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God Help the Child

by Toni Morrison

Childhood’s lasting imprint

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Awards & Recognition

  • Editorial selection

    A New York Times Notable Book

    Named a New York Times Notable Book.

  • Author recognition

    Nobel Prize-winning author

    The metadata identifies the credited author as a Nobel Prize winner.

  • Critical praise

    Praise from Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times

    Kakutani praises the novel as forceful, affecting, fierce, and resonant.

AlbakiReads Editorial

Childhood’s lasting imprint

Bride’s success and confidence coexist with the effects of a childhood shaped by her mother’s rejection of her dark skin. As Bride’s relationships with Booker, a child named Rain, and her mother come into view, the novel connects private histories to the ways children are treated—and what may endure into adulthood. Sweetness’s gradual recognition of the weight of her actions gives the story’s family relationships a central place.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in fiction about childhood experience and adult life.
  • Readers drawn to family relationships shaped by rejection and regret.
  • Readers seeking literary fiction that explores race and the treatment of children.

Themes

Childhood and adulthoodRace and colorismMother-daughter relationshipsLove, anger, and loss

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A New York Times Notable Book - This fiery and provocative novel from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner weaves a tale about the way the sufferings of childhood can shape, and misshape, the life of the adult.

"Powerful.... A tale that is as forceful as it is affecting, as fierce as it is resonant." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

At the center: a young woman who calls herself Bride, whose stunning blue-black skin is only one element of her beauty, her boldness and confidence, her success in life, but which caused her light-skinned mother to deny her even the simplest forms of love. There is Booker, the man Bride loves, and loses to anger. Rain, the mysterious white child with whom she crosses paths. And finally, Bride's mother herself, Sweetness, who takes a lifetime to come to understand that "what you do to children matters. And they might never forget."
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