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.