Strivers - by Afia Atakora (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A sly, thrilling novel of a murder that rocks Manhattan's Black elite at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, making them question who they are, what they want, and where the bodies are buried--from the award-winning author of Conjure Women

What I won't tell 'em is this--

Seventy-seven-year-old Nadine Singleton isn't going to give her grand-niece's documentary film crew what they want. Sweating under camera lights, she's had it with their questions about the skeletons hidden in every closet of the once-magnificent Mulberry Estate in Harlem--until a construction man finds a literal one, bones bleached with age, in the basement wall.

And then she has to tell the story.

It's 1926 and when the sun goes down, 131st Street comes alive at Singleton's, an underground speakeasy run by a young Nadine. Though she was once primly behaved, as one of Manhattan's few Black debutantes, Nadine is now, to her mother's great dismay, a bootlegging hedonist in men's clothes, and the life of the clandestine party scene--but it all comes crashing down when her lover's body turns up dead on the club's doorstep. Frantic with grief but equally desperate to protect her speakeasy, she arranges for the body to be moved, setting off a chain of events that will shape the rest of her life.

As the search for the killer heats up, Nadine's not the only one with secrets. Her brother and business partner is scarred from the war and wetting his beak in more ways than one. A crooked detective is desperate to solve the case to protect his reputation. A thief is stealing names and trying them on for size. An old sweetheart is caught at the crossroads as queer soirées and high society collide. And as Nadine's dreams fall to pieces, she just wants to understand how everything went so wrong.

Taut, twisty, and sophisticated, Strivers brings to life a glittering, Gatsby-esque world--and its shadows--as it asks how identity is made, how it can be transformed, and how we might bring our secrets into the light of day.

Review Quotes

"The world of Harlem in 1926 leaps off the page in Afia Atakora's Strivers, a richly textured novel that is a historical fiction, a crime novel, and a harrowing story about identity. . . . What a gorgeous escape into another world."--Attica Locke, New York Times bestselling author of Bluebird, Bluebird

"Daring, transportive, and ingeniously plotted, Afia Atakora's Strivers is a true feat of a novel. It elides categorization--at once a mystery, a meticulous portrait of 1920s Harlem, a transcendent queer love story, and a tale about the cost of self-reinvention, written in prose that sings and stings. . . . Like Sarah Water's Fingersmith meets Toni Morrison's Jazz, but imbued with an uncanny magic that is all Atakora's own."--Violet Kupersmith, author of Build Your House Around My Body

"Afia Atakora is a writer of extraordinary range and ambition. Set in the darkly glittering heart of Harlem at the height of the Renaissance, Strivers intertwines a thrilling murder mystery and a tragic love story between two women bound by devastating secrets and a powerful search for the truth. Sweeping, emotionally rich, and masterfully constructed, this unforgettable novel is an astonishing achievement. I loved every page."--Lauren Wilkinson, author of American Spy

About the Author

Afia Atakora is a Ghanaian American author of historical fiction. Her debut novel, Conjure Women, won the Society of American Historians Prize and a literary fellowship from the Lannan Foundation. Critically acclaimed, Conjure Women was named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, Book Riot, Parade, and NPR. Atakora was born in the UK and divides her time between New York City and New Jersey, where she was raised and now lives with her husband and two daughters.