"Trinity pulses with the very best in Southern spirit-writing. The characters have this way of floating beneath the plot, right above the dirt in a place that is equally rich as it is terrifying. I am forever changed by what Zelda Lockhart has made."
— Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir
TRINITY, a novel by Zelda Lockhart
HarperCollins Amistad | July 4, 2023 | Hardcover | $27.99 | ISBN: 9780063160958 |
E: 9780063160972 | Audio: 9780063160989
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/trinity-zelda-lockhart?variant=40902291947554
Trinity is described as the riveting story of the daughter-spirit born to stitch love back into the scattered wombs of her Black mothers and call love back into the fishing blues songs of her Black male kin. Lottie Rebecca Lee is the Divine-spirited daughter born to set everything back up right again, in this daringly original novel. The book has received wonderful reviews from Goodreads, Kirkus Reviews, Ebony, Woman's World, Publisher's Weekly, Ms. Magazine, The Root, Harlem World Magazine, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and IndyWeek, to name a few.
Goodreads – Roslyn Bell: “Trinity by Zelda Lockhart may be in my top 10 for this year. This book was amazing. The dog fights was mindblowing. The young boy struggling with becoming a man and still needing his absent mother had me in my feelings: Many African-Americans do not have access to their family history due to slavery and not being on the census until 1870, but this book is a great representation of a fictional family history novel. I'm an avid genealogist so this book held a special place in my heart. Run, don't walk to get this gem!”
Kirkus Reviews – “Tracing the family's trauma through the decades and the path to healing through storytelling, the novel recalls Octavia Butler’s Kindred in its innovative approach to time and its rendering of history in ways that are immediate to the modern reader and Toni Morrison’s Beloved in its exploration of haunting, trauma, and family identity.”
Ebony – “The Hurston-Wright Award finalist returns with a searing novel that explores multi-generational trauma. Stemming from Mississippi and Ghanaian atrocities, they have been passed from grandfather to father to daughter. But Lottie's spirit may be what's needed to heal this family's pain.”
The Root – “Trinity” is a powerful novel from Zelda Lockhart that deals with the long-term effects of violence and trauma as three generations of a family try to overcome the pain of the past.”
Woman's World – “Get swept up in Trinity by Zelda Lockhart
This beautifully written and moving novel centers on a Black woman named Lottie Rebecca Lee in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Lottie comes to realize that she is her ancestors’ promise to set everything right. Generations of kin, including her grandfather, Benjamin, and her father, Benjamin Jr., were haunted by the Mother-Spirit. Now, it’s up to Lottie—the daughter-spirit—to find redemption for her family.”
Harlem World Magazine – “Trinity is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time, and I didn’t want it to end. Trinity, which debuted in July 2023, is a spiritual journey detailing the sacrifice, struggle, and love of an African American family experience over several decades and generations, from The Great Depression to 2003. The passionate narrative takes readers to rural Mississippi, Missouri, and North Carolina. It also covers the encounters of the major characters during World War II, The Korean War, and the Vietnam War, and also takes readers to Ghana. The book’s first line lets the reader know that a spirit of love from the Motherland will be a guide that will travel with the reader while protecting the characters.”
Ms. Magazine – “Zelda Lockhart has written a magnificent saga of heartbreak, intergenerational trauma and redemption. Brave and brilliant, this story will leave an indelible mark on its readers.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution – “This wrenching story about Black trauma spans from the shores of Ghana where men sold their womenfolk into the slave trade to the Jim Crow South where father and son Benjamin Lee and Benjamin Junior are soul-sick having to navigate the brutalities and indignities of racism after having risked their lives fighting wars in Korea and Vietnam. In Zelda Lockhart's ethereal telling, the men's pain is rooted in the suffering and loss of the Mother-Spirit, who was unable to survive the atrocities inflicted on her people. The power to heal resides with the Daughter-Spirit, Ben Junior's progeny, Lottie Rebecca Lee.”
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