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Prodigal
"You're not the son I raised."
Words no child should ever hear. But in 1969, William and Rebecca McCray of Huntsville, Alabama, used those very words to disown their firstborn son Benjamin. Why? For falling in love with Stephanie Lewis -- a young black girl he met while attending Harvard.
Leaving his hometown for good, Ben returns to college, eventually marrying Stephanie and settling near her family in Philadelphia. There they raise three children and become successful in their respective fields: Stephanie as a pediatric surgeon in one of the nation's top hospitals and Ben as an academic dean at the University of Pennsylvania.
For more than three decades, everything was perfect...until early one Saturday morning. Ben receives a phone call from his brother Cooper telling him their mother is dying and wishes to see him before she dies. Ben returns to his hometown, only to find a mother barely cognizant of the world around him, a father still bitter over his son's interracial marriage, and a brother desperately trying to reconnect with him.
Despite the challenges ahead of him, Ben stays and as his mother's final days approach, the family begins to piece itself together again, realizing they have more in common than they have differences.
Prodigal is a story of family, forgiveness, and the extraordinary lengths a mother will go to in order to put her family back together.
Words no child should ever hear. But in 1969, William and Rebecca McCray of Huntsville, Alabama, used those very words to disown their firstborn son Benjamin. Why? For falling in love with Stephanie Lewis -- a young black girl he met while attending Harvard.
Leaving his hometown for good, Ben returns to college, eventually marrying Stephanie and settling near her family in Philadelphia. There they raise three children and become successful in their respective fields: Stephanie as a pediatric surgeon in one of the nation's top hospitals and Ben as an academic dean at the University of Pennsylvania.
For more than three decades, everything was perfect...until early one Saturday morning. Ben receives a phone call from his brother Cooper telling him their mother is dying and wishes to see him before she dies. Ben returns to his hometown, only to find a mother barely cognizant of the world around him, a father still bitter over his son's interracial marriage, and a brother desperately trying to reconnect with him.
Despite the challenges ahead of him, Ben stays and as his mother's final days approach, the family begins to piece itself together again, realizing they have more in common than they have differences.
Prodigal is a story of family, forgiveness, and the extraordinary lengths a mother will go to in order to put her family back together.
- GenresFiction
360 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 18, 2012
About the author
J.D. Nichols
6 books5 followersLouisiana-born and raised, J.D. Nichols was born into a family of readers and has never known a time that he wasn’t reading or making up stories with his cousins. He now lives and works in Columbia, Missouri. When he’s not working, J.D. can usually be found enjoying the outdoors or planning his next adventure.
"Travel inspires me to write. Writing inspires me to travel."
J.D. is happy to visit bookclubs via Zoom! You can reach him via the contact page of his website www.authorjdnichols.com
"Travel inspires me to write. Writing inspires me to travel."
J.D. is happy to visit bookclubs via Zoom! You can reach him via the contact page of his website www.authorjdnichols.com
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 25, 2013
PRODIGAL by J.D. Nichols is a great book about an inspiring interracial relationship. I am an avid reader and this is one of the best books that I have read the past six months. Nichols tells a moving story about a white man who gave up his family to pursue a marriage and family with a black woman. They build a great marriage and family, both of them professionals, and their children now grown and on their way to becoming professionals, when the white man gets called home after all these years because his mother is in the hospital in very bad conditional. It is a story about one white southern family attempting to piece together what bigotry decades ago ripped apart, and the complications it creates for the white family he grew up with and the interracial family he has been with the past couple of decades. The book brought out practically every emotion that I am capable of feeling. This is an excellent read. Benjamin is a great character!
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January 4, 2014kindle
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews