Balm

Publisher Marketing: The "New York Times "bestselling author of "Wench "returns to the Civil War era to explore the next chapter of history the end of slavery. In this powerful story of love and healing, three people struggle to overcome the pain of the past and define their own future. The Civil War has ended, and Madge, Sadie, and Hemp have each come to Chicago in search of a new life. Born with magical hands, Madge has the power to discern others suffering, but she cannot heal her own damaged heart. To mend herself and help those in need, she must return to Tennessee and face the women healers who rejected her as a child. Sadie can commune with the dead, but until she makes peace with her father, she cannot fully engage her gift. Searching for his missing family, Hemp arrives in a northern city that shimmers with possibility. But redemption cannot be possible until he is reunited with those taken from him. In the bitter aftermath of a terrible, bloody war, as a divided nation tries to come together once again, Madge, Sadie, and Hemp will be caught up in a desperate, unexpected battle for survival in a community desperate to lay the pain of the past to rest. Beautiful in its historical atmosphere and emotional depth, "Balm "is a stirring novel of love, loss, hope, and reconciliation set during one of the most critical periods in American history." Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 12/01/2014 pg. 67 (EAN 9780062318657, Hardcover) Library Journal 04/15/2015 pg. 80 (EAN 9780062318657, Hardcover) Booklist 04/15/2015 pg. 32 (EAN 9780062318657, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Perkins-Valdez, Dolen Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Wench. Her fiction has appeared in the Kenyon Review, StoryQuarterly, StorySouth, and elsewhere. In 2011 she was a finalist for two NAACP Image Awards and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for fiction. She was also awarded the First Novelist Award by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She teaches in the Stonecoast MFA program in Maine. A graduate of Harvard and a former University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA, Dolen Perkins-Valdez lives in Washington, D. C., with her family.