The Book of Chuck

Set in Texas and spanning decades, LaToya Watkins’s brilliant new novel is a gimlet-eyed investigation into the bonds and boundaries of family, generational inheritance, and the power of belonging.

Pa, no go. Him burn. When baby Nannie utters these prophetic words in 1936, she marks herself as cursed. The ability to see death before it happens forever changes the course of her life, and the life of her descendants.

Forty years later, Chuck is about to become a father. He intends to make a home filled with love, unlike the one he was born into. But when he begins paying visits to his estranged mother, Nannie, in search of answers, she starts pushing him away from the life he always wanted.

In 1999, Baby is on the precipice of major change. Her mother is packing up their home and moving them into a religious community that believes the world is ending. But when Baby has a surprising vision of death, she begins to investigate her lineage, piecing together what she can about her father, Chuck, and her family's deeply shrouded past.