PREE would like to congratulate one of our former editors, Donna Hemans, on the publication of her latest novel THE HOUSE OF PLAIN TRUTH now available from major outlets. Read more about the novel below:

In THE HOUSE OF PLAIN TRUTH (Zibby Books; January 30, 2024), award-winning author Donna Hemans expertly weaves a family saga about the fate of three sisters and their family home after the loss of their patriarch. This captivating novel grapples with the indelible mark of inheritance as one woman’s return to her native Jamaica drives her to uphold the wishes of those who have departed.

With news of her father’s passing, middle-aged Pearline abruptly leaves her daughter and grandchildren behind in Brooklyn to return to her childhood home in Jamaica. But Pearline isn’t prepared for her father’s puzzling deathbed wish that she find her siblings—whom she hasn’t seen in 60 years—and discover the secret that tore her family apart.

Moving through time and place, from Brooklyn to Havana to Montego Bay, THE HOUSE OF PLAIN TRUTH traces Pearline’s reconciliation of what she thought she knew about her family’s origin.

Shaped by stories of the author’s own grandparents, who were Jamaican migrant laborers in 20th-century Cuba, this delicate, incisive novel explores the divided loyalties within a family, the true meaning of home, and what one woman must sacrifice to finally get what she wants.

What critics are saying:

“Fractured memories and dreams of the past infuse this unassuming story with a rich and elusive history…The novel’s sedate pacing, which evokes rocking-chair musings on mortality and responsibility, brings a welcome reprieve from stories laden with plot twists and action for the sake of it…a balm for readers.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A story of faith, risk, estrangement, and ultimately, longing, which Hemans evokes through characters who are unforgettable precisely because we seem to be remembering them.” —Celeste Mohammed, author of OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature winner Pleasantview

“Donna Hemans tends to her words with the patience of a gardener deep in roses. The quality of Ms. Hemans’ pacing is so telling—tenacious and epic—that the reader will remain transfixed from the very first to the very lovely end.” —Tara Stringfellow, author of Memphis

“A rich and layered novel…a compelling family mystery and a moving story of generational healing and reconciliation, but also a profound portrait of the emotional aftermath of voluntary and forced migration.” —Maisy Card, author of These Ghosts Are Family

“In prose that pulses with the tempo, climate, and luxuriant beauty of Jamaica, Donna Hemans chronicles the tragic consequences of intergenerational migration and estrangement, colonial brutality, and the chaos of revolution on one Jamaican family.”

—Aimee Liu, author of Glorious Boy

“Very few Caribbean writers today render ordinary Caribbean people with the extraordinary acuity of Hemans. The House of Plain Truth stands out not only for its keen and rich development of the inner lives of its characters, but also for its thematic echoing of a family’s past and present grief, as it attempts to right its future.” —Lauren Francis-Sharma, author of Book of the Little Axe

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Donna Hemans is the author of two previous novels, River Woman and Tea by the Sea, which won the Lignum Vitae Una Marson Award. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in Electric Literature, Ms. Magazine, and Crab Orchard Review, among others. She is also the owner of DC Writers Room, a co-working studio for writers based in Washington, DC. Born in Jamaica, she lives in Maryland, and received her undergraduate degree in English and Media Studies from Fordham University and an MFA from American University.