The Unsettled

Mathis (The Twelve Tribes of Hattie) offers a simmering family saga involving fraught efforts in building Black communities. In 1985, Ava Carson and her 10-year-old son, Touissant, are thrown out of their New Jersey home by her husband, Abemi Reed, after Touissant’s father, former Black Panther Cass Wright, visited Ava, prompting Abemi to wrongly accuse her of an affair. She’s estranged from her mother, Dutchess, and with no money or options, Ava moves with Touissant into a shelter in Philadelphia. Mathis alternates perspectives between Ava and Dutchess, who still lives in Bonaparte, Ala., the historically Black town where Ava grew up. Nobody’s left in Bonaparte but Dutchess and four other old-timers, as the town’s acreage has dwindled over the years and white folks continue to encroach upon their remaining land. Ava, fed up with the filthy shelter, considers leaving for Bonaparte, but instead runs into Cass, who moves her and Touissant into his communal home where he plans to run a free medical clinic. Despite Cass’s allure, his strict rules grate on mother and son, especially after a police raid on the house shatters their calm. Mathis ratchets up the tension all the way to a stunning reveal, which reunites the family members for a reckoning with the truth. Readers won’t want to miss Mathis’s accomplished return. (Sept.)