#1
Months on List: 15
A reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view.
James: A Novel
by Percival Everett • Doubleday Books (March 19, 2024) • 15 Months on List
#2
Months on List: 1
A financial whiz uncovers his family's deep-seated secrets and fights dangerous criminals to protect his loved ones, navigating a web of family duty, crime, and looming mortality in a Southern town.
King Of Ashes
by S. A. Cosby • Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar (June 10, 2025) • 1 Months on List
#3
Months on List: 1
The narrative follows a young Black man navigating the complexities of race and class amidst the backdrop of a friend's mysterious death and his own arrest.
Great Black Hope
by Rob Franklin • S&s/summit Books (June 10, 2025) • 1 Months on List
#4
Months on List: 4
Four women navigate love, identity, and loss across continents and generations, confronting the truths they’ve avoided and the lives they’ve built amid personal and societal upheaval.
Dream Count
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie • Knopf Publishing Group (March 4, 2025) • 4 Months on List
#5
Months on List: 18
A novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them.
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
by James Mcbride • Riverhead Books (August 8, 2023) • 18 Months on List
#6
Months on List: 4
In a surreal present where historical icons return, a disgraced hip-hop producer joins forces with Harriet Tubman to craft an album that reclaims freedom, confronts trauma, and reimagines legacy through music.
Harriet Tubman: Live In Concert
by Bob The Drag Queen • Gallery Books (March 25, 2025) • 4 Months on List
#7
Months on List: 1
A white teenager navigating the American Civil War joins an all-Black regiment, gaining a unique perspective on racism, oppression, and familial bonds.
How To Dodge A Cannonball
by Dennard Dayle • Henry Holt (June 17, 2025) • 1 Months on List
#8
Months on List: 6
A woman haunted by her brother’s unsolved death and a shattered family heirloom uncovers buried truths that tie her personal heartbreak to a deeper ancestral legacy.
Good Dirt
by Charmaine Wilkerson • Ballantine Books (January 28, 2025) • 6 Months on List
#9
Months on List: 1
This inaugural novel in a series is a darkly whimsical tale of women daring to live and create with impunity.
Catch: A Novel
by Yrsa Daley-ward • Liveright Publishing Corporation (June 3, 2025) • 1 Months on List
#10
Months on List: 3
When a woman answers her estranged grandmother’s summons to rural North Carolina, she uncovers her family’s hidden connection to a forgotten kingdom founded by freed people and must decide how to protect its legacy.
Happy Land
by Dolen Perkins-valdez • Berkley Books (April 8, 2025) • 3 Months on List
#11
Months on List: 6
A pioneering editor and writer navigates love, ambition, and scandal as she helps launch the <a href="https://aalbc.com/content.php?title=The+Harlem+Renaissance">Harlem Renaissance</a> and elevates a generation of Black literary voices.
Harlem Rhapsody
by Victoria Christopher Murray • Berkley Books (February 4, 2025) • 6 Months on List
#12
Months on List: 6
A Nigerian American writer grapples with fame, family, and creative control after her speculative novel about AI and humanity becomes a cultural phenomenon, blurring the lines between author and story.
Death Of The Author
by Nnedi Okorafor • William Morrow & Company (January 14, 2025) • 6 Months on List
#13
Months on List: 1
This novel is a compelling narrative about a young war veteran who enters the world of Black opulence in post-war Los Angeles, revealing the complexities of Black identity, class tensions, and the struggle for success in mid-century America.
Great Mann
by Kyra Davis Lurie • Crown (June 10, 2025) • 1 Months on List
#14
Months on List: 1
A retired Jamaican nurse living in England must confront her painful past and solve a decades-old unsolved crime when a mysterious death occurs in her local community.
Murder For Miss Hortense: A Mystery
by Mel Pennant • Pantheon Books (June 10, 2025) • 1 Months on List
#15
Months on List: 1
A dedicated journalist unravels her family's secret connection to unsolved missing girls cases in North Carolina while battling her troubled past and struggling to maintain her crumbling marriage.
We Don’t Talk About Carol
by Kristen L. Berry • Bantam (June 3, 2025) • 1 Months on List
#16
Months on List: 6
A young enslaved girl haunted by her sister’s ghost confronts forbidden love, buried secrets, and the cost of freedom as she dares to challenge the world that has kept her captive.
Junie
by Erin Crosby Eckstine • Ballantine Books (February 4, 2025) • 6 Months on List
#17
Months on List: 2
In "The Devil Three Times," a black woman forms a pact with the Devil to survive slavery, initiating a powerful agreement that aids her descendants over eight generations in their darkest hours in exchange for a monumental sacrifice, all while exploring the spiritual traditions of the Black diaspora in West Tennessee.
The Devil Three Times: A Novel
by Rickey Fayne • Little, Brown And Company (May 13, 2025) • 2 Months on List
#18
Months on List: 9
Winter Santiaga navigates the aftermath of a near-death experience, balancing spiritual reckoning with her unrelenting desires for love, revenge, and success in a vivid, hip-hop-infused narrative.
Love After Midnight
by Sister Souljah • Atria Books (October 8, 2024) • 9 Months on List
#19
Months on List: 2
<em>A Raisin in the Sun</em> is a groundbreaking, award-winning drama that explores the dreams and struggles of a working-class black family in 1950s Chicago, profoundly impacting American theater with its truthful representation of black lives.
A Raisin In The Sun
by Lorraine Hansberry • Modern Library (August 22, 1995) • 2 Months on List
#20
Months on List: 1
A moving debut novel tracing the journey of a Nigerian immigrant as she navigates love, loss, family and identity in her home country and America.
Tiny Things Are Heavier
by Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo • Bloomsbury Publishing (June 24, 2025) • 1 Months on List
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Sales Data Source: Circana BookScan. Represents U.S. print sales from thousands of retailers.
Methodology: Books are categorized and filtered for Black Authors by the African American Literature Book Club. This list is a sneak peek into the Black Book Accelerator initiative.
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