-
Access our Top 20
Books of 2024!
A Novel
by Denne Michele Norris
In this heart-wrenching debut novel, a young Black gay man reckoning with the death of his father must confront his painful past—and his deepest desires around gender, love, and sex.
"I got tired of running away from what I should've been running toward."
The venerated Reverend Doctor John Freeman did not raise his son, Davis, to be touched by any man, let alone a white man. He did not raise his son to whisper that man's name with tenderness.
But on the eve of his wedding, all Davis can think about is how beautiful he wants to look when he meets his beloved Everett at the altar. Never mind that his mother, who died decades before, and his father, whose anger drove Davis to flee their home in Ohio for a freer life in New York City, won't be there to walk him down the aisle. All Davis needs to be happy in this life is Everett, his new family, and his burgeoning career as an award-winning violist.
When Davis learns during the wedding reception that his father has died in a terrible car accident, years of childhood trauma and unspoken emotion resurface. Davis must revisit everything that went wrong between them, his fledgling marriage and irresistible self-confidence spiraling into a pit of despair.
In resplendent prose, Denne Michele Norris's When the Harvest Comes fearlessly reveals the pain of inheritance and the heroic power of love, reminding us that, in the end, we are more than the men who came before us.
"Epic, intimate, brutal, and tender, Denne Michele Norrishas written a breathtaking testimony about the boundlessness of love. Each character enters like a light beam, puncturing your soul with joy, heartbreak, and unwavering faith in the ability to right their wrongs before time runs out. Seductive, symphonic, and sensitively rendered, When the Harvest Comes announces the arrival of a major new American voice." —Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
"This is a book to sink into, to luxuriate within—a book that's generous with the pleasures and comforts of a good story and rich characters, so much so that it's only when you're finished that you realize that you've never before read something quite like it." —Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby
"A tale of redemption and transformation in the face of great obstacles, When the Harvest Comes is a book for anyone who's ever believed they didn't deserve happiness, for anyone whose worldview has been shaped by marginalization, for anyone who's accomplished more than was expected of them... . Moving and uplifting." —Alejandro Varela, author of The People Who Report More Stress
This information about When the Harvest Comes 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.
Denne Michele Norris is the editor-in-chief of Electric Literature, winner of the Whiting Literary Magazine Prize. She is the first Black, openly trans woman to helm a major literary publication. An Out100 Honoree, she has been supported by MacDowell, Tin House, and the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction, and appears in McSweeney's, American Short Fiction, and ZORA. She is co-host of the critically acclaimed podcast Food 4 Thot and holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.
.png)
The only real blind person at Christmas-time is he who has not Christmas in his heart.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
