Donna Hemans is the author of the novels RIVER WOMAN, TEA BY THE SEA and THE HOUSE OF PLAIN TRUTH. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous literary magazines, including Slice, Shenandoah, Electric Literature, Ms. Magazine and Crab Orchard Review. She received her undergraduate degree in English and Media Studies from Fordham University and an MFA from American University. She lives in Maryland and is the owner of DC Writers Room, a co-working studio for writers.
With news of her father’s passing, Pearline abruptly leaves her daughter and grandchildren behind in Brooklyn to return to her childhood home in Jamaica. But Pearline isn’t prepared for her father’s puzzling deathbed wish that she find her siblings --- whom she hasn’t seen in 60 years --- and discover the secret that tore her family apart. Moving through time and place, from Cuba to Montego Bay and from Brooklyn to Havana, THE HOUSE OF PLAIN TRUTH traces Pearline’s reconciliation of what she thought she knew about her family and the truth of their origin.
