Citchens's debut novel is set in the fictional Mississippi town that gives it its name, where the Reverend Sabre Winfrey Jr. of the Seven Seals Missionary Baptist Church owns the barbershop, the radio station, and blocks of real estate, and rules his congregation and his family alike. The story is carried by two women: Priscilla, the wife who holds the dynasty's public face together, and Diamond, the young woman entangled with the Winfreys' youngest son Emanuel — "Wonderboy," a star high-school quarterback living a double life. Citchens was the first recipient of the FSG Writer's Fellowship.
Author: Addie E. Citchens · Original publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (New York), 2025
