Harlem Rhapsody

Murray (coauthor of The First Ladies) delivers a winning portrait of Harlem Renaissance figure Jessie Redmon Faust (1882–1961). Jessie moves to Harlem from Washington, D.C., in 1919 to serve as literary editor of NAACP magazine The Crisis, helmed by W.E.B. Du Bois. Faust is thrilled at the opportunity to provide a venue for Black writers and helps to make stars out of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen, but she risks her career and the magazine’s reputation by having a secret affair with Du Bois, who is married. Murray illuminates Faust’s steadfast and selfless work, showing how she labored behind the scenes to bring others to prominence while putting her own dream of writing a novel on hold, a sacrifice made bitter when she watches Du Bois receive the acclaim. Murray doesn’t shy away from her characters’ flaws, examining for instance Du Bois’s disdain for uneducated Black people and Faust’s mother’s well-meaning if unhelpful chastening (“You are neither white nor a man, and so you’ll be judged harshly and unfairly, even as you perform well”). Historical fiction fans will want to snatch this up. Agent: Liza Dawson, Lisa Dawson Assoc. (Feb.)