From the opening pages, arriving at a honeysuckle-covered, wide-veranda’d house in Memphis, alive with butterflies and its marigold-yellow door glowing, you can tell this is going to be a beautiful book: atmospheric, lyrical, sensory. I can do the plot a disservice by summarising it as good women dealing with the legacy of bad men, but though there is plot, this is more about place and people. Stringfellow summons the Memphis community across several decades with a richness of language that has you feeling you are walking the streets, feeling the heat of the air; as if you, too, are getting your hair done by August, or sketching with Joan. Black lives take centre stage in this beautiful, accomplished, achingly realised story. If you’re looking for a wonderful literary novel that feels deep pain but also holds its arms out to beauty, this is for you.
Room of Joy 