Life and Other Love Songs

“Riveting, rhythmic, transcendent...a stellar family saga.”—Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author of Red at the Bone A father’s sudden disappearance exposes the private fears, dreams, and joys of a Black American family in the late decades of the twentieth century, in this page-turning and intimate new novel from the author of The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls. It’s a warm October afternoon, and Ozro Armstead walks out into the brilliant sunshine on his thirty-seventh birthday. At home, his wife, Deborah, and daughter, Trinity, prepare a surprise celebration; down the street, his brother, Tommy, waves goodbye as Oz heads back to his office after a birthday lunch. But Oz won’t make it to the party or even to his briefcase back at his desk. He is about to disappear. And his disappearance will send shock waves through his family. Deborah—a gifted singer, once just a hit away from Motown stardom—is devastated, especially as she discovers how little she knew of her husband. Trinity, a writer, refuses to accept that her doting father is truly gone. She believes he’ll return at any moment. But it is Oz’s beloved brother, himself still burdened by secrets from their shared past, who may hold the key to understanding what happened to Oz. Told in interlocking narratives, moving backward and forward in time, Life and Other Love Songs is a gripping story about history and how it can haunt us—husbands and wives, fathers and daughters, and the closest of brothers. It is about the vagaries of life and the ways in which, through it all, love endures. Story Locale:Detroit