Rhythm & Booze
The Essential Etheridge Knight

The American Daughters

Ady, a curious, sharp-witted girl, and her fierce mother, Sanite, are inseparable. Enslaved to a businessman in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the pair spend their days reminiscing about their family’s rebellious and storied history and dreaming of a loving future. When mother and daughter are separated, Ady is left hopeless and directionless until she stumbles into the Mockingbird Inn and meets Lenore, a free Black woman with whom she becomes fast friends. Lenore invites Ady to join a clandestine society of spies called the Daughters. With the courage instilled in her by Sanite—and with help from these strong women—Ady learns how to put herself first. So begins her journey toward liberation and imagining a new future.

The American Daughters is a novel of hope and triumph that reminds us what is possible when a community bands together to fight for their freedom.

More Adult, Non-Juvenile Books

  • Velma Wallis shares the love, loss, and struggle that mark her coming of age in a two-room cabin at Fort Yukon, Alaska, where she is born in 1960.
  • Real Americans begins in New York City on the brink of Y2K, following twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern, as she falls in love with the charming heir to a pharmaceutical empire, Matthew. Years later, her son Nick, feeling out of place on a remote island, embarks on a quest to uncover the truth about his biological father, challenging the complexities of family, identity, and belonging.
  • An Indigenous artist blends the aesthetics of punk rock with the traditional spiritual practices of the women in her lineage in this bold, contemporary journey to reclaim her heritage and unleash her power and voice while searching for a permanent home.
  • Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
    Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt weaves a heartfelt narrative about Tova Sullivan, a widow who finds solace in her friendship with Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus residing at the local aquarium. As Tova navigates her grief and the mystery surrounding her son's disappearance, the unlikely bond with Marcellus leads her to uncover long-buried truths about the past. This debut novel is a poignant exploration of connection, hope, and the complexities of life.