Fifth Born II

Set in rural Mississippi and in Harlem in the 1970’s and 80’s, Fifth Born II: The Hundredth Turtle is sequel to the novel Fifth Born. The novel gives readers the lyrical journey of Odessa Blackburn, one of eight siblings living in St. Louis but is abandoned in Mississippi where she negotiates a new life with her ostracized mother. The strains of family propaganda, puberty, and life away from her siblings make for compounded heartache as Odessa and her mother must negotiate toward patience and a new way of loving without violence. Soon mother and daughter build a bridge out of their broken lives over which Odessa’s oldest brother Lamont crosses. The novel blossoms into the story of these young adult siblings. Though the two are estranged early in childhood by the lies and myths born of family pain; they become emotionally reliant on each other for a sense of family.