Publishers Weekly
★ 12/04/2023
In Cheeks’s engrossing debut, a Black family faces financial hardships and debates the merits of a new reparations program. After a promising start as a reporter in New York City, Willie Revel reluctantly returns to Philadelphia to help her father, Max, with the family’s construction business and moves into the house hers parents proudly bought many years ago as the first Black family in their neighborhood. As the years pass, she gets pregnant from a one-night stand, raises her daughter, Paloma, and tries to help fix the company’s various financial setbacks. Meanwhile, her former mentor Elizabeth Johnson, a descendant of President Andrew Johnson, becomes a U.S. senator and then president. Hoping to reverse the damage done by her ancestor, who throttled Reconstruction, Johnson signs into law the controversial Forgiveness Act, which calls for the U.S. government to pay reparations to those who can prove their ancestors were enslaved. Max, desperate to save his business and long distrustful of the government, enters into a construction project with a vocal opponent of the act and considers selling the family home, prompting Willie to unearth their family history in hopes of securing reparation payments, even as a research trip leaves Paloma feeling abandoned. Cheeks seamlessly threads the themes of resentment, forgiveness, and legacy through the multilayered narrative. Readers will be moved. Agent: Stephanie Delman, Trellis Literary. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
Acts of Forgiveness is a vibrant and moving debut that takes to heart our deferred dreams and the value of remaining hopeful. Cheeks’s layered and tender story allows us to witness a family’s journey as they plant seeds, dig up roots, and bloom, all while they contend with injustices and fight for redemption in the world around them.”—Diane Marie Brown, author of Black Candle Women
“In Acts of Forgiveness, Maura Cheeks extends humanity, depth, hope, and complexity to a part of the American experience that too often gets flattened into talking points. This book is a testament to the power of great fiction to lead us to a better understanding of the truth. A generous and empathetic study of burden and inheritance, consequence and regret, this book and its characters are going to live with me for a long time.”—R. Eric Thomas, bestselling author of Congratulations, The Best Is Over!
“Acts of Forgiveness is a striking debut that asks pressing and urgent questions about reckoning with this nation’s history, and what it offers by way of answers is incredibly moving. Cheeks’s ability to render a painful past, an unfixed present, and a hopeful future through the Revels’ hopes and fears is astonishing. This novel grips with intellect and heart.”—Cleyvis Natera, author of Neruda on the Park
“Acts of Forgiveness is the rare novel that lays out a hypothetical public policy and its attendant bureaucracy, weaving a story with an imaginative yet realistic exploration of what reparations might look like—what might be missed and what might be achieved. But above all, it is a story about family, with all the challenge, ambiguity, interconnection, obligation, and love the term carries. . . . A generous, thoughtful, and thought-provoking novel about inheritance in all its forms.”—Lydia Kiesling, author of The Golden State
“Engrossing . . . [Maura] Cheeks seamlessly threads the themes of resentment, forgiveness, and legacy through the multilayered narrative. Readers will be moved.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Cheeks’ debut novel seeks to explore the question of ‘whether forgiveness could be political, and, if so, could it last.’ . . . A freshly told, complex family drama with an intriguing premise.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Complex family relationship dynamics and hidden histories are elegantly examined in Cheeks’ debut family saga. . . . Cheeks imbues her characters with depth and emotion and tackles the personal and the political with skillful, expressive writing, and the Revel family story is engrossing.”—Booklist
APRIL 2024 - AudioFile
Narrator Jade Wheeler warmly draws listeners into this thought-provoking literary debut. The U.S. has elected its first female president, who signs the Forgiveness Act. To provide reparations for slavery, $175,000 is awarded to individuals who can prove they are descendants of enslaved people. The story explores varying viewpoints on the program and its possible implications. Wheeler's clear, authoritative performance engages listeners as they follow the Black Revel family through multiple generations, one of which includes single mom Willie. Wheeler's compelling narration delves into the complexities of family dynamics, racism, and the challenges of providing "proof" for reparations. While the ending is a bit rushed, this ambitious, layered story offers a stimulating and lingering listening experience. V.T.M. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2023-11-18
In a U.S. that’s just elected its first female president, the members of a Black family find themselves divided when a federal reparations act is proposed.
Wilhelmina “Willie” Revel grew up watching her father, Max, who owned a construction company, work tirelessly to provide financial security and upward mobility for his family, having been haunted by his own father’s inability to secure a mortgage because of his race. Willie goes to college to become a journalist, and just as she’s starting to make a name for herself as a reporter for the Village Voice, she’s offered a job with the U.S. Senate campaign of Elizabeth Johnson, one of her former professors. Unfortunately, though, her father gets sick, and Willie needs to go home to take over the business. Eleven years later, now-President Johnson puts forward the Forgiveness Act, which would formally apologize for slavery in part by providing reparations of $175,000 to each descendant of slaves. Willie is now a single mother to a young daughter and is attempting to keep her father’s business afloat. When she decides to undertake the genealogical work required to file for the money, she unintentionally provokes her brother, parents, and grandfather, all of whom have different perspectives on why it’s a bad idea to go poking into the family history, even as the U.S. deals with a violent backlash. Cheeks’ debut novel seeks to explore the question of “whether forgiveness could be political, and, if so, could it last.” The story doesn’t quite address this ambitious question for the nation at large, instead focusing on the many costs that not knowing where one comes from can take on a person, as well as the social and interpersonal effects of racism. Willie is depicted with tremendous care, but there is at times too much narrative distance from the large cast of supporting characters.
A freshly told, complex family drama with an intriguing premise.