WHAT'S MINE AND YOURS
Naima Coster
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Grand Central Publishing
3/2/21
Fiction
Hardcover, 352 pages
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"..tender but—miraculously—never sentimental.”
-Kirkus
"Naima Coster has achieved a rare thing: She's written a book both timely and timeless, one that transcends era and audience. Traversing perspectives and timelines, the reader follows two different families from North Carolina after their lives inextricably collide."
-Marie Claire
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From the author of Halsey Street, a sweeping novel of legacy, identity, the American family, and the ways that race affects even our most intimate relationships.
A community in the Piedmont of North Carolina rises in outrage as a county initiative draws students from the largely Black east side of town into predominantly white high schools on the west. For two students, Gee and Noelle, the integration sets off a chain of events that will tie their two families together in unexpected ways over the next twenty years.
On one side of the integration debate is Jade, Gee's steely, ambitious mother. In the aftermath of a harrowing loss, she is determined to give her son the tools he'll need to survive in America as a sensitive, anxious, young Black man. On the other side is Noelle's headstrong mother, Lacey May, a white woman who refuses to see her half-Latina daughters as anything but white. She strives to protect them as she couldn't protect herself from the influence of their charming but unreliable father, Robbie.
When Gee and Noelle join the cast of the school play, a play meant to bridge the divide between new and old students, their paths collide, and their two seemingly disconnected families begin to form deep, comoplicated ties that will shape the trajectory of their adult lives. And their mothers—each determined to see her child inherit a better life—will make choices that will haunt them for decades to come.
As love is built and lost, and with the past never too far behind, What's Mine and Yours is an expansive, vibrant tapestry that moves between the years, and from the foothills of North Carolina to Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Paris. It explores the unique organism that is every family; what breaks them apart and how they come back together.
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Dear Readers,
I wrote What’s Mine and Yours because I was interested in the lengths to which parents will go to secure a good life for their children. I wanted to explore how our ideas of a good life are shaped by so many things—our losses, generation, prejudices, and dreams. As I wrote about two families brought together by the integration of a local high school, the novel grew into a larger story about education and opportunity, intergenerational conflict, mixed families, race, and the tenderness and trouble that come with belonging to a family.
I dreamed up this book while I was living in North Carolina, although I didn’t start writing until I left. The novel became an ode to the landscape I loved and traversed for years: the foothills, coast, highways, barbecue spots, community theaters, bakeries, bars, clinics, and schools. These places and these characters have been such good company to me—I hope they are to you, too.
Sincerely,
Naima Coster
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WHAT'S MINE AND YOURS
Book Club Menu
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A plate of pulled pork nachos is the perfect accompaniment to What's Mine and Yours. It’s rich, flavorful, consists of multiple layers and ingredients, and the pulled pork is a tribute to North Carolina barbecue. If you’re a vegetarian, black-eyed peas make a delicious substitute for the pork. As for a drink, a cold, creamy beer will do, ideally from a North Carolina brewery. My two favorite breweries are Fullsteam and Ponysaurus, both based in Durham.
This pairing appears in the novel. When two of Lacey May’s three daughters return home as adults, they go to a hip restaurant in town. The restaurant boasts fine barbecue and finer spirits, and it fits into a new crop of businesses in the up-and-coming city. Their full order is kale salad, shots of bourbon, pulled pork nachos, and craft beers. It’s comforting, tasty, and familiar, and it’s also a sign of how much the girls—and the city—changed over the years.
Naima Coster
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