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West Branch Fiction Book Discussion

For April, we're reading Perish by LaToya Watkins

Join us for West Branch's monthly book discussion group! We read a variety of diverse contemporary and classic fiction and meet once a month for a thought-provoking conversation. Register for in-person or virtual. Copies are reserved and available for pickup for all attendees. 

Contact discussion facilitator Dani Linn at dtlinn@aurorapubliclibrary.org with questions, concerns, or suggestions.

Perish by LaToya Watkins

From a stunning new voice comes a powerful debut novel, Perish, about a Black Texan family, exploring the effects of inherited trauma and intergenerational violence as the family comes together to say goodbye to their matriarch on her deathbed.

Bear it or perish. Those are the words Helen Jean hears that fateful night in her cousin’s outhouse that change the trajectory of her life.

Spanning decades, Perish tracks the choices Helen Jean—the matriarch of the Turner family—makes and the ways those choices have rippled across generations, from her children to her grandchildren and beyond.

Told in alternating chapters that follow four members of the Turner family: Julie B., a woman who regrets her wasted youth and the time spent under Helen Jean’s thumb; Alex, a police officer grappling with a dark and twisted past; Jan, a mother of two, who yearns to go to school and leave Jerusalem, Texas, and all of its trauma behind for good; and Lydia, a woman whose marriage is falling apart because her body can’t seem to stay pregnant, as they’re called home to say goodbye to their mother and grandmother.

This family’s “reunion” unearths long-kept secrets and forces each member to ask themselves important questions about who is deserving of forgiveness and who bears the cross of blame.

Tackling themes like family, trauma, legacy, home, class, race, and more, this beautiful yet heart-wrenching novel will appeal to anyone who is interested in the intricacies of family and the ways bonds can be made, maintained, or irrevocably broken.

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