Queen Sugar
A Novel
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4.2 • 308 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
The inspiration for the acclaimed OWN TV series produced by Oprah Winfrey and Ava DuVernay
"Queen Sugar is a page-turning, heart-breaking novel of the new south, where the past is never truly past, but the future is a hot, bright promise. This is a story of family and the healing power of our connections—to each other, and to the rich land beneath our feet."
—Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage
Readers, booksellers, and critics alike are embracing Queen Sugar and cheering for its heroine, Charley Bordelon, an African American woman and single mother struggling to build a new life amid the complexities of the contemporary South.
When Charley unexpectedly inherits eight hundred acres of sugarcane land, she and her eleven-year-old daughter say goodbye to smoggy Los Angeles and head to Louisiana. She soon learns, however, that cane farming is always going to be a white man’s business. As the sweltering summer unfolds, Charley struggles to balance the overwhelming challenges of a farm in decline with the demands of family and the startling desires of her own heart.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
When young widow Charley Bordelon inherits a swath of struggling sugarcane fields, she reluctantly trades in her comfortable California life for the unfamiliar rhythms of backcountry Louisiana. Her sprawling extended family wastes no time schooling her on the region’s deep-seated traditions and pulling her into their intergenerational dramas. Packed with pitch-perfect dialogue, Natalie Baszile’s Queen Sugar—the inspiration for a great TV series—is a luminous, emotionally resonant debut novel. Its gorgeous descriptions take us inside a vibrant community and reveal a landscape few of us have ever experienced.
Customer Reviews
Soul Wrenching!!!!
I read this book after being a huge fan of the show. At first I was upset thinking it wasn't at all the same, however, the more I read the more engrossed I became with the characters in the book. There was so much depth in each person that I felt myself crying at their pain and feeling each emotion. The story touched my soul!!!!
Frustrating Story
I'm glad the author wrote a book highlighting cane farming in the South. However, I found the story to be frustrating, particularly the character development. Ralph Angel had no redeeming qualities whatsoever, but the book is written in such a way that it seems like the reader is supposed to feel sorry for him. He was so entitled and I hated how the grandmother coddled him. The writing itself was overly descriptive and repetitive at times with simile after simile strung together. It made the story drag in places. Overall, not as great as I'd hoped, but I did enjoy learning about sugarcane farming.
Queen Sugar
Great book!!!!!!!