Now Lila Knows

Description

Caribbean professor Lila Bonnard arrives in Vermont for a short-term teaching position and is forced to confront the terrible legacy of American (in)justice "The racial politics of a small town in Vermont, as seen through Lila's eyes, provides an illuminating counterplay between Caribbean and American Blackness." -Publishers Weekly "As a portrait of Lila's political and racial awakening, the novel is a grand success." -Kirkus Reviews "I fell deep, hard and fast into this book. The very first sentence slices clean and that energy continues throughout the entire story. I am amazed at Elizabeth Nunez's capacity to paint for the reader not only Lila's personal and political lives but her literary life, too." -Write or Die Mag, 2022 Staff Pick Lila Bonnard has left her island home in the Caribbean to join the faculty as a visiting professor at Mayfield College in a small Vermont town. On her way from the airport to Mayfield, Lila witnesses the fatal shooting of a Black man by the police. It turns out that the victim was a professor at Mayfield, and was giving CPR to a white woman who was on the verge of an opioid overdose. The two Black faculty and a Black administrator in the otherwise all-white college expect Lila to be a witness in the case against the police. Unfortunately, Lila fears that in the current hostile political climate against immigrants of color she may jeopardize her position at the college by speaking out, and her fiance advises her to remain neutral. Now Lila Knows is a gripping story that explores our obligation to act when confronted with the unfair treatment of fellow human beings. A page-turner with universal resonance, this novel will leave readers rethinking the meaning of love and empathy.

Elizabeth Nunez is the award-winning author of a memoir and nine novels, four of them selected as New York Times Editors' Choices. Anna In-Between won the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award and was long-listed for an IMPAC Dublin International Literary Award. Nunez also received the 2015 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in nonfiction for Not for Everyday Use; an American Book Award for Bruised Hibiscus; and a NALIS Lifetime Literary Award from the Trinidad and Tobago National Library. Her other novels are: Even in Paradise, Boundaries, Prospero's Daughter, Beyond the Limbo Silence, Grace, Discretion, and When Rocks Dance. She is a cofounder of the National Black Writers Conference and executive producer of the CUNY-TV series Black Writers in America. Nunez is a Distinguished Professor at Hunter College, where she teaches courses on fiction writing and Caribbean women writers. She divides her time between Amityville and Brooklyn, New York.

Praise for Elizabeth Nunez: "Nunez is one of the finest and most necessary voices in contemporary American and Caribbean fiction." --Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin "Nunez has always had the power to get to the essence of what makes human beings take right and wrong turns." --Edward P. Jones, author of The Known World "King Lear in the Caribbean--except in this novel, the flattery and deceit of Glynis (Goneril) and Rebecca (Regan) lose out to the principled, honest love of their younger sister, Corinne (Cordelia)." --O, the Oprah Magazine, 10 Titles to Pick Up Now, on Even in Paradise "An epic tale of family betrayal and manipulation couched in superbly engaging prose and peopled with deftly drawn characters. In a story structure as rhythmic as the ebb and flow of the water surrounding Trinidad and Barbados, this revisiting of the classic story of King Lear [is a] dazzling, epic triumph." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review, on Even in Paradise Not for Everyday Use won the 2015 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Nonfiction and was long-listed for the 2015 OCM Bocas Prize in Nonfiction "Nunez ponders the cultural, racial, familial, social, and personal experiences that led to what she ultimately understands was a deeply loving union between her parents. A beautifully written exploration of the complexities of marriage and family life." --Booklist, starred review, on Not for Everyday Use "[A] narrative that feels like a close friend talking about her past . . . An insightful, generous story." --Oprah.com, on Not for Everyday Use Boundaries was a finalist for the 2012 NAACP Image Award in Literature "Many moments of elegant, overarching insight bind the personal to the collective past." --New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice, on Boundaries "Nunez deftly dissects the immigrant experience in light of cultural traditions that impact family roles, professional obligations, and romantic opportunities." --Booklist, on Boundaries Anna In-Between won the 2010 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award and was long-listed for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award "A psychologically and emotionally astute family portrait, with dark themes like racism, cancer, and the bittersweet longing of the immigrant." --New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice, on Anna In-Between "Nunez . . . has created a moving and insightful character study while delving into the complexities of identity politics. Highly recommended." --Library Journal, starred review, on Anna In-Between