Publisher's Synopsis
In 1961 Charlotte, North Carolina, the predominantly black neighbourhood of Brooklyn is a bustling city within a city. Self-contained and vibrant, it has its own restaurants, schools, theatres, churches, and night clubs. There are shotgun shacks and poverty, along with well-maintained houses like the one Loraylee Hawkins shares with her young son, Hawk, her Uncle Ray, and her grandmother, Bibi. Loraylee's love for Archibald Griffin, Hawk's white father and manager of the cafeteria where she works, must be kept secret in the segregated South. Loraylee has heard rumours that the city plans to bulldoze her neighbourhood, claiming it's dilapidated and dangerous. The government promises to provide new housing and relocate businesses. But locals like Pastor Ebenezer Polk, who's facing the demolition of his church, know the value of Brooklyn does not lie in bricks and mortar. Generations have lived, loved, and died here, supporting and strengthening each other. Yet street by street, long-time residents are being forced out. And Loraylee, searching for a way to keep her family together, will form new alliances--and find an unexpected path that may yet lead her home.
