Her relationship with her daughter estranged by her own fear of intimacy, Miriam finds her world shattered when her daughter is shot by a white police officer in a case of mistaken identity, a situation that forces her to confront her past, her identity as an African-American woman, and her widowhood. A first novel. Reprint. 12,000 first printing.

“asha bandele has a poignant story to share in Something Like Beautiful. It is the love that comes through that makes this such a compelling tale.”—Nikki Giovanni Award-winning journalist, and author of The Prisoner’s Wife and Daughter, and performance poet featured on HBO’S Def Poetry Jam, asha bandele once again writes from the heart in her lyrical and intimate memoir Something Like Beautiful—a moving story of love, loss, motherhood, and survival. Sharing the story of her struggles as a single black mother in New York City and her tragically self-destructive near-breakdown, asha bears her soul in a book Rebecca Walker, author of Baby Love, calls “courageous, profound, and achingly beautiful.”

Offers poems on difficult topics, including rape, relationships, and the depths of sorrow.

A young African-American poet describes how she fell in love with and married a man serving a prison sentence for murder, and explores the redemptive and healing power of love.

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