Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall (Amistad)
With her new book set in Detroit’s Black Bottom neighborhood, Randall, a Detroit native and revered Nashville-based novelist, introduces Ziggy, a popular gossip columnist and emcee at the best nightclub in town. From the Great Depression through the early Motown years, Ziggy has been the heartbeat of the neighborhood, rubbing elbows with everyone from Count Basie and Sammy Davis Jr. to Joe Louis and Martin Luther King Jr. When he finds himself on his deathbed, he sets out to create a collection of Black Bottom Saints, tributes to the people who defined the neighborhood and his life. Randall also includes nearly 60 cocktail recipes to accompany their stories. (Available August 18.)
If I Had Two Wings by Randall Kenan (W.W. Norton & Company)
Kenan returns this month with a new short story collection set in the fictional North Carolina town of Tims Creek. A rich man is haunted by his dog, an architect reconnects with a high school fling after his famous lover dies of AIDS, a clergyman beats up an adulterer—they’re all here in Tims Creek. It’s a world Kenan populates and brings to life with sincerity, an inventive spirit, and humor. (Available August 4.)
The Dragons, the Giant, the Women by Wayétu Moore (Graywolf Press)
In her debut memoir, the former Memphis resident recounts the escape her family made from their native Liberia during a civil war. After surviving a three-week journey on foot, the family is shepherded across the border into Sierra Leone by a rebel soldier. Soon, they are able to settle in the U.S., where Moore comes to experience what it’s like to be a Black woman and an immigrant living in Texas, wrestling with a search to find something that feels like home. (Available now.)