Friends and Family

From the author of Queen Sugar, a piercing examination of friendship and loyalty as two best friends find themselves at odds over their beliefs about race, identity, and allyship—especially when it comes to their teenage children.

Babs and Nora became friends thanks to their kids. Now, the desire to protect their children might tear them apart.

Babs and Nora have spent a decade’s worth of morning walks sharing family secrets, local drama, and advice—everything from tips on lingerie choices to Babs’s guidance to Nora, a white woman, on how to raise Nathan, her adopted Black son.

But their worlds are turned upside down when the police are called on their kids while they are home alone, leading to a traumatic encounter for Nathan. In the aftermath, Babs and Nora find themselves more divided than ever, and Nathan looks for refuge with Babs and her family, where, unlike in his own home, race, identity, and culture are openly discussed. Babs sees that Nathan is a young Black man without community, trying to find himself. Torn between respecting Nora’s boundaries and embodying the values central to her own family, Babs makes a choice that will shape their lives forever.

Set in a tight-knit enclave in the Bay Area, Friends and Family is an eye-opening exploration of friendship and privilege, race and community, and what it means to truly be a good friend and ally.