Brothers and Sisters - by Bebe Moore Campbell (Paperback)

About the Book

Set in the explosive center of post-riot Los Angeles, this powerful bestseller chronicles the friendship of two professional women--one white, one black--who find their loyalties tested. From the author of Your Blues Ain't Like Mine and recent winner of the NAACP Image Award for outstanding literary work.

Book Synopsis

"With wit and grace, Campbell shows how all our stories--white, black, male female--ultimately intertwine."--Time

Set against the smoldering embers of post-riot Los Angeles, Brothers and Sisters confirms Bebe Moore Campbell's reputation for fiction that "cuts close to the bone of real life" (Atlanta Journal).

Esther Jackson is a bank manager who's worked hard to keep her passions in check. Sensitive to injustice, but struggling against hostility and mistrust, she forms a tentative friendship with Mallory Post, a white coworker who seems sometimes to live in a different--and unreachable--world.

But when an attractive black man is hired as a senior vice president at the bank, with troubling and unexpected consequences for both of these women, Esther is forced to question her deepest loyalties and desire--and what really makes us "brothers and sisters."

Review Quotes

Praise for Brothers and Sisters

"If this is a fair world, Bebe Moore Campbell will be remembered as the most important African-America novelist of this century--except for, maybe, Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin."--Carolyn See, The Washington Post Book World

"A novel of understanding and misunderstanding, suspense and hope. Engrossing...optimistic."--San Diego Union-Tribune

"Campbell pushes past the stereotypes and hang-ups to show that black or white, Korean or Hispanic, rich or poor, we are all human. And it is that affinity that makes us all brothers and sisters."--Charlotte Observer

"Probing and honest (and at times, very funny)."--Chicago Tribune

"Provocative...candid...finely drawn characters."--USA Today

"This absorbing novel explores the intricacies of experience, knowledge and bias which perpetuate inequalities and segregated lives."--Publishers Weekly

"Excellent...a realistic and evenhanded portrait of the conflicts experienced by characters of varied backgrounds."--Library Journal

"A gripping story of corporate and personal intrigue and a snapshot of race and gender relations at a very strained time and place in recent history...Campbell creates a vivid world of complex characters who struggle against the biggest of issues [and] fills the pages of her novel with the best answer of all: hope."--Washington Times

"Daring and insightful."--Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Bebe Moore Campbell was a bestselling author and a journalist. Her nonfiction work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Ms., Essence, Black Enterprise, Ebony, Working Mother, USA Weekend, and Adweek, among other publications. She was a regular contributor to National Public Radio.

She was the author of such national, critically acclaimed bestsellers as Brothers and Sisters, Singing in the Comeback Choir, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine, Stompin' at the Savoy, and What You Owe Me, as well as the award-winning children's book, Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry.

Campbell was born and grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned a bachelor of science degree in elementary education. She taught elementary and middle school for five years. She is survived by her daughter, the actress Maia Campbell, and a son, Ellis Gordon III.