CHICAGO – Debut author Nancy Johnson wanted to tell human interest stories when she was a broadcast news journalist years ago, but she recalls there were too few opportunities to
CHICAGO – Debut author Nancy Johnson wanted to tell human interest stories when she was a broadcast news journalist years ago, but she recalls there were too few opportunities to
Nancy Johnson's debut novel, "The Kindest Lie," was highly anticipated, appearing on a number of must-read lists, including those in Oprah Magazine, Elle, Good Housekeeping and the Chicago Tribune.
William Morrow: 326 pages, $28
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Measured by any yardstick, Ruth Tuttle and her husband, Xavier Shaw, are living the dream of Black uplift. “The Kindest Lie,” Nancy Johnson’s debut novel, opens on election night, 2008. Ruth, a 29-year-old Yale engineering grad working for a consumer packaged-goods company, and Xavier, 32, a PepsiCo marketing vice president, are hosting a watch party at their new townhome in the gentrified Bronzeville neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Their guests are a cross-section of Chicago’s Black community, from an elderly postal worker to a lesbian couple Ruth met through a local Yale alumni group.