Kingdom of No Tomorrow

Description

It's that pivotal year, 1968, and Nettie Boileau, a young Haitian student in Oakland, gets caught up in the ongoing revolutionary fever. With her friend Clia Brown, she uses her public health skills to help operate the free health clinics created by the people she believes are "true revolutionaries," the Black Panthers. When she falls in love with Black Panther Party Defense Captain Melvin Mosley, their passionate love affair soon eclipses all else—her friendship with Clia and even her own sense of self.

Pregnant, Nettie follows Melvin to Chicago to help with a newly-launched Illinois chapter of the Panthers, but once there, she finds Chicago segregated, police surveillance brutal, and her faith in love eroding as Melvin becomes unfaithful. After a violent tussle with the police and the loss of their unborn child, both Nettie and Melvin are caught in the viciousness of J. Edgar Hoover’s covert campaigns, and Nettie is soon on the run, desperate to find power in her roots and ultimately, to save herself.

With richly imagined, relatable characters, Kingdom of No Tomorrow tells a story of Black love, self-determination, and the importance of revolution in the midst of injustice. Fabienne Josaphat was born and raised in Haiti, and graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing from Florida International University. Of her first novel, Dancing in the Baron’s Shadow published with Unnamed Press, Edwidge Danticat said, “Filled with life, suspense, and humor, this powerful first novel is an irresistible read about the nature of good and evil, terror and injustice, and ultimately triumph and love.” In addition to fiction, Josaphat writes non-fiction and poetry, as well as screenplays. Her work has been featured in The African American Review, The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, The Master’s Review, Grist Journal, Damselfly, Hinchas de Poesia, Off the Coast Journal and The Caribbean Writer. Her poems have been anthologized in Eight Miami Poets, a Jai-Alai Books publication. Fabienne Josaphat lives in South Florida."This beautifully convincing slice of history is powered not just by good research, but by lots of suspense, compelling characters, and understated political themes that broke my heart because of how timely they remain. The Kingdom of No Tomorrow will bring the fierce vision of the Black Panthers to new generations of readers, adding some stunning context to the modern Black Lives Matter movement."—Barbara Kingsolver, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Demon CopperheadPraise for Dancing in the Baron's Shadow:

"Fabienne Josaphat impressively brings to life a horrible period as well as the men and women who fought against it. Filled with life, suspense, and humor, this powerful first novel is an irresistible read about the nature of good and evil, terror and injustice, and ultimately triumph and love."


 —Edwidge Danticat, author of Claire of Sea Light“With her timely and urgent novel, and through the eyes, heart, and soul of Nettie, we are brought front and center into the world of the Panthers, and how they struggled to bring the Black community into a place where justice was possible. Kingdom of No Tomorrow is ambitious in scope and brave in execution. “Nettie had grown accustomed to the kind of darkness the human eye couldn’t recognize,” the novel begins, but there is also lightness and hope. Nettie is a character to cheer for, and her struggles remain relevant in the chaos and upheaval we are living through today.”
 —Naomi Benaron, author of PEN/Bellwether winner Running the Rift

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