Finalist, 2022 Foreword INDIE Award for Multicultural Fiction
Shortlisted, 2022 Sarton Award for Historical Fiction
A peek into a Black woman writer's life and experiences during the
Harlem Renaissance
Cora James, a 35-year-old Black librarian in Harlem, dreams of being a
writer. Torn between her secret passion and the duties of a working wife
and mother in 1928, Cora strikes up correspondence with renowned poet
Langston Hughes, who encourages her to pursue her dream. Duty frustrates
Cora again, this time when she's called upon to fill in for her cousin
Agnes while she recovers from a brutal beating by her husband Bud.
Working as a cook for a white woman, Cora discovers both time to write
and an unlikely ally in Mrs. Eleanor Fitzgerald, who becomes friend,
confidante, and patron, encouraging Cora to rise above what's commonly
thought of as "a woman's lot." Yet, through a series of startling
developments in her dealings with the white family, Cora's journey to
becoming a writer takes her to the brink of losing everything, including
her life.
In the Fitzgerald home, Cora discovers she has time to write and brings
her notebook to work. When she comforts Mrs. Fitzgerald after an
argument with Mr. Fitzgerald, a friendship forms. Mrs. Fitzgerald
insists Cora call her Eleanor and gives her The Awakening by Kate Chopin
to read. Cora is inspired by the conversation to write a story and sends
it to Langston. Eventually she begins to question her life and marriage
and starts to write another story about a woman's sense of self. Through
a series of letters, and startling developments in her dealings with the
white family, Cora's journey to becoming a writer takes her to the brink
of losing everything, including her life.
"Cora's Kitchen delves deeply into what it means to be a Black woman
with ambition, to make choices and keep secrets, and to have an
unexpected alliance with a white woman that ultimately may save both of
them. Kimberly Garrett Brown renders Cora with immense empathy,
acknowledging and confronting Cora's own prejudices and allegiances and
the social pressures that continue to reverberate far beyond this story.
Cora's Kitchen is a poignant, compelling story in which misfortune and
fortune cannot be teased apart, and literature and life have everything
to do with each other."--Anna Leahy, author of What Happened Wasand
Tumor
"In Cora's Kitchen, all women will find their challenges and longings
expressed with unflinching honesty. Kimberly Garrett Brown's characters
are faithful to a time, yet timeless, transcending the years to both
painfully and beautifully illustrate the struggles women face to find
and fulfill their vocations. Spellbinding."--Erika Robuck, national
bestselling author of The Invisible Woman
"... powerful ... Brown speaks to timeless struggles of women who had
ambitions that reached beyond traditional expectations. ... An affecting
novel of female friendship and a desire for independence."--Kirkus
Reviews
Fiction. Historical Fiction.
