Acclaimed author Anissa Gray returns with LIFE AND OTHER LOVE SONGS, her first novel since 2019’s THE CARE AND FEEDING OF RAVENOUSLY HUNGRY GIRLS. In her sophomore release, she chronicles the building and tearing apart of three generations of a Black family living in Detroit who are as weighed down by their secrets as they are by their loyalties.

His name is David Ozro Armstead Junior, known to everyone as “Oz.” On the day of his funeral, he has been missing for years, having walked out of a lunch celebrating his 37th birthday and disappeared. For his daughter, Trinity, the burial is unlike any other; there is no body, no closure, no promise that their search for him has truly come to an end. An aspiring journalist, Trinity’s investigative nature clearly stems from his disappearance. But in order to find answers about where he went and why he left her and her sad, alcoholic mother, she will have to dig deep into her family’s past.

"LIFE AND OTHER LOVE SONGS can be devoured in a single sitting, but it will affect and change you for weeks and months after you have turned the last page."

Following this prologue, LIFE AND OTHER LOVE SONGS really begins when dazzling, unapologetic, rock star-worthy Deborah meets quiet, poorly dressed and awkward Oz in 1962. Deborah is throwing a “rent party” in the apartment she shares with her band member roommates, and Oz is newly arrived to Detroit from Alabama. Although he is shy, Deborah is captivated by the soft rolls of his vowels and the simple way he approaches life. He tells her that he knows she is going to be a real star and he “can’t wait to see her shine.” Within six months, they are engaged.

Oz’s cousin, a prescient teenager far older than her years, tells Deborah to be careful with Oz as he is fragile. But it is not until Oz demands that they marry anywhere but in a church that she starts to see the scars of his youth and the mysterious event that sent him, his mother and his brother running from their home in Alabama. Still, Oz is an ambitious, meticulous man. When the early days of their marriage are rocked by a shocking sexual assault, love and trauma bond them together, and they begin to build a world for themselves. Alternating between past, present and everything in between, Gray chronicles their life together and the many secrets, betrayals and disappointments that bring them to his empty casket.

In the early days of their marriage, Oz is supportive of Deborah’s music career, but when they welcome Trinity, he starts to balk at the time she spends away. To Deborah, who has always been honest about her goals and has worked hard to achieve them, Oz’s stubbornness feels like the acts of a controlling man at best and a betrayal at worst. If his response was the only strike against him, she may be more understanding. But despite his love for Deborah and their family, Oz has always kept parts of himself and his childhood hidden away. His brother, Tommy, bears the crisscross, melty scars of a fire, and it is obvious that the boys hold some resentment for their ever-present mother, Pearl.

However, beyond his family’s frequent warnings that he is “fragile,” Deborah knows almost nothing about Oz's life before her. When her big break comes and is just as abruptly ripped from her and her bandmates, she succumbs to depression and alcoholism, further severing the ties between her and her husband.

As the family lives through career achievements and disappointments, deaths and shifting dynamics, the backdrop of their lives also undergoes serious transformations: war, race riots, the AIDs crisis and more, each affecting the Armsteads in life-changing ways, even when some effects are less obvious than others. As Oz begins to lie to his wife to maintain whatever semblance of happiness is available to them after so many losses, their marriage continues to fracture until it seems that the best option would be to disappear. So he does.

The mystery of where Oz goes and the trigger for his sudden departure provides a riveting throughline for the novel. But the real bread and butter of this emotionally complex, deeply resonant book is Gray’s strikingly perceptive observations on memory, generational trauma and redemption. She is deft and capable, always able to trace a trauma response or memory to its core and then take a panoramic view of its effects. Yet the novel is fluid and lyrical, never bogged down by its detail or its grief. It succeeds both as a stellar book club pick and, almost contradictorily, as a beach read, so absorbing is its prose and relatable are its characters. Gray demonstrates that the truth of a family lies not in its present but in the pasts of each of its members. While she traces these painful, tangled mini-stories, she composes a stunning, beautiful and wonderfully flawed portrait of a family as real as yours or mine.

LIFE AND OTHER LOVE SONGS can be devoured in a single sitting, but it will affect and change you for weeks and months after you have turned the last page.