"Gorgeous, resonant, and startling."―Lauren Groff, author of The Vaster Wilds
"Glorious."―Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
A debut collection of stories set across the American South, featuring characters who struggle to find love and belonging in the wake of painful histories. How can you love where you come from, even when home doesn't love you back?
In eleven stories that span Florida marshes, North Carolina mountains, and Southern metropolitan cities, Make Your Way Home follows Black men and women who grapple with the homes that have eluded them. A preteen pregnant alongside her mother refuses to let convention dictate who she names as the father of her child. Centuries after slavery separated his ancestors, a native Texan tries to win over the love of his life, despite the grip of a family curse. A young deaconess, who falls for a new church member, wonders what it means when God stops speaking to her. And at the very end of the South as we know it, two sisters seek to escape North to freedom, to promises of a more stable climate.
Artfully and precisely drawn, and steeped in place and history as it explores themes of belonging, inheritance, and deep intimacy, Carrie R. Moore's debut collection announces an extraordinary new talent in American fiction, inviting us all to examine how the past shapes our present-and how our present choices will echo for years to come. "Moore's talent is unmistakable."
―Ms. Magazine, Best Book of July
"Remarkable.... [an] intense focus on family ties, vivid Southern setting and confident narrative voice."
―Washington Post, Best Paperback in July
"Moody, evocative."
―Atlanta Journal Constitution
"Compelling…. The settings of Moore's stories act as characters in their own right, their tangled pasts forming the backdrop for daily living."
―Austin Chronicle
"An intimate, meticulously crafted, and tenderly rendered tour through the lives of Black women, men, and children seeking solid ground in a mercurial American southland….A regional relief map of the human heart."
―Kirkus, Starred Review
"Moore masterfully captures the intergenerational experiences of Black men, women, and families, weaving tales of resistance, connection, and self-discovery. With compassion and depth, she explores the tension between longing for home and finding freedom elsewhere. A stunning debut by a writer whose voice is both vital and unforgettable."
―Booklist
"Poetic…. Permeating these eleven expertly told stories of contemporary Black life in the American Deep South is a cautious optimism that acknowledges the damages of the past."
―Necessary Fiction
"Her spectacular debut collection, Make Your Way Home, encompasses much more than just keen attention to place. The Black men, women, and families orbiting these stories are reckoning with generational inheritance and trauma, romantic and erotic love, ideas of faith and freedom."
―Poets & Writers
"Transportive…. the author impresses with her meticulous research…. This solid collection has much to admire."
―Publishers Weekly
"Moore tenderly writes with the precision of a surgeon's tool, marking out the cleanest of cuts, opening the reader to redefine the capabilities and realities of these characters' homes and of our own."
―Clarion Ledger
"Beautifully written."
―The Root, A Most Anticipated Black Book of Summer
"Carrie R. Moore's stories are gorgeous, resonant, and startling. It's rare for a new writer to have such profound emotional wisdom; in Make Your Way Home, a single small ripple in a character's interior life can build strength to become a huge wave that crashes over them. What a thrilling new talent, and what a beautiful collection of short stories."
―Lauren Groff, author of The Vaster Wilds
"Each story in Carrie R. Moore's Make Your Way Home is remarkable, gorgeous
