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A Novel
by Donna Hill
Their Eyes Were Watching God for a new generation craving a romantic finale—a sweeping historical tale that is a journey of the heart and of the times.
If it wasn't for Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Nola Denny didn't know how she would have survived her father's tragic death or her mother's descent into mental illness. Inspired by Hurston's main character, Janie Crawford, Nola sets out to find her own voice, silenced by the weight of being a caretaker and the pains of her past. On her journey to New York, Nola stops in Meridian—a detour that unexpectedly leads to a fresh start, a home, and her own Tea Cake, a Pullman Porter named Baldwin Carter.
Baldwin escaped a loveless childhood and found a caring stranger who invited him into her home and gave him a chance at a new life. A proud, hardworking Pullman Porter, Baldwin must endure bowing and scraping to passengers who barely see him as a man. When he encounters Nola, he instinctively knows he has met his anchor, a woman who makes every inch of him stand tall.
Experiencing loss, hardship, and months of separation, Nola and Baldwin must come to terms with their pasts to share a future together. The young couple know that time and distance cannot separate them, and that the sacrifices they must make are not only for themselves, but for all those who come after them, searching for a better life.
Set during the end of the Great Depression, and shaped by real-world events, crisscrossing the country from South to Midwest to North, Nola and Baldwin is an epic tale of a love powerful enough to overcome the dark forces of racism that threatens to tear it apart.
"A pioneer of the genre, Donna Hill is at the height of her powers with Nola and Baldwin. It is Their Eyes Were Watching God for a new generation - a sweeping, lyrical epic that finally delivers the romantic finale our hearts have been craving. Set against the harsh shadows of the Great Depression, Hill crafts a masterful journey of resilience and a love powerful enough to anchor the soul. This isn't just a romance; it's a stunning tribute to the legacy of those who fought for a better life. Rich, soulful, and deeply moving."―ReShonda Tate, author of the USA Today bestseller With Love from Harlem
"Nola and Baldwin is a beautifully told story of hardship, hope and enduring love that simply swept me away. Donna Hill masterfully captures the resilience of the human spirit against the backdrop of history. I had never read a novel that so thoroughly dropped me into the life of a Pullman Porter and I loved it. This story will linger long after the last page is read." ―Vanessa Miller, USA Today bestselling author
This information about Nola and Baldwin was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Donna Hill began her career in 1987 writing short stories for the confession magazines. Since then, she has written more than 100 published titles and is considered one of the early pioneers of the African American romance genre. Three of her novels have been adapted for television. She has been featured in Essence, the New York Daily News, USA Today, Today's Black Woman, and Black Enterprise among many others. She has received numerous awards, including The Career Achievement Award, the first recipient of The Trailblazer Award, The Zora Neale Hurston Literary Award, The Gold Pen Award, as well as commendations for her community service. She has also edited several highly successful novels and anthologies. Donna is a graduate of Goddard College with an MFA in Creative Writing and is an Associate Professor of Professional Writing and Executive Director for the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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