Gloria Naylor – författare

With a new introduction by Robert Jones, Jr, author of The New York Times bestselling novel, The Prophets'Gloria Naylor is a brilliant word-worker and a breathtaking story-teller. Mama Day is her masterpiece' Tayari Jones'A sweeping, ambitious, gorgeous novel - takes you by the throat and refuses to let go. Mama Day is a stone-cold masterpiece' Carmen Maria MachadoBetween Georgia and South Carolina is an island you won't find on any map. Only a single wooden bridge connects it to the world. In Willow Springs people still honour their ancestors, who arrived as slaves back in the time of Sapphira Wade, the 'true conjure woman' who set them all free.It is said that Mama Day has inherited Sapphira's power. She is a healer whose hands have delivered almost every soul on the island - and rumour has it that she can summon lightning storms. When Cocoa, her great-niece, returns to Willow Springs from New York, she brings her husband, George. But can Mama Day save them from the island's darker powers?Mama Day is a powerful story of love, belonging, magic and inheritance.'One of my favourite novels of all time. Naylor's skill in weaving together culture, heartbreak, joy, magic, terror, laughter, pain, and love - which is to say, life - is extraordinary' Robert Jones, Jr'Gloria Naylor's exceptional books are deftly acute examinations of the beauty and tenacity of Black lives' Irenosen Okojie

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY IRENOSEN OKOJIEBy the bestselling author of The Women of Brewster PlaceWith its showcase homes and manicured lawns, an address in the wealthy Black American neighbourhood of Linden Hills is a symbol that you've made it. The ultimate achievement: a home on prestigious Tupelo Drive. Making your way downhill to Tupelo is irrefutable proof of your worth. But the farther down the hill you go, the emptier you become and the price of success may well be a journey down to the lowest circle of hell.As two young friends - poets from the wrong side of town - look to earn extra money doing odd jobs in Linden Hills, their warmth, humour and disbelief exposes the hypocrisy of life on the 'right' side of the tracks. Exploring a microcosm of race and social class, Gloria Naylor reveals the true cost of success for the lost souls of Linden Hills.'Gloria Naylor is gifted with timeless wisdom, bottomless empathy, and limitless language. Her novels will shine a light for readers and writers for generations to come' Tayari Jones, author of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE'Naylor's skill in weaving together culture, heartbreak, joy, magic, terror, laughter, pain, and love - which is to say, life - is extraordinary' Robert Jones, Jr., author of THE PROPHETS'Naylor has produced an ambitious novel that aspires to be nothing less than a contemporary reading of Dante's 'Inferno' . . . One is quickly beguiled . . . so gracefully does Naylor fuse together the epic and the naturalistic, the magical and the real' Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY IRENOSEN OKOJIE'Gloria Naylor is gifted with timeless wisdom, bottomless empathy, and limitless language. Her novels will shine a light for readers and writers for generations to come' TAYARI JONES'A virtuoso orchestration of survival, suffering, courage and humour' New York Times Book ReviewIn postwar Brooklyn, on a quiet backstreet, there's a little place that draws people from all over - not for the food, and definitely not for the coffee. An in-between place that's only there when you need it, Bailey's Cafe is a crossroads where patrons stay for a while before making a choice: Move on or check out?There's Sadie, the ladylike alcoholic with a mania for cleanliness; Sweet Esther, who caters to unspeakable appetites in a nearby 'boarding house', taking payment only in white roses; and Mariam, the Ethiopian child who may be the bearer of a miracle. Naylor's breath-taking novel is an enthralling fusion of lives whose courage, mystery and humour suggest nothing less than a blues tapestry of America.'Gloria Naylor was one of the greatest novelists who ever lived. She holds a hallowed place in the canon, and also in hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits' ROBERT JONES, Jr., author of The New York Times bestselling novel, The Prophets

THE BOOK: From behind the battered doors of an apartment block, come the stories of seven courageous black women. Each has suffered knocks and setbacks, each has lived a life defined by social injustice, each has finally found herself here - in Brewster Place. From stoic Mattie, to sassy Etta, from righteous Kiswana to baby-mad Cora Lee, the women of Brewster Place are united in their resilience, their humanity and their collective ambition for brighter futures. Poignant and gritty, The Women of Brewster Place is a remarkably powerful portrait of strength and hope, set against the backdrop of underprivileged urban America. "Gloria Naylor was a shining light in American Literature. Naylor's artistry is breathtaking, as is her gift for capturing raw human emotion." - Tayari Jones THE AUTHOR: Gloria Naylor was born in New York City in 1950. She received a bachelor's degree in English from Brooklyn College and a master's degree from Yale University. The Women of Brewster Place was her first novel and won both the American Book Award and a National Book Award in 1983. It was later adapted into a TV mini-series, starring Oprah Winfrey. Gloria died in September 2016.