Ep. 187: Maura Cheeks Explores the Passing of a Federal Reparations Law through Fiction

This week Maura Cheeks is here to discuss her phenomenal debut, Acts of Forgiveness–named a most anticipated book by Elle, Real Simple, and more, the novel imagines the country has just passed the nation’s first reparations bill for Black families.

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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

 

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About the Author:

Maura Cheeks has published writing in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, and Tin House, among others. In 2019, she was awarded a masthead reporting residency with The Atlantic where she produced the feature-length article that would later inspire the idea for this book. Acts of Forgiveness is her first novel. Learn more: https://www.mauracheeks.com/

Read Maura’s New York Times article, What if Federal Reparations Weren’t a Fiction?

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Links

Macmillan Audio

Happy Reading and Listening,

Laura Szaro Kopinski

ABookishHome.com

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