February 2025

I was a huge fan of Charmaine Wilkerson’s first novel, BLACK CAKE. So when I heard that she had a new book coming out, I was looking forward to reading it. I am happy to share that GOOD DIRT is another powerful work of fiction that spans generations. Charmaine has a beautiful way of telling a family story, filling it with emotion and history.

Ebby Freeman is at the heart of the book. As a young girl, she witnessed her brother being killed in a home invasion, but she holds back from revealing everything she saw that day. For years, she is looked upon as “the poor Freeman girl,” and what happened to her is whispered about. Ebby already stands out as the stunningly beautiful Black woman in her affluent, all-white neighborhood. All this history makes the pain of being left at the altar on the day of her wedding at her family home that much sadder. She stumbles through life for a while before jetting off to France to get away from it all. But even there Ebby’s past follows her.

During the home invasion, a family heirloom called “Old Mo,” a jar that has been in the family for generations, was destroyed. The book takes readers from the present to the past, where Mo is made out of clay by an enslaved ancestor in the South. The story of the jar, the man who created it, and its journey from the South to its home on the Connecticut shoreline is as interesting as the contemporary story.

Charmaine is brilliant at laying out the backstory, as well as storytelling. Traveling with her characters between the present and the past, I felt like I was there. The book has a lot of heartbreak, but it also has a lot of heart and love. That love will help Ebby shed so much of the burden that she has carried --- and it will give her a chance to finally meet life on her own terms.

I listened to GOOD DIRT, and I was very impressed with January LaVoy’s narration. She made each character come alive so well and handled the tension in many of the scenes beautifully.