Five Women

A Grammy-winning R&B singer walks out of rehab with a metal plate in his head, eighteen months of sobriety, and a daughter who barely knows his name.

Julien Saint built his career on a sound he couldn't explain - until the night his addiction took everything. What came back with him wasn't the music. It was the memory of a Harlem kitchen, a woman turning off the stove to listen, and a nine-year-old boy who sang like he already knew what he was going to lose.

Now he has to face five women.

The mother who heard him first - and is three years gone. The ex-wife rebuilding her life in D.C. with their daughter, not waiting for him to catch up. The manager who built his career, loved him badly, and is offering one last chance under daylight-only terms. The youth organizer in Atlanta who refuses to let him perform recovery. And the seven-year-old girl opening the door, one inch at a time.

Five Women is a novel about what we owe the people who first believed in us - and what it costs to finally believe in ourselves.

For fans of: The Vanishing Half, Such a Fun Age, Angie Thomas, and Terry McMillan