Zakiya Dalila Harris drew on her own experiences in publishing for her new thriller, about a young Black woman who hopes for a friend and ally when her lily-white office hires another Black woman.
Bethanne Patrick
So many of us know the feeling of finding that one other person in the school lunchroom, in a college dorm, at our office who understands us, who knows what we re going through, who wants to be our friend and who may make our daily path just a bit easier, with shared looks and laughs and messages.
Nella Rogers wants that one other person in her work life, with an added layer: Nella is Black in the all-white Wagner Books office in (where else?) Manhattan. She longs for another Black woman as colleague, someone with whom she can share the pressures Black people face overall in corporate America, and particularly in industries like publishing that have long functioned as de facto country clubs, rife with class privilege, nepotism and deeply ingrained bigotry.
“The Other Black Girl,” by Zakiya Dalila Harris (Atria) Congratulations are in order for debut novelist Zakiya Dalila Harris. Her first book “The Other Black Girl,” is one of the most highly-anticipated novels of the summer, if not the year, and it lives up to the hype. An intriguing mash-up of mystery, thriller, sci-fi and…
Zakiya Dalila Harris makes a thrilling debut with The Other Black Girl, journalist Mike Rothschild takes on QAnon, New Yorker writer Sheldon Pearce assembles a Tupac oral history, and more books to read in June.