num_pages: 208
description: From award-winning author Asali Solomon The Days of Afrekete is a tender surprising novel of two women at midlife who rediscover themselves--and perhaps each other inspired by Mrs. Dalloway Sula and Audre Lorde's ZamiLiselle Belmont is having a dinner party.It seems a strange occasion--her husband Winn has lost his bid for the state legislature--but what better way to thank key supporters than a feast? Liselle was never sure about her husband becoming a politician never sure about the limelight never sure about the life of fundraising and stump speeches. Then an FBI agent calls to warn her that Winn might be facing corruption charges. An avalanche of questions tumbles around her: Is it possible he's guilty? Who are they to each other; who have they become? How much of herself has she lost--and was it worth it? And just this minute how will she make it through this dinner party?Across town Selena Octave is making her way through the same day the same way she always does--one foot in front of the other keeping quiet and focused trying not to see the terrors all around her. Homelessness starving children the very living horrors of history that made America possible: these and other thoughts have made it difficult for her to live an easy life. The only time she was ever really happy was with Liselle back in college. But they've lost touch so much so that when they ran into each other at a drugstore just after Obama was elected president they barely spoke. But as the day wears on memories of Liselle begin to shift Selena's path.Inspired by Mrs. Dalloway and Sula as well as Audre Lorde's Zami Asali Solomon's The Days of Afrekete is a deft expertly layered naturally funny and deeply human examination of two women coming back to themselves at midlife. It is a watchful celebration of our choices and where they take us the people who change us and how we can reimagine ourselves even when our lives seem set.
language: English
title: The Days of Afrekete
publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux