NCW Libraries

"An ambitious, exuberant new novel moving from North West London to West Africa, from the multi-award-winning author of White Teeth and On Beauty. Two brown girls dream of being dancers--but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly free. It's a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early twenties,...

"[Narrator Saskia Maarleveld's] tour de force reading perfectly encapsulates Anna's anxieties, shame, and overwhelming guilt at failing to achieve perfection" — Booklist, starred review

**A People Pick for Best New Books**

Yara Zgheib's poetic and poignant debut novel is a haunting portrait of a young woman's struggle with anorexia on an intimate journey to reclaim her life.

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"In Nottingham, 1906, with her dancing days numbered, Marietta Stelle, when a mysterious toymaker moves in next door, is drawn into a world of magic and wonder until her final ballet performance takes a dark turn, trapping her in a place of secrets and illusions"--

"I don't even know if I'm following the choreo. I'm moving without worrying about being good, without obsessing about getting every move right. All the frustration and disappointment I jammed down every time I was passed over for a role, all of my yearning to be seen bursts out of me in a torrent of unfettered emotion. Ballet is Aisha's life. So when her mental health suffers after she's denied yet another opportunity at her elite academy because...

Dara and Marie Durant have been dancers since they can remember. Now, they both teach in the family dance studio. When a suspicious accident occurs right before a big performance, the balance of sisterhood is threatened and family tensions rise.

A mixed-heritage dancer's coming of age within the African diaspora is shaped by abuse at the hands of a cousin, her mother's descent into addiction, and her father's efforts to create a Nigerian-inspired home in America. "Ada" means first daughter, means oldest girl, means most pressure. When Ada leaves home for her freshman year at a historical Black college, it's the first time that she's been able to make her own choices. As she stumbles deeper...

"As Ella strives to keep her place in a struggling ballet company, the tragic story of another dancer seems to haunt her every step. If Ella can discover the truth of what happened, perhaps she can be free of the story and learn how to dance and live with the freedom that makes her story her own"--

When the dance class adapts "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" into a ballet, complications quickly arise, including incorporating the lower school students into the performance and Carla possibly playing the lead.

Twelve-year-old Boomi accidentally travels back in time to 1986 Thumpton-on-Soar, England, where she meets her late father as a child, changing her life forever.

"Laure Mesny is a perfectionist with an axe to grind. Despite being constantly overlooked in the elite and cutthroat world of the Parisian ballet, she will do anything to prove that a Black girl can take center stage. To level the playing field, Laure ventures deep into the depths of the Catacombs and strikes a deal with a pulsating river of blood. The primordial power Laure gains promises influence and adoration, everything she's dreamed of and worked...