They were gold and white, painted onto a glossy black brick face. She slowed nearly to a stop when she saw house numbers that matched the return address on the letter. No more than four or five inches separated her driver’s side from the curb or her passenger’s side from the parked cars, whose owners had carefully folded in their side-view mirrors. Outside her noisy mind, rows of identical two-story brick houses squatted beside Cobbs Creek Park, muffled by heavy fog and a cold, early-spring, early-Sunday-morning quiet. In her mind, a voice from the past, her grandmother’s, shouted: “We home!” which was ridiculous, since she’d never been on this street, or even in this section of the city, before. She had directions on the seat next to her, and also the letter. Jewell Thompson nosed her sedan into the narrow Philadelphia street. But in the masterful storytelling of Lorene Cary, their voices are so distinct and unique that they will live in the minds of readers long after the last page is read. Rayne and the other characters face challenges big and small that mirror the experiences of families everywhere. If Sons, Then Heirs is a tour de force that explores the power of family secrets, bonds, and love.

Over the years, she raises King’s children, including his great-grandson, Rayne, who is now burdened with the responsibility of bringing the family together, saving the family land, and mending the rift with his mother.

His devoted widow, Selma, remains on the old home place. “An absorbing and moving tale” ( Publishers Weekly)-a uniquely American story of the consequences of past decisions on present realities through the narrative of a Black family in Philadelphia rediscovering their roots in South Carolina.Īfter World War II, the Needham family moved north to Philadelphia from South Carolina, leaving behind the tragic injustice surrounding the violent death of their patriarch, King.

If sons then heirs by lorene cary