December 12, 2022
Williams melds a ghost story with a frank reflection on the complexities of Black identity in her vivid if didactic debut. Zahra, a college prep coach living in pre-pandemic Harlem, helps wealthy high school seniors craft essays for their applications to Ivy League schools. She’s plagued by gypsy moths that she and her brother Derrick have seen and heard since their childhood in Atlanta (not only do they swarm, they sing a jumble of rhythm and blues, Afrofuturism, trap, and other genres). When Zahra, eager to “help someone whose essay doesn’t reek of privilege,” agrees to coach Sammie, the niece of an Uber driver and one of the few Black kids at a prep school where well-meaning teachers praise the work of Zadie Smith and Colson Whitehead but fidget when discussing race, she discovers that the moths flock to Sammie, too. Derrick’s disappearance, Zahra’s road trip with Sammie to find him in Atlanta, and an old house groaning with phantoms fill out the third act. Though a few of Zahra’s monologues lack nuance, Williams still pulls off an elegant study of Sammie and Zahra’s attempts to connect with their roots. This is worth a look. Agent: Cora Markowitz, Georges Borchardt Agency.
January 1, 2023
A young Black college-prep coach searches for her missing brother alongside one of her students in this mesmerizing magical realist debut. Zahra Robinson has grown accustomed to the moths. They "appear out of thin air...in moments of distress but in moments of calm too," sometimes one at a time and sometimes in clusters, but they are always singing songs that few besides Zahra can hear. She's tried to tune them out since moving to New York, but a coincidence (she makes a connection with Trey, a cab driver seeking college prep help for his niece, Sammie) followed by a crisis (her grandmother calls to say that Zahra's brother, Derrick, who was always preoccupied with the moths, has disappeared) forces her to start listening again. Zahra agrees to help Sammie, a Trinidadian American high school senior who is navigating her identity while attending a fancy prep school, dealing with her crush on a classmate, and trying to handle the frustrations of writing her college essay. When Trey hears that Zahra has to go to Atlanta to look for her brother, he offers to drive her under the guise of taking Sammie to visit Spelman. Soon all three are embroiled in familial revelations and the ghostly mysteries swirling around the house where Zahra and Derrick grew up. Williams has a keen eye for detail and a lyrical voice, and her exploration of personal and collective histories is marked by maturity and compassion. The magic of the novel's moths is truly imaginative, making it a disappointment that pacing issues prevent the propulsive third act, in which the magic crescendos, from resonating quite as deeply it should. An uneven but profoundly beautiful novel that takes legacy seriously, from a promising new writer.
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