Kingdom of No Tomorrow
By Fabienne Josaphat
(Algonquin)
A riveting story about a passionate group of revolutionaries in the 60s, and the forces that bind them—and tear them apart.
Raised in Haiti by a father deeply embedded in activism, Nettie Boileau joins the Black Panthers’ Free Health Clinics in Oakland in 1968. She quickly becomes devoted to the cause and its dedication to helping people in a racially divided America—and gets swept up in an all-consuming love affair with Black Panther Party Defense Captain Melvin Mosley. But when Nettie and Melvin head to Chicago to help launch the Illinois chapter of the Panthers, they find themselves targets of J. Edgar Hoover’s famous covert campaigns against civil rights leaders. As she learns more about the inner workings of the Panthers—and her relationship with Melvin reveals its own fault lines—Nettie discovers that fighting for social justice may not always mean equal justice for women. She must figure out what is left for her within the movement, what she stands for, and who truly loves her.
Riveting and timely, Fabienne Josaphat’s Kingdom of No Tomorrow takes readers inside the Black Panther movement in this story of self-determination and the importance of revolution amid injustice.
"This beautifully convincing slice of history is powered not just by good research, but by lots of suspense, compelling characters, and understated political themes that broke my heart because of how timely they remain. The Kingdom of No Tomorrow will bring the fierce vision of the Black Panthers to new generations of readers, adding some stunning context to the modern Black Lives Matter movement."
—Barbara Kingsolver, Pulitzer Prize winner of Demon Copperhead
“With her timely and urgent novel, and through the eyes, heart, and soul of Nettie, we are brought front and center into the world of the Panthers, and how they struggled to bring the Black community into a place where justice was possible. Kingdom of No Tomorrow is ambitious in scope and brave in execution. “Nettie had grown accustomed to the kind of darkness the human eye couldn’t recognize,” the novel begins, but there is also lightness and hope. Nettie is a character to cheer for, and her struggles remain relevant in the chaos and upheaval we are living through today.”
—Naomi Benaron, author of PEN/Bellwether Prize winner Running the Rift
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