Crystelle Mourning

A Novel by Eisa Nefertari Ulen

With her well-employed fiancé and a comfortable life in New York City, Crystelle has a life most young professionals would envy. She has come a long way from the rough Philadelphia neighborhood where she grew up. But she hasn’t left the past behind her. A ghost from her West Philly days continues to haunt her — the spirit of her high school sweetheart Jimmie, who she watched get gunned down one unforgettable night years ago.

Emotionally distraught from her unsettling memories and the suspicion she may be pregnant, Crystelle goes back to her old neighborhood to reconnect with friends and family. There, with the help of Jimmie’s mother, a woman who Crystelle loves like family — and who makes a prison visit to the young man who murdered her son — Crystelle can finally come to grips with her past, realizing the power of forgiveness and the need to move on.

A profound and intense story with deeply resonant depictions of urban African American life, Crystelle Mourning is a triumphant, lyrical beginning to a bright new talent in fiction.

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Praise for Crystelle Mourning

“Affirms faith in the enduring power of young love. Welcome Eisa Ulen.” ~ Elizabeth Nunez, author of Prospero’s Daughter and Bruised Hibiscus

“Lovely and earth scorching.” ~ Tayari Jones, author of Leaving Atlanta and Silver Sparrow

“Her voice has the beauty and economy of poetry.” ~ Jeffery Renard Allen, author Rails Under My Back and Holding Pattern

“In Crystelle Mourning not only are we given the gift of an inspiring main character and her journey forward and back, but also the pleasure of experiencing a first-time novelist, with so much promise, burst upon the scene.” ~ Kevin Powell, author of Open Letters to America and Someday We’ll All Be Free

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About Eisa Nefertari Ulen, Author

Eisa Nefertari Ulen is the author of Crystelle Mourning (Atria), a novel described by The Washington Post as “a call for healing in the African American community from generations of hurt and neglect.” Eisa is the recipient of a Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center Fellowship for Young African American Fiction Writers, a Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship, and a National Association of Black Journalists Award.

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