Good Dirt

Charmaine Wilkerson’s Good Dirt is a moving, multi-generational novel about grief, resilience, and the legacies we carry. It follows Ebony “Ebby” Freeman, whose life is shattered when her brother is murdered and a treasured family heirloom, an old stoneware jar called “Old Mo,” is destroyed. Years later, as Ebby seeks healing across continents, the novel unearths hidden family histories, from enslaved ancestors to Black maritime trailblazers.

Wilkerson masterfully weaves past and present, using Old Mo as a powerful symbol of both generational trauma and enduring strength. Her lyrical prose and rich historical layers create a resonant meditation on how we are shaped by both sorrow and survival.

Good Dirt further cements show more Wilkerson’s gift for layered, emotionally resonant storytelling, offering a rich and compelling narrative that leaves a deep and lasting impact.

N.Cervone show less

This is a multi-generational narrative packed with themes of resilience, identity, and reckoning with history. It’s s layered with personal and historical tensions, where family legacies collide with personal tragedy and societal prejudice.

Ebby seems caught between her heritage and her present struggles. Her evolution from effortless beauty and Henry’s fiancé into a self-realized person is a compelling story line. How does she reclaim her agency after heartbreak, personal loss, and the weight of family history? Her work as an editor and ghostwriter could serve as a metaphor for finding her voice while amplifying others.

The Jar (Old Mo) symbolizes the Freeman family’s legacy and resilience. Does Ebby eventually uncover its full show more story? What role does it play in connecting the past and present, especially in the context of the Freeman family’s history with the Underground Railroad.

The story gives you generational duality with shifting timelines between 1803 to 2021 that allows you to explore how systemic racism and personal sacrifice reverberate across centuries. Kandia’s story of survival, the Freeman family’s land ownership, and Soh’s rebellion against the Fugitive Slave Act offer poignant moments to contrast with Ebby’s modern struggles.

The setting of the novel in Massachusetts & Refuge County seems deeply tied to heritage in which the contrast between Ebby’s affluent but scrutinized upbringing in Massachusetts and her escape to France highlight the intersection of identity and belonging.

There is mystery and betrayal in this interwoven narrative by Charmaine Wilkerson as was also in her debut novel Black Cake, in which I also enjoyed reading. I look forward to what she will pen next.
@charmspen1 #randomhouse #netgalley #donna'sbookaddiction show less

This is a multi-generational narrative packed with themes of resilience, identity, and reckoning with history. It’s s layered with personal and historical tensions, where family legacies collide with personal tragedy and societal prejudice.

Ebby seems caught between her heritage and her present struggles. Her evolution from effortless beauty and Henry’s fiancé into a self-realized person is a compelling story line. How does she reclaim her agency after heartbreak, personal loss, and the weight of family history? Her work as an editor and ghostwriter could serve as a metaphor for finding her voice while amplifying others.

The Jar (Old Mo) symbolizes the Freeman family’s legacy and resilience. Does Ebby eventually uncover its full show more story? What role does it play in connecting the past and present, especially in the context of the Freeman family’s history with the Underground Railroad.

The story gives you generational duality with shifting timelines between 1803 to 2021 that allows you to explore how systemic racism and personal sacrifice reverberate across centuries. Kandia’s story of survival, the Freeman family’s land ownership, and Soh’s rebellion against the Fugitive Slave Act offer poignant moments to contrast with Ebby’s modern struggles.

The setting of the novel in Massachusetts & Refuge County seems deeply tied to heritage in which the contrast between Ebby’s affluent but scrutinized upbringing in Massachusetts and her escape to France highlight the intersection of identity and belonging.

There is mystery and betrayal in this interwoven narrative by Charmaine Wilkerson as was also in her debut novel Black Cake, in which I also enjoyed reading. I look forward to what she will pen next. show less

I was such a fan of [Black Cake] by Charmaine Wilkerson, I couldn’t wait to read her next novel. I was not disappointed! This book was exquisitely plotted, well-researched and beautifully written. The characters were complex in a very real way. The premise explores the history of a handcrafted jar that was worked by an enslaved potter in the coastal south of the US. Most of the action takes place in a well-to-do community in Connecticut. Tethering the two stories together is a study of grief and survival through the ages. Wilkerson skillfully follows the variety of human responses with a tender sensibility. I always felt I was in good hands with Wilkerson and will remember this book for a very long time.

Good Dirt… 5+ ⭐️’s (yeah, seriously.)
Words are power, and when you come across an author whose words convey richness and depth, along with power and voice, to a story as majestically as Wilkerson, you are transformed. I believe she has just catapulted herself into the top spot on my favorite author list.
Through the story of Ebby, Wilkerson builds a mosaic of her history, her people’s history and ultimately our country’s history throughout. A plot that takes you from past to present and back again, with a plethora of detail, varied points of view, and characters that are artfully pieced together, a novel based in truths of the past comes to fruition. Within the telling of Ebby’s journey, stories within stories are show more intertwined, which held me enchanted. The various experiences of the characters elicited all the feelings on a visceral level, and I felt I was right there with them.
If you thought Black Cake was good, this is going to knock your socks off. Good Dirt is amazing, the best novel to have ended this year, and if I could give it more than 5 stars, I would.
(I received an arc from the publisher through NetGalley for an honest review) show less

so well written and such interesting characters. this book shows how personal tragedy combines with systemic racism and epigenetics in defining individual and communal responses. i cared so much for the characters and for what their lives would bring. wilkerson shares just enough about each character to help us define them and also to let us interpret for ourselves what they are feeling and what their next actions are.

What a satisfying book to read. I was truly immersed in the story, lives, and world it depicted. Both story lines captured me, but particularly the historical one of Moses, Willis, and Old Mo. The book also took me back to my childhood, out in the garden, with my mother holding a handful of dirt for me to sniff and know what "good dirt" looked, smelt, and felt like. My heritage may not be the same as Ebby's, but our families share an understanding, a recognition, of gifts given.