Ghalen: A Romance in Black

A stellar addition to the Amistad list: a beautiful coming-of-age novel from MWA Grand Master and PEN and Edgar Award-winner Walter Mosley that explores love in all forms—romantic, familial, and platonic.

One of the most acclaimed writers working today, Walter Mosley spins magic once again in this beautiful novel centered on one Black family and the found bonds that help ground them. It touches on the lives of those whose deepest thoughts and motivations are seldom explored, including:

• The neurodivergent
• The incarcerated
• The immigrant tortured by their past

Ghalen, a brilliant young Black man, is the son of two seemingly mismatched parents. His mother is a gifted scientist whose own mother expected her to exceed all the achievements in her family. His father is a gentle cook at a small vegan restaurant whose idiosyncratic nature shows the young woman a radically different love and understanding of life, despite his inexperience and lack of education.

Their grand love story sets the stage, following Ghalen and his family so deeply that each new twist and turn feels personal. The journey through Ghalen’s coming-of-age tale is marked with peaks and valleys and such a drive that you can’t help but strap in for it all, while not wanting it to end.

Lush and cinematic, with the narrative drive and indelible power of Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead and Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting, Ghalen is one of this bestselling, prize-winning writer’s finest achievements.