A Roxane Gay Audacious Bookclub April Pick
An Indie Next Pick
One of O, The Oprah Magazine's "55 of the Most Anticipated Books of 2021"
One of Alma's "Favorite Books for Winter 2021"
One of Essence's "21 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2021"
One of Electric Literature's "43 Books By Women of Color to Read in 2021" selected by RO Kwon
One of Electric Literature's "27 Debuts to Look Forward To in the First Half of 2021" selected by Adam Vitcavage
One of The Rumpus' "What To Read When 2021 Is Just Around The Corner"
One of Write or Die Tribe's "21 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2021"

A livewire debut from Dantiel W. Moniz, one of the most exciting discoveries in today's literary landscape, Milk Blood Heat depicts the sultry lives of Floridians in intergenerational tales that contemplate human connection, race, womanhood, inheritance, and the elemental darkness in us all. Set among the cities and suburbs of Florida, each story delves into the ordinary worlds of young girls, women, and men who find themselves confronted by extraordinary moments of violent personal reckoning. These intimate portraits of people and relationships scour and soothe and blast a light on the nature of family, faith, forgiveness, consumption, and what we may, or may not, owe one another.

A thirteen-year-old meditates on her sadness and the difference between herself and her white best friend when an unexpected tragedy occurs; a woman recovering from a miscarriage finds herself unable to let go of her daughter--whose body parts she sees throughout her daily life; a teenager resists her family's church and is accused of courting the devil; servers at a supper club cater to the insatiable cravings of their wealthy clientele; and two estranged siblings take a road-trip with their father's ashes and are forced to face the troubling reality of how he continues to shape them.

Wise and subversive, spiritual and seductive, Milk Blood Heat forms an ouroboros of stories that bewitch with their truth, announcing the arrival of a bright new literary star.