Focusing on the interplay between generations as she did in her debut (Saving Ruby King, 2020), West writes with charming precision and intention...Every character is a beautiful, relatable complication...Both masterfully suspenseful and certain to tug at the reader’s heartstrings, The Two Lives of Sara solidifies West as a literary force.
In the early 1960s, a pregnant Black woman flees Chicago and makes her way to Memphis...The story follows Sara and the others over the course of a few years, as Lebanon grows, good times follow bad times, and joy and tragedy come fast and furious...Author West has written a book that seems made to be filmed: Weighty conversations about living with segregation and trying to survive despite all the difficulties drive the story...A raw look at life for a Black woman in the segregated South.
West draws on characters from her 2020 novel Saving Ruby King in this dramatic if uneven story of a young Black mother who builds a makeshift family...Though the story tends to drag, West demonstrates careful attention to the realities of the Jim Crow era and the burgeoning civil rights movement...The moments of crisis and quiet reflection will please fans of historical family sagas.
