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Having grown up in a Mississippi Southern Baptist church, it wasn't until I was a teenager that I saw the secret double lives of some of us. Rebelling against the submit to authority messages on Saturday night, but sitting pious and submissive come Sunday morning services was de rigueur. Deesha Philyaw's book The Secret Lives of Church Ladies gives voice to secret lives that I know for sure are lived and true. The need for acceptance, for absolution, for grace is ever-present in familial relationships as well as those in the church. These short stories are divine.
— Rachel Watkins***2020 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction***
***2020 Story Prize Finalist***
***Longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction***
Tender, fierce, proudly black and beautiful, these stories will sneak inside you and take root. Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Triumphant. Publishers Weekly
Cheeky, insightful, and irresistible. Ms. Magazine
This collection marks the emergence of a bona fide literary treasure. Minneapolis Star Tribune
Full of lived-in humanity, warmth, and compassion. Pittsburgh Current
These are stories about Black women that havent been told with this level of depth, wit, or insight before, so it will not shock me if Oprah gets around to selecting it before the end of the year. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the churchs double standards and their own needs and passions.
There is fourteen-year-old Jael, who has a crush on the preachers wife. At forty-two, Lyra realizes that her discomfort with her own body stands between her and a new love. As Y2K looms, Carolettas same time next year arrangement with her childhood best friend is tenuous. A serial mistress lays down the ground rules for her married lovers. In the dark shadows of a hospice parking lot, grieving strangers find comfort in each other.
With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.
Triumphant. . . . Philyaws stories inform and build on one another, turning her characters private struggles into a beautiful chorus.
Publishers Weekly
A collection of luminous stories populated by deeply moving and multifaceted characters. . . . Tender, fierce, proudly black and beautiful, these stories will sneak inside you and take root.
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Vivid, vibrant stories that will linger on your tongue like sweet tea.
Vox