5 New Books Published in 2021

After Lex escapes from an abusive childhood, she does her best to put it all behind her. But when her mother dies in prison and leaves their family home to her and her siblings, the woman formerly known as "Girl A" has to reconnect with the only people who really know what happened to them. This gripping story about family dynamics and the nature of human psychology will hold you tight all the way through.

About the Author

Abigail Dean works as a lawyer for Google, and before that was a bookseller. She lives in London, and is working on her second novel.

When Ruth gets pregnant as a teenager, she gives up her son for adoption and leaves town for an Ivy League education, hoping they're both on a path toward better things. But she never really gets over him, so when her husband wants to start a family years later, she's drawn back home to find out what happened to her baby. What follows is a heart-wrenching story of family, racism, poverty and love.

About the Author

A native of Chicago’s South Side, Nancy Johnson worked for more than a decade as an Emmy-nominated, award-winning television journalist at CBS and ABC affiliates nationwide. A graduate of Northwestern University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she lives in downtown Chicago and manages brand communications for a large nonprofit. The Kindest Lie is her first book.

Growing up in Brooklyn during the Reconstruction, Libertie knows her physician mother wants Libertie to follow a similar path. But instead, Libertie accepts the proposal of a Haitian man to pursue a new life, only to discover she's still not his equal on the island. Inspired by the story of one of the first Black female physicians in the U.S., this is a gorgeous meditation on what freedom means.

About the Author

Kaitlyn Greenidge is an American writer. She received a 2017 Whiting Award for Fiction for her debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman. Her second book is a historical novel called Libertie (2021)

The Harlem Melancons are powerful and prosperous, thanks to their magical caul that has healing properties. When neighbor Leila turns to them to save her baby and the deal falls through, it sets off a chain of events that will reverberate through the Melancon clan and Harlem itself. This engrossing story is rich with mystery, page-turning tension and the powerful ways family can hold us even in toxic circumstances.

About the Author

Morgan Jerkins is the author of Wandering in Strange Lands and the New York Times bestseller This Will Be My Undoing and a Senior Culture Editor at ESPN’s The Undefeated. Jerkins is a visiting professor at Columbia University and a Forbes 30 Under 30 leader in media, and her short-form work has been featured in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Elle, Esquire, and the Guardian, among many other outlets. She is based in Harlem.

The book centers around a law clerk for an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. After the Justice becomes gravely ill, the law clerk becomes his legal guardian. Abrams commented the inspiration for the book came from a conversation with her mother, in which her mother noted Article Three of the United States Constitution allows for a lifetime appointment for justices, but "has no failsafe for a person being physically unable to do the job." (Wikipedia)

About the Author

Abrams has found success as an author of both fiction and nonfiction. Her nonfiction books, Our Time is Now and Lead from the Outside, were New York Times Best Sellers. Outside of politics, Abrams has published eight fiction books, using the pen name Selena Montgomery until 2021. Her latest work of fiction, While Justice Sleeps, was released on May 27, 2021, under her real name.