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Birds of Opulence
Birds of Opulence
From the critically acclaimed, award-winning author of Blackberries, Blackberries and Water Street comes an astonishing new novel
A lyrical exploration of love and loss, The Birds of Opulence centers on several generations of women in a bucolic southern black township as they live with and sometimes surrender to madness
The Goode-Brown family, led by matriarch and pillar of the community Minnie Mae, is plagued by old secrets and embarrassment over mental illness and illegitimacy
Meanwhile, single mother Francine Clark is haunted by her dead, lightning-struck husband and forced to fight against both the moral judgment of the community and her own rebellious daughter, Mona
The residents of Opulence struggle with vexing relationships to the land, to one another, and to their own sexuality
As the members of the youngest generation watch their mothers and grandmothers pass away, they live with the fear of going mad themselves and must fight to survive
Crystal Wilkinson offers up Opulence and its people in lush, poetic detail
It is a world of magic, conjuring, signs, and spells, but also of harsh realities that only love -- and love that's handed down -- can conquer
At once tragic and hopeful, this captivating novel is a story about another time, rendered for our own.