Her traumatic past makes it hard for her to open up, but between her growing bond with Mama Sugar and romantic sparks with local schoolteacher Jonas, a happier life starts to seem possible. At the same time, the harsh realities of Jim Crow are putting Black people in peril all over the South. Author Catherine Adel West takes you inside the heads and hearts of her characters but also immerses you in culture and history: the food, Nina Simone and Sam Cooke, Langston Hughes’ poetry, the Freedom Riders, and the assassination of Medgar Evers. The result is a tender, heartwarming look at a turbulent period that is still relatable and timely.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
West draws on characters from her 2020 novel Saving Ruby King in this dramatic if uneven story of a young Black mother who builds a makeshift family. In 1960s Memphis, sharp-tongued Sara King lives and works at the boarding house of the formidable Mama Sugar, who asks no questions of Sara about her background or her obvious resistance to mothering her son, Lebanon, whom she gave birth to shortly after arriving from Chicago. Sara, though, surprises elementary schoolteacher Jonas Coulter, who has taken a special interest in Mama Sugar's grandson Will, by being well-read. Will's shiftless father, Amos, runs afoul of a loan shark, leading to him being beaten and then the arson of the boarding house. As Mama Sugar rebuilds, romance blossoms between Sara and Jonas, who does not hesitate to marry her even after she reveals her reason for fleeing Chicago while pregnant. Just as Sara seems headed for bliss, tragedy strikes, sending her reeling. Though the story tends to drag, West demonstrates careful attention to the realities of the Jim Crow era and the burgeoning civil rights movement. The moments of crisis and quiet reflection will please fans of historical family sagas.
