Marlene Archie

Yearning Marlene Archie

Vividly rendering the sights, sounds, and scents of struggle, Yearning is a collection of short stories about ordinary Black folks' bittersweet endeavors to matter.



Set across the world, from urban Philaelphia to the villages of West Africa, the characters are interconnected as they orbit around a human craving for validation. Ten-year-old Anel and twenty eight year old Vera Jenkins mutually wrestle inside a culture of injustice, while Maria and Emily both grapple with insuperable loss and shame.



All of the short stories reveal the lives of people who have suffered from disease, violence, and blatant disregard. Will these tests and trials take the characters under? Or will they be made stronger and stand up to the call to rise?



Yearning presents an enticing overview of the presence of Black people, in an all inspiring African mode of storytelling. This is a book that you will find hard to put down.