Synopses & Reviews
Review
“TUMBLING is an accomplished novel, with sharply drawn characters, exuberant prose, plenty of period detail and a wise, forgiving outlook on family life.” Los Angeles Times Book Review
Review
“McKinney-Whetstone weaves an intricate tapestry of love, pain and memory. . . . Philly is as much a character as the women. . . . Neenas dire straits are nicely handled and provide a pretty sharp hook.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Review
“[A] poignant, multigenerational story. . . . An achingly tender portrait of familial love and pain.” Booklist
Review
“A compelling story. . . . In evocative prose, she re-creates the world of 1940s and 1950s Philadelphia with passionate emotion in a moving novel of love, loss, redemption, and healing.” Ebony
Review
“Offers up both wrenching and sweet truths that feel familiar to any reader, in a series of uncloying, unpredictable plotlines. The result is a book that feels honest, filled with people you want to keep reading about.” Philadelphia Magazine
Review
“[McKinney-Whetstone] creates a unique, believable black middle-class world where there are no villainsjust individuals trying their very best to get through life while inflicting minimum pain on each other, or themselves…. These people are flawed, human, engaging in the best sense.” Washington Post
Review
“Even the air is palpable in TUMBLING. . . . The story moves forth on the power of Ms. Mckinney-Whetstones characters. Ms. McKinney-Whetstone captures the formidable struggle to protect both a community and a family.” The New York Times Book Review
Review
“[A] beautifully written tale [and] a lyrical read.” USA Today
Review
“[A] remarkable first novel. . . . The story probes beneath its residents lives to tell a powerful tale of damage and healing.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Review
“A bouncy, moody, musical debut by an author who, like a good blues singer, is strong on style and interpretation. . . . A gifted prose writer with a tremendous sense of place.” Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
This stunning new novel from Diane McKinney-Whetstone, nationally bestselling author of Tumbling, begins in the chaotic backstreets of post-Civil War Philadelphia as a young black woman gives birth to a child fathered by her wealthy white employer.
In a city riven by racial tension, the father's transgression is unforgivable. He has already arranged to take the baby, so it falls to Sylvia, the midwife's teenage apprentice, to tell Meda that her child is dead--a lie that will define the course of both women's lives. A devastated Meda dedicates herself to working in an orphanage and becomes a surrogate mother to two white boys; while Sylvia, fueled by her guilt, throws herself into her nursing studies and finds a post at the Lazaretto, the country's first quarantine hospital, situated near the Delaware River, just south of Philadelphia.
The Lazaretto is a crucible of life and death; sick passengers and corpses are quarantined here, but this is also the place where immigrants take their first steps toward the American dream. The live-in staff are mostly black Philadelphians, and when two of them arrange to marry, the city's black community prepares for a party on its grounds. But the celebration is plunged into chaos when gunshots ring out across the river.
As Sylvia races to save the victim, the fates of Meda's beloved orphans also converge on the Lazaretto. Long ago, one "brother" committed an unthinkable act to protect the other, sparking a chain of events that now puts the Lazaretto on lockdown. Here conflicts escalate, lies collapse, and secrets begin to surface; like dead men rising, past sins cannot be contained.
About the Author
Diane McKinney-Whetstone is the author of five acclaimed novels and the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Library Association's Black Caucus Literary Award for Fiction, which she won twice. She teaches fiction writing at the University of Pennsylvania and lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Greg.