Pomegranate, Helen Elaine Lee
Pomegranate, Helen Elaine Lee
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

Pomegranate

Author: Helen Elaine Lee

Narrator: Machelle Williams, Janina Edwards

Unabridged: 12 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/11/2023


Synopsis

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION

A “deep and beautiful” (Jaqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author) novel about a queer Black woman’s fight for recovery, freedom, and redemption after incarceration—an unforgettable story of addiction, motherhood, and self-reinvention.

Ranita Atwater is “getting short.”

She is almost done with her four-year sentence for opiate possession at Oak Hills Correctional Center. Three years sober, she is determined to stay clean and regain custody of her two children. Ranita is regaining her freedom, but she’s leaving behind her lover Maxine, who has inspired her to imagine herself and the world differently.

My name is Ranita, and I’m an addict, she has said again and again at recovery meetings. But who else is she? Who might she choose to become? Now she must steer clear of the temptations that have pulled her down, while atoning for her missteps and facing old wounds. With a fierce, smart, and sometimes funny voice, Ranita reveals how rocky and winding the path to wellness is for a Black woman, even as she draws on family, memory, faith, and love in order to choose life.

Pomegranate is a complex portrayal of queer Black womanhood and marginalization in America from an author “working at the height of her powers” (Tayari Jones, New York Times bestselling). In lyrical and precise prose, Helen Elaine Lee paints a humane and unflinching portrait of the devastating effects of incarceration and addiction, and of one woman’s determination to tell her story.

About Helen Elaine Lee

Helen Elaine Lee was educated at Harvard College and Harvard Law School. She served on the PEN New England board and on its Freedom to Write committee and volunteered with its Prison Creative Writing Program, which she helped to establish. She is a professor in Comparative Media Studies/Writing at MIT. She is the author of three novels: The Serpent’s GiftWater Marked, and Pomegranate. Find out more at HelenElaineLee.net.  


Reviews

Goodreads review by emma

they say don't judge a book by its cover, and yet doing that with this one got me a read that's nice inside and out. another loss for cliché users out there. this book, which ambitiously covers topics like the prison system, addiction, sexuality, parenthood, and atonement, does so simply but effective......more

Goodreads review by Thomas

I think this book did a great job of addressing themes related to incarceration, intergenerational trauma, and wounds related to substance use. I liked the emphasis on healing and how the protagonist’s journey through therapy wasn’t linear and wasn’t always easy, though over time she expressed and u......more

Goodreads review by Cathy

Thank you to Atria Books for an ARC of this book. I enjoyed the writing and this story of loss, redemption and strength. Ranita is a woman released from prison after serving 4 years for drug possession and she is determined to stay clean and get back custody of her 2 children. One can’t help cheerin......more


Quotes

"Casting two distinct voices brilliantly underscores Ranita's rebirth; Williams and Edwards masterfully relay then and now."

"Both narrators capture Ranita's fear and sarcasm, along with the softer side she frequently keeps hidden. Listeners will find themselves invested in Ranita's determination to forge a new life."