FAR FROM THE TREE by Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant is about four generations of African American women
All the women, particularly Annie's love child, Odella, the granddaughters, Celeste and Veronica, and the fourth-generation daughter, Niki, display strength and determination. Their struggles as women who are mothers, daughters, and sisters lead them back to family property in Prosper, North Carolina. The old saying that the apple does not fall far from the tree is poignantly depicted in this family, whether it's Annie's catering business, the great-granddaughters' quest to become a chef, Odella's dismissal of the past, or Celeste's and Veronica's inability to make their lives work in the present. Each woman arrives at the family property for different reasons and with different motives. Their discovery of decades-old secrets and family skeletons sets the women on a course toward healing and reconciliation. The time spent together sharing the truth with the women who mean the most and wish the best for them helps each woman to become reenergized and refocused. This story is brave, realistic, and touching.
Celeste English and Ronnie Frazier are sisters, but they couldn't be more different. Celeste is a doctor's wife, living a perfect and elegant life. But secretly, she is terrified: her marriage is falling apart and her need to control the people around her threatens to alienate her entire family. And Celeste allows no one to see how vulnerable she really is. Ronnie is an actress, living in New York. Her life, however, is a lie: she has no money, has no home, and her life is held together by "chewing gum, paper clips, and spit," though she wants everyone to think that her life is one of high glamour and budding fame. When their father dies, the sisters inherit a house in Prosper, North Carolina. Their mother, Della, is adamant that they forget about going there and dredging up the past. Because Della has secrets she'd rather not see come to light-secrets and heartbreak she's kept from everyone for years. Neither Ronnie, Celeste, nor Della realize just what their trip to Prosper will uncover and they must discover for themselves who they really are, who they really love, and what the future holds for them. Far From The Tree is a novel that asks the questions: can the past ever truly remain hidden? Can mothers and daughters put aside their usual roles long enough to get to really know each other? Long enough to see they each have felt the love, loss, heartache and joy that they share as women. And can two strangers realize that they are, and always will be, sisters?
Virigina DeBerry and Donna Grant are the bestselling, award-winning authors of Tryin' to Sleep In the Bed You Made, the novel which won the Merit Award for fiction from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, the Book of the Year Award from Blackboard, and the New Author of the Year Award from the Go On Girl Book Club. Virginia and Donna first met while working as models, and what should have been a rivalry ended up being a decades-long friendship. Virginia lives in New Jersey, and Donna lives in Brooklyn with her husband.
January
2001
