Everything in publishing takes place so far in the future, it’s easy to get excited about a novel a full year or more before you can actually get your hands on it! And that’s how I feel about Nancy Johnson’s upcoming debut novel, THE KINDEST LIE, forthcoming from William Morrow/HarperCollins in January 2021. Just check out this summary:

This debut novel tells the story of an unlikely connection between a black woman engineer and a poor, young white boy at the time of Obama’s election as President. The two meet in a dying Indiana factory town when she returns to find the son she walked away from. As long-held secrets emerge, their paths collide along the fault lines of race, class, and family.

(If you use Goodreads, you can go ahead and mark it as “to-read” right this minute.)

A native of Chicago’s south side, Nancy Johnson tells stories at the intersection of race and class. THE KINDEST LIE is her first novel. An excerpt of the book was named runner-up for the 2018 James Jones First Novel Fellowship Award.

For more than a decade, Nancy worked as an Emmy-nominated, award-winning television journalist at CBS and ABC affiliates in markets nationwide from Tampa Bay to Madison, Wisconsin. Her work has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine and has been supported by the Hurston/Wright Foundation, Tin House, and Kimbilio Fiction. She blogs regularly for Writer Unboxed and leads panel discussions on writing and publishing. A graduate of Northwestern University and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Nancy currently lives in downtown Chicago.

Nancy’s #read99women recommendation is PATSY by Nicole Dennis-Benn. You can read her full review on BookBub, but here are some highlights: “Often authors say it's tough to top themselves with their sophomore novels, but Nicole Dennis-Benn did it brilliantly with PATSY. At the center of this story is an unflinching look at a mother who abandons her daughter to chase the American dream. It's the story of a mother and daughter claiming freedom in their sexuality and gender identity. It's the story of us as women and the hard choices we may make without apology.”

Ooh, this one’s moving up my TBR by the word. And here’s the kicker from Nancy: “I highly recommend this novel that reeks of humanity and courage.” Sold!