Linden Hills

The most refreshing voice in the black idiom since readers first discovered Toni Morrison – Claude Brown, author of MANCHILD IN THE PROMISED LANDBy letting her mythic imagination spring free from the constraints of old-fashioned realism, Naylor has produced an ambitious novel that aspires to be nothing less than a contemporary reading of Dante’s ‘Inferno’ … One is quickly beguiled … so gracefully does Naylor fuse together the epic and the naturalistic, the magical and the real – Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *Naylor’s humour, both sad and satiric, is distinctive; Willie and Lester are vital, earthy, boisterously irreverent guides … this is a haunting homiletic-with a cohesive strength of statement concerning Black aspiration within a tarnished American Dream * Kirkus *Gloria Naylor is gifted with timeless wisdom, bottomless empathy, and limitless language. Her novels will shine a light for readers and writers for generations to come – Tayari Jones, author of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGEIrrefutably, Gloria Naylor was one of the greatest novelists who ever lived. Every single one of her works was masterful, crafted with the kind of rare artistic brilliance that places her in extremely limited company. She is likely best known for her National Book Award-winning debut work, The Women of Brewster Place, but that is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Whether the divine Bailey’s Cafe, the haunting Linden Hills, or the exquisite Mama Day (one of my favorite novels of all-time), Naylor’s skill in weaving together culture, heartbreak, joy, magic, terror, laughter, pain, and love-which is to say, life-is extraordinary. There is something both mundane and cosmic about her writing that captures the human condition in a way that perhaps no other writer did or will. Her work is, for me, a shout, a praisesong, a hosanna, a hallelujah, a Black fist in the air; àse! She holds a hallowed place in the canon, and also in hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits. She was one of the blessed ones – Robert Jones, Jr., author of The New York Times bestselling novel, THE PROPHETSWith Linden Hills, Naylor has constructed a place for herself among the leading contemporary writers of fiction * Los Angeles Times Book Review *Every page contains a brilliant insight, a fine description, some petty and human, some grandiloquent * Chicago Tribune *

Gloria Naylor (1950-2016) was born in New York City. She received her B.A. in English from Brooklyn College and her M.A. in Afro-American studies from Yale. Her books include The Women of Brewster Place, which won both the American Book Award and the National Book Award for first novel and was also adapted into a film by Oprah Winfrey; Linden Hills; Mama Day; Bailey’s Cafe and The Men of Brewster Place. She taught writing and literature at George Washington University, New York University, Boston University, and Cornell University.

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