Kenzie Lowe, who grew up in a Brooklyn household scarred by her alcoholic father's rages and abuse, visits him in the hospital where he is dying, and comes to terms with her past and the choices in her life.

A richly textured novel once again follows Sugar Lacey as she returns to her childhood home in Short Junction, Arkansas, where she confronts love, hatred, and black magic, which leads her to St. Louis where an old friendship puts her courage and compassion to the test and where she encounters a desperate young woman in need of a friend. Reprint.

Set in a small Arkansas town in the 1950s, a tale of loyalty and friendship between two African American women finds Jude turning to the church after the death of her daughter, and to a young woman who turns out to be a prostitute.

Campbell clings to her ideals about love despite the unhappy example set by her parents, while Donovan dreams of having a family and playing for the NBA in the face of difficult personal challenges. By the author of Sugar. Reprint.

Camilla is forced to come to terms with the truth about her past, the limitations of motherhood and reconciliation, and the dark legacy of cancer in order to save her daughter.

Having struggled throughout her life for an understanding of her identity, Sherry wonders at an uncharacteristic display of anger on the part of her mother and digs into her family's past throughout the course of a cross-country journey.

Selected as a Go On Girl! Book Pick“100 Notable Books of 2012” —New York Times“50 Best Books of 2012” —Washington Post"McFadden works a kind of miracle -- not only do [her characters] retain their appealing humanity; their story eclipses the bonds of history to offer continuous surprises . . . Beautiful and evocative, Gathering of Waters brings three generations to life . . . The real power of the narrative lies in the richness and complexity of the characters. While they inhabit these pages they live, and they do so gloriously and messily and magically, so that we are at last sorry to see them go, and we sit with those small moments we had with them and worry over them, enchanted, until they become something like our own memories, dimmed by time, but alive with the ghosts of the past, and burning with spirits."--New York Times Book Review"Read it aloud. Hire a chorus to chant it to you and anyone else interested in hearing about civil rights and uncivil desires, about the dark heat of hate, about the force of forgiveness."--Alan Cheuse, All Things Considered, NPR"McFadden combines events of Biblical proportions--from flooding to resurrection--with history to create a cautionary, redemptive tale that spans the early twentieth century to the start of Hurricane Katrina. She compellingly invites readers to consider the distinctions between 'truth or fantasy' . . . In McFadden's boldly spun yarn, consequences extend across time and place. This is an arresting historical portrait of Southern life with reimagined outcomes, suggesting that hope in the enduring power of memory can offer healing where justice does not suffice."--Publishers Weekly"The rich text is shaped by the African American storytelling tradition and layered with significant American histories. Recalling the woven spirituality of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, this work will appeal to readers of mystic literature."--Library Journal"McFadden makes powerful use of imagery in this fantastical novel of ever-flowing waters and troubled spirits."--Booklist"In this fierce reimagining, the actual town of Money, MS narrates the story about the ghost of Emmett Till and his from-the-other-side reunification with the girl he loved as a child in Gathering of Waters by Bernice L. McFadden."--Ebony MagazineGathering of Waters is a deeply engrossing tale narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi--a site both significant and infamous in our collective story as a nation. Money is personified in this haunting story, which chronicles its troubled history following the arrival of the Hilson and Bryant families.Tass Hilson and Emmett Till were young and in love when Emmett was brutally murdered in 1955. Anxious to escape the town, Tass marries Maximillian May and relocates to Detroit.Forty years later, after the death of her husband, Tass returns to Money and fantasy takes flesh when Emmett Till's spirit is finally released from the dank, dark waters of the Tallahatchie River. The two lovers are reunited, bringing the story to an enchanting and profound conclusion.Gathering of Waters mines the truth about Money, Mississippi, as well as the town's families, and threads their history over decades. The bare-bones realism--both disturbing and riveting--combined with a magical realm in which ghosts have the final say, is reminiscent of Toni Morrison's Beloved.