The Seven Daughters of Dupree
A Novel
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4.2 • 19 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
From the two-time Emmy Award–winning producer and host of the Black and Published podcast comes a sweeping multi-generational epic following seven generations of Dupree women as they navigate love, loss, and the unyielding ties of family in the tradition of Homegoing and The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois.
It’s 1995, and fourteen-year-old Tati is determined to uncover the identity of her father. But her mother, Nadia, keeps her secrets close, while her grandmother Gladys remains silent about the family’s past, including why she left Land’s End, Alabama, in 1953. As Tati digs deeper, she uncovers a legacy of family secrets, where every generation of Dupree women has posed more questions than answers.
From Jubi in 1917, whose attempt to pass for white ends when she gives birth to Ruby; to Ruby’s fiery lust for Sampson in 1934 that leads to a baby of her own; to the night in 1980 that changed Nadia’s future forever, the Dupree women carry the weight of their heritage. Bound by a mysterious malediction that means they will only give birth to daughters, the Dupree women confront a legacy of pain, resilience, and survival that began with an enslaved ancestor who risked everything for freedom.
The Seven Daughters of Dupree masterfully weaves together themes of generational trauma, Black women’s resilience, and unbreakable familial bonds. Echoing the literary power of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis, Nikesha Elise Williams delivers a feminist literary fiction that explores the ripple effects of actions, secrets, and love through seven generations of Black women.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Williams (Beyond Bourbon Street) follows several generations of Black women through slavery and the Jim Crow era into the present in her stirring latest. In 1995 Chicago, 14-year-old Tati listens to her hairdresser mother, Nadia, and church-lady grandmother, Gladys, trade stories about their family's history. Their first American-born ancestor, Emma, was conceived when her mother was raped by her white enslaver. Since then, the Dupree women have carried a curse that prevents them from having male children. Emma's daughter, Jubilee, passes as white and begins a new life in segregated Land's End, Ala., where she marries a white man. When their daughter, Ruby, turns out dark-complexioned, Jubilee's husband concludes she's had a Black lover and threatens her with a knife. Later, in the 1950s, Gladys, Ruby's daughter, flees the racism and violence of the South for Chicago with Eugene, her Pullman porter beau. The nonlinear narrative builds to a breathtaking and heartbreaking climax, when the heavily pregnant Sarah joins a small group of enslaved men planning to escape to Canada in 1861, and it resolves with a tender and hopeful portrayal of the family reconnecting with its Southern roots, as Tati, now a lawyer, moves from Chicago to Land's End. This epic tale of resilience will move readers.
Customer Reviews
The Seven Daughters of Dupree
Breathtaking!