Home A Novel

A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction
A Best Book of the Year: NPR, AV Club, St. Louis Dispatch

"Haunting . . . [Morrison] maps the day-to-day lives of her characters with lyrical precision. . . . Home encapsulates all the themes that have fueled her fiction, from the early novels Sula and The Bluest Eye, through her dazzling masterwork, Beloved." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"Gorgeous and intense, brutal yet heartwarming. . . . Accessible, tightly composed and visceral as anything Morrison has yet written. . . . [A] devastating, deeply humane--and ever-relevant--book." Heller McAlpin, NPR

"Luminescent. . . . There is no novelist alive who has captured the beauty and democracy of the American vernacular so well." The Boston Globe

"Powerful. . . . Jaw-dropping in its beauty and audacity. . . . Brims with affection and optimism." San Francisco Chronicle

This scarily quiet tale packs all the thundering themes Morrison has explored before. She s never been more concise, though, and that restraint demonstrates the full range of her power. . . . A daringly hopeful story about the possibility of healing or at least surviving in a shadow of peace. Ron Charles, The Washington Post
 
A fertile narrative imbued with and embellished by Morrison s visionary scope and poetic majesty. Elle

A bona fide literary event . . . an emotional powerhouse. . . . Told in the stark, economical tone of a short story, with all the philosophical heft of a novel. Entertainment Weekly
 
A short, swift, and luminescent book. . . . A remarkable thing: proof that Toni Morrison is at once America s most deliberate and flexible writer. She has almost entirely retooled her style to tell a story that demands speed, brevity, the treat of a looming curtain call. . . . There is no novelist alive who has captured the beauty and democracy of the American vernacular so well. The Boston Globe
 
Profound . . . Morrison's portrayal of Frank is vivid and intimate, her portraits of the women in his life equally masterful. Its brevity, stark prose, and small cast of characters notwithstanding, this story of a man struggling to reclaim his roots and his manhood is enormously powerful." O, The Oprah Magazine
 
Perhaps Morrison s most lyrical performance to date. . . . Home has a sparer, faster pace than earlier Morrison novels like Beloved or Jazz, as though a drumbeat is steadily intensifying in the background and the storyteller has to keep up. The New York Review of Books
 
In a mere 145 pages, Morrison has created a richly textured, deeply felt novel. Home has a sense of the real with a touch of magic. After 10 novels and a Nobel prize, Toni Morrison certainly isn t resting on her laurels. Louisville Courier-Journal
 
Her themes identity, community, the resoluteness of both good and evil are epic, and her language uniquely her own. . . . Taut and muscular, Home wastes not a word. . . . In sentences balanced like proverbs, the Nobel Prize winner conjures up the community of country women Frank asks to help save Cee. The Plain Dealer
 
In this slim, scathing novel, Morrison brings us another quintessentially American character struggling through another shameful moment in our nation s history. . . . Home is as much prose poem as long-form fiction a triumph for a beloved literary icon who proves that her talents remain in full flower. Four stars. People
 
A short, urgent novel, polished to the essential themes that the Nobel Prize-winning author has explored for decades. The Columbus Dispatch

Beautifully wrought . . . [Home] packs considerable power, because the Nobel Prize-winning author is still writing unflinchingly about the most painful human experiences. There s nothing small about the story she s told with such grace in these pages. The Oregonian