Norris, Denne Michele
9780593729625, 0593729625
Trade Paperback
 
In this “achingly beautiful debut” (The Boston Globe), a young Black gay man, estranged from his father, must confront his painful past—and his deepest desires around gender, love, and sex.

“A beautiful, clear-eyed portrait of love in the face of religious and familial betrayal.”—Elle

“This novel is less the arrival of a major talent and more the confirmation of one we should all already be reading. Don’t miss it.”—them

"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.