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A Novel
by Camille Acker
In Washington, D.C.'s powerful Black elite, legacy is everything. When a young heir to one of the city's most influential institutions seeks funding to cement her future, a shadowy organization offers to help—but it could cost her far more than she's willing to give.
Nina Johnson has always taken pride in belonging to The Tenth. After all, she's following in the footsteps of her ancestors: Her great-great-grandmother founded the prestigious DC society—a space for influential African Americans—just forty years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Nina's been elected to helm the organization, but she's determined to escape the influence of her mother, who has led the organization with a steadfast commitment to tradition, all while keeping Nina under her freshly manicured thumb. Nina's determined to forge her own path and do things differently: fewer stuffy, out-of-touch meetings and boring galas, more young people, and a swankier headquarters.
To realize her ambitions, Nina needs funding. So, when a wealthy white benefactor named Sienna Masters offers financial support in exchange for her participation in a mysterious project at a former public housing complex, The Orchard, Nina ignores her initial skepticism and agrees to a partnership. But as Nina and those closest to her piece together Sienna's true motives, they discover far more sinister forces at play, ones that exploit Nina's community for profit, with stakes that extend far beyond her ambitions for The Tenth. But how far is Nina willing to go to shape her future? And what is she willing to sacrifice along the way?
A whip-smart and sly social commentary on the complex interplay of race, class, and family legacy, A Very Special Episode will keep you on the edge of your seat.
"As inventive as it is incisive, A Very Special Episode pulls us into a world where hunger for representation leads to wicked deception. With its brilliant portrayals of both comforting and complicated Black folks—on and off the TV screen—Camille Acker offers us a biting satire about the ever-shifting ways to perform Blackness. This is a very special book." —Bridgett M. Davis, author of The World According to Fannie Davis
"Camille Acker joins the pantheon of great American humor writers with A Very Special Episode. A raucously hilarious, deeply felt, and imaginative novel that probes the future of Black identity in America and asks what it means to be a good daughter, sister, lover, and friend." —Naomi Jackson, author of The Star Side of Bird Hill
This information about A Very Special Episode 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.
Camille Acker is the author of the short story collection Training School for Negro Girls. She grew up in Washington, D.C., and holds a B.A. in English from Howard University and an M.F.A in Creative Writing from New Mexico State University. Her work has been published in The New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, Electric Literature, and in the anthology On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library. Her writing has received support from the Tin House Residency program, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Voices of Our Nations Arts, and Millay Colony for the Arts, among others. She was a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and named a Fellow by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. She lives in Philadelphia, PA with her partner.
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