God's Will and Other Lies
God's Will and Other Lies
“God's Will and Other Lies is a major storytelling delight.“
Jewelle Gomez, author of The Gilda Stories
“[T]here was so much hurt and pain and fear and sorrow ... that I needed more than one kind of song to sing,” says one of Penny Mickelbury’s characters in God’s Will and Other Lies. Here a cacophony of voices sing, spit, and scream their songs in a collection both historical and absolutely contemporary.
Mickelbury’s characters speak in distinct voices, rife with the cadence of place, and her elderly characters are as uniquely defined as her children. Everyone has a fully realized place at this table.” — Camille-Yvette Welsch, Foreword Reviews
In this stunning departure from her mystery writing, Penny Mickelbury’s collection of stories God’s Will and Other Lies, attends to the lives of Black women, mostly aging and elderly, all determined to face life with strength and grace.
A nearly blind woman is determined to venture out into the world alone, and must face the consequences of her travels. A woman estranged from her community ponders the meaning of hearsay and its devastating consequences. A middle-aged woman leaves the danger of the city only to find it lurking in her own backyard. And in the novella, “Into the Fire,” Mickelbury follows the life of a southern family as they strive for success amidst the violence and uncertainty of 1960s Detroit.
In beautiful and exacting prose, Mickelbury gives voice to an often-overlooked coterie of women in this superb collection of fiction.
Publication date: March 26, 2019
ISBN-13: 978-0-9972439-2-5
Cover art: Mirande Jean-Gilles
Cover design: Lauren Curry