Them: A Novel

Sometime over a year ago, a friend at school recommended a book to me called Them.  She said it was about a white couple that moved into a historically black neighborhood in Atlanta and chronicled the community's struggles and experiences.  We had been discussing gentrification and urban development so I was very interested in the book-which I assumed to be non-fiction.  I ordered it from Amazon and then let it sit on a bookshelf for quite some time.  But apparently, I hadn't looked at it very closely when it arrived because until that point, I still thought it was non-fiction.  In reality, the phrase "a novel" is on the front cover.

It remained on my shelf until the freedom of summer.  Finally one night last summer I was looking for something new to read and went "shopping" on my bookshelves.  I picked up Them, and it wasn't until I began to read the first paragraph that I realized it was a novel.  Yes, this is embarrassing.

But I kept reading and found it to be captivating and very moving.  For anyone who is familiar with Atlanta, it almost reads like non-fiction at times.  The descriptions of streets and neighborhoods are very accurate and realistic.  There is one scene where a character is out for a drive to clear his head and the description of his route was so clear that I could picture every turn he made and what he would have seen on his way.  

The book clearly about race relations and gentrification and does a remarkable job of tackling these difficult subjects.  But it is also a compelling story about a marriage, a community, and an unlikely friendship.  I highly recommend it.

PS: I apologize for not having a picture: most of my books are stored away right now!!