The author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman returns with a new novel, joined in conversation by Brandon Taylor of Real Life. 

Kaitlyn Greenidge is joined by Brandon Taylor for a discussion of Libertie. Copies Libertie the purchased through the registration page will be signed and personalized!

Libertie

Coming of age as a free-born Black girl in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson was all too aware that her purposeful mother, a practicing physician, had a vision for their future together: Libertie would go to medical school and practice alongside her. But Libertie, drawn more to music than science, feels stifled by her mother’s choices and is hungry for something else—is there really only one way to have an autonomous life? And she is constantly reminded that, unlike her mother , who can pass, Libertie has skin that is too dark.

When a young man from Haiti proposes to Libertie and promises she will be his equal on the island, she accepts, only to discover that she is still subordinate to him and all men. As she tries to parse what freedom actually means for a Black woman, Libertie struggles with where she might find it—for herself and for generations to come.

Inspired by the life of one of the first Black female doctors in the United States and rich with historical detail, Kaitlyn Greenidge’s new novel resonates in our times and is perfect for readers of Brit Bennett, Min Jin Lee, and Yaa Gyasi.

Kaitlyn Greenidge's debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, was one of the New York Times Critics’ Top 10 Books of 2016 and a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. She is a contributing writer for the New York Times, and her writing has also appeared in Vogue, Glamour, the Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. Greenidge lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Brandon Taylor is the author of the acclaimed novel Real Life, a shortlist finalist for the 2020 Man Booker Prize, and a longlist finalist for the 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. He is a senior editor of Electric Literature's Recommended Reading and a staff writer at Lit Hub, and holds graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Iowa, where he was an Iowa Arts Fellow at the Iowa Writers' Workshop in fiction. He is also author of the forthcoming story collection Filthy Animals, which Riverhead Books will publish on June 22, 2021.