The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

Tessa Thompson’s new production company will adapt Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor and The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw into HBO movies.

The nine stories in The Secret Lives of Church Ladies feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church’s double standards and their own needs and passions.

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church’s double standards and their own needs and passions. There is fourteen-year-old Jael, who has a crush on the preacher’s wife.

At forty-two, Lyra realizes that her discomfort with her own body stands between her and a new love. As Y2K looms, Caroletta’s “same time next year” arrangement with her childhood best friend is tenuous. A serial mistress lays down the ground rules for her married lovers. In the dark shadows of a hospice parking lot, grieving strangers find comfort in each other.

With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.

Contents

Eula
Not-Daniel
Dear Sister
Peach Cobbler
Snowfall
How to Make Love to a Physicist
Jael
Instructions for Married Christian Husbands
When Eddie Levert Comes
Acknowledgments