Overview
- Storehouse Voices, an imprint of Crown Publishing, will publish the novel on June 30, 2026, with pre-orders available now.
- Set in 1990s New York, the story follows a magazine beauty editor whose carefully built life is upended by unsettling news that forces her to confront a buried childhood secret.
- Mara Brock Akil says she wrote the book to explore isolation, shame, resilience and the redemptive power of love, hoping readers recognize and release their own burdens.
- Publisher Tamira Chapman calls it a powerful literary debut affirming Black women’s interior lives, while editor Chelcee Johns highlights themes of sexual awakening, family trauma, sudden love and evolving friendship.
- The announcement arrives as Brock Akil’s Netflix series Forever readies a second season after hitting No. 1 and as she is set to receive the Producers Guild’s Norman Lear Achievement Award on Feb. 28.