Perhaps in death, Helen Jean can bring the family together and right the wrongs that proliferated like a tumbleweed through the generations. Abuse, silence and pain scar them, their wounds still festering because they never healed. Though the family views secrecy as a way to maintain normalcy and stow away pain, it’s backfired horribly. Perish is Latoya Watkins debut novel about a black family in Texas grappling with the effects of generational trauma. Through her neglect, she nurtures the very behaviors she feared he would inherit by nature. The story starts decades earlier as a teenaged Helen Jean, in the midst of a botched abortion, hears the voice of God tell her, “Bear it or perish.” Helen Jean keeps her end of the deal, birthing a son she sees as a monster. In this devastating and gut-wrenching debut, Watkins explores the generational trauma and violence endured by a Black Texas family. Watkins’ approach is as suspenseful as a crime novel, as dramatic as a soap opera, and as familiar as your own family. In LaToya Watkins’ debut novel “Perish,” the family begins untangling the rotted, gnarled roots of their tree. When a family’s matriarch is on her deathbed, they all gather back to Jerusalem, Texas, the hometown where their unresolved trauma began crashing through the generations. “Perish” by LaToya Watkins (Tiny Reparations Books) This image released by Tiny Reparations shows "Perish" by Latoya Watkins.
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