Susan Straight Books

A rich, lyrical and passionate novel which portrays the life of a black woman growing up in America's Deep South.

"A California epic following several native, diverse Californians grasping for air in a world that continues to marginalize them."--

The story follows Serafina, an undocumented worker forced to leave California and her young daughter Elvia behind. Twelve years later, armed with only a pair of silver barrettes as a memory, Serafina embarks on a perilous journey to reunite with Elvia, who is now a pregnant teenager searching for her mother. Their paths intertwine against a backdrop of struggling migrants and lost children, highlighting themes of love, hope, and the quest for family amidst hardship.

"Hold the eggnog: What you need is a draft of 'edgy fatalism and sexy recklessness,' of flashy crime, gallows humor, and 'desperate deals with a variety of devils,' served up every year since 2004 by the editors of Akashic Books' brilliant noir anthologies. From Brooklyn to Boston, from Phoenix to pre- and post-Katrina New Orleans, each volume in the series reveals a city's distinctive inner darkness."— O, The Oprah Magazine Contributors include: Dennis Lehane, Don Winslow, Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, Susan Straight, Jonathan Safran Foer, Laura Lippman, Pete Hamill, Joyce Carol Oates, Lee Child, T. Jefferson Parker, Lawrence Block, Terrance Hayes, Jerome Charyn, Jeffery Deaver, Maggie Estep, Bayo Ojikutu, Tim McLoughlin, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Reed Farrel Coleman, Megan Abbott, Elyssa East, James W. Hall, J. Malcolm Garcia, Julie Smith, Joseph Bruchac, Pir Rothenberg, Luis Alberto Urrea, Domenic Stansberry, John O'Brien, S.J. Rozan, Asali Solomon, William Kent Krueger, Tim Broderick, Bharti Kirchner, Karen Karbo, and Lisa Sandlin. Launched with the summer 2004 award-winning bestseller Brooklyn Noir , the groundbreaking Akashic Noir series now includes over sixty volumes and counting. Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct location within the city or region of the book. This is the first "best of" volume and it powerfully conveys what the series has accomplished. Johnny Temple is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Akashic Books. He won the 2013 Ellery Queen Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the 2010 Jay and Deen Kogan Award for Excellence in Noir Literature. He is the chair of the Brooklyn Literary Council, which works with Brooklyn's borough president to plan the annual Brooklyn Book Festival. Temple also plays bass guitar in the band Girls Against Boys, which has toured extensively across the globe and released numerous albums on independent and major record companies.