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Nowhere Is a Place
Nothing can mend a broken heart quite like family. Sherry has struggled all her life to understand who she is, where she comes from, and, most important, why her mother slapped her cheek one summer afternoon. The incident has haunted Sherry, and it causes her to dig into her family's past. Like many family histories, it is fractured and stubbornly reluctant to reveal its secrets; but Sherry is determined to know the full story. In just a few days' time, her extended family will gather for a reunion, and Sherry sets off across the country with her mother, Dumpling, to join them. What Sherry and Dumpling find on their trip is far more important than scenic sites here and there--it is the assorted pieces of their family's past. Pulled together, they reveal a history of amazing survival and abundant joy.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published February 2, 2006
105 people are currently reading
3032 people want to read
About the author
Bernice L. McFadden
21 books2,251 followersBERNICE L. McFADDEN is the author of ten critically acclaimed novels including Praise Song for the Butterflies (Long listed for the 2019 Women's Prize in Fiction ) The Book of Harlan (winner of a 2017 American Book Award and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction) Sugar, Loving Donovan, Nowhere Is a Place, The Warmest December, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors’ Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012) and Glorious . She is a four-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of four awards from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA).
McFadden has also penned five novels under the pseudonym: Geneva Holliday
She is a visiting assistant professor of creative writing at Tulane University in New Orleans. She is at work on her sixteenth novel.
McFadden has also penned five novels under the pseudonym: Geneva Holliday
She is a visiting assistant professor of creative writing at Tulane University in New Orleans. She is at work on her sixteenth novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 189 reviews
October 28, 2017
Wow! Why didn't I read this book earlier. This is a great read for book lovers because it features a book inside a book. Loved the characters Sherry and Dumpling! Dumplings quick-wit and great one-liners kept me laughing. Besides the humor, Nowhere is a place explores family history and this novel is based on McFadden's family. It's definitely inspired me to look into my family lineage a bit closer too. The novel is highly descriptive and the characters developed fully. The plot will keep you interested throughout. This would also be a great place to start reading McFadden.
April 2, 2015
Bernice McFadden is bae.
March 4, 2018
One of my favorite things about this author is her unique storytelling. This book is 2 stories is one. Its a family saga laced with the mother daughter relationship of Sherry and dumpling. In order to find the truth you have to explore the past.
March 2, 2018
Bernice McFadden sure knows how to grab your heart and call on all your emotions with her writing! That’s what I would consider genius!!!
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September 22, 2015Great book
All of McFadden book are well written you can just see all the characters and places so vividly. Another great book
All of McFadden book are well written you can just see all the characters and places so vividly. Another great book
May 23, 2020
Bernice, girl! Like every book i read by you I’m legit floored
It took a while for me to get into to this book. I’m such a mood reader.
But the way she writes a story within a story (really a story about the main character writing a story of her family tree). It’s just breathtaking. Like how!
It gripped me til the very end.
This book was written in a way that there was no way to predict where it was going BUT you knew there was going to be some uncovering of generational pain.
And i think that’s what makes this book so powerful, we never address how generational trauma effects the current generation. And we never address where it stems from.
Five stars for sure
It took a while for me to get into to this book. I’m such a mood reader.
But the way she writes a story within a story (really a story about the main character writing a story of her family tree). It’s just breathtaking. Like how!
It gripped me til the very end.
This book was written in a way that there was no way to predict where it was going BUT you knew there was going to be some uncovering of generational pain.
And i think that’s what makes this book so powerful, we never address how generational trauma effects the current generation. And we never address where it stems from.
Five stars for sure
July 8, 2015
Good read. A car journey across country with Sherry and her mother Dumplin to a family reunion reveal some deep dark secrets about their family. Sherry desires to write a book and ask her mother some pointed uncomfortable questions which reveal a history of slavery, abuse, survival, murder, freedom, incest and truth which bring the two, who have never been close, to a deeper understanding of who they are and what family really mean.
May 30, 2012
As much as I loved reading the words, the narrator really brought them to life. I loved her voicing of Dumpling especially.
December 13, 2020
Bernice L. McFadden is officially one of my favored authors. Written in her distinctively dazzling way, she grabs ahold of the reader and allows them to have fun getting lost in her literary world.
The story is primarily narrated by Sherry and her mother Dumpling while on a road trip, just the two of them.
The story is told in flashbacks of the present day and goes back to the days before their family was free slaves.
Sherry wanted to know why one particular event led her mother to slap her as a child with great force and send her off from the family crowd. Sherry also wanted to know why her mother had an obsession (OCD) with wiping her hands.
"Sherry was just six years old on that day when she sat curled up in her Uncle Beanie Moe’s lap, one arm slung across his neck, the other fingering the string of blue beads he’d brought her back from New Orleans. Her mother, Dumpling, had walked into the room smiling, then stopped and stared as the smile froze and cracked on her face. Sherry couldn’t have known that her sitting innocently on her uncle’s knee would hurtle her mother back in time—back to a warm Easter afternoon when a misplaced hand had suddenly turned ugly. Dumpling’s eyes went glassy as she marched over to them, lifted her hand into the air, and brought it down across Sherry’s six-year-old face so hard, the girl had ended up kissing the floor and seeing stars. Dumpling had never said why she slapped Sherry, and Beanie Moe hadn’t asked. He just helped Sherry up and carried her over to the couch and sat her down. He comforted her with words, but didn’t dare touch her. Dumpling, she just stormed out of the room, leaving the slight scent of Ivory soap swirling in the air."
The story is a story within a story and plagued with family drama. It is layers and layers of turmoil, unspoken family secrets, and the unthinkable. What is unthinkable? One will have to read the book to reveal the cutting truth that sits ugly amid the pages.
Though this book was a tough pill to swallow, I enjoyed facing the reality of what used to be and still is.
The story is primarily narrated by Sherry and her mother Dumpling while on a road trip, just the two of them.
The story is told in flashbacks of the present day and goes back to the days before their family was free slaves.
Sherry wanted to know why one particular event led her mother to slap her as a child with great force and send her off from the family crowd. Sherry also wanted to know why her mother had an obsession (OCD) with wiping her hands.
"Sherry was just six years old on that day when she sat curled up in her Uncle Beanie Moe’s lap, one arm slung across his neck, the other fingering the string of blue beads he’d brought her back from New Orleans. Her mother, Dumpling, had walked into the room smiling, then stopped and stared as the smile froze and cracked on her face. Sherry couldn’t have known that her sitting innocently on her uncle’s knee would hurtle her mother back in time—back to a warm Easter afternoon when a misplaced hand had suddenly turned ugly. Dumpling’s eyes went glassy as she marched over to them, lifted her hand into the air, and brought it down across Sherry’s six-year-old face so hard, the girl had ended up kissing the floor and seeing stars. Dumpling had never said why she slapped Sherry, and Beanie Moe hadn’t asked. He just helped Sherry up and carried her over to the couch and sat her down. He comforted her with words, but didn’t dare touch her. Dumpling, she just stormed out of the room, leaving the slight scent of Ivory soap swirling in the air."
The story is a story within a story and plagued with family drama. It is layers and layers of turmoil, unspoken family secrets, and the unthinkable. What is unthinkable? One will have to read the book to reveal the cutting truth that sits ugly amid the pages.
Though this book was a tough pill to swallow, I enjoyed facing the reality of what used to be and still is.
January 18, 2021
A solidly written and compelling family saga, tracing several generations from the early 19th century to the late 20th (or early 21st? I’ve already forgotten). In the framing narrative, Sherry, an unmoored woman of about 30, takes her mother Dumpling on a cross-country journey to a family reunion. Sherry’s ulterior motive is to extract family stories from Dumpling, which she works into a novel that comprises the rest of the book. From Dumpling’s great-grandmother, Lou, a Native American woman sold into slavery in Georgia and married to a Black slave, down through the generations, the story is a harrowing but at the same time altogether too familiar narrative of slavery, unfathomable white cruelty, precarious freedom, and the kind of secrets a family that endures such hardships seems inevitably to generate. The most interesting and unusual part is the sequence before and leading up to Emancipation, where Dumpling’s grandparents and a handful of other slaves manipulate their incapacitated owner and take ownership of the plantation.
March 7, 2014
Even a hopeful ending and great writing cannot overshadow the darkness of the subject matter found within this novel. It wasn't a joy to read, for I felt sick at times and sad and I didn't know if I could emotionally stomach the complete truth of the history of this African-American and Native American family. McFadden's writing is blunt almost to the point of being crude at times, but mostly, the writing is simply evocative in its realism. If you can't handle the bleakness of slavery, sexual abuse, and a justifiably dysfunctional family, then seek out another book that perhaps has some comic relief amidst a history of tragedy. I was very thankful for the hope of a brighter future after Dumpling was finally able to feel some healing in regard to her past.
May 29, 2020
4.5 Stars
Absolutely heartbreaking, but I couldn't look away. Couldn't stop.
The strength of her female characters and their bonds and their underlying faith (or lack there of) in family is just so reminiscent with my own and generations before me, that I swear her books will always hold a special place in my heart.
generational tale
heartbreak
slavery
sexual abuse
sexual assault
child endangerment
Absolutely heartbreaking, but I couldn't look away. Couldn't stop.
The strength of her female characters and their bonds and their underlying faith (or lack there of) in family is just so reminiscent with my own and generations before me, that I swear her books will always hold a special place in my heart.
generational tale
heartbreak
slavery
sexual abuse
sexual assault
child endangerment
July 2, 2011
In this novel two narratives are used to tell us the stories of a Southern slave family. Straight away I knew this would not be as good as Mudbound (so I recommend for a truly touching portrayal of share cropping that would be the one to read).
Okay, so, there is a present day narrative between Sherry and her mother Dumpling as they travel across the country to participate in a family reunion that neither have been to for many many years. These two have a very fractured relationship, Sherry is a wanderer who has struggled to feel settled anywhere and Dumpling has had a toturous childhood with molestation by her Uncle, an Uncle who has molested her sisters, her mother and her aunts. Now, I have no doubt that this kind of thing went on (and still does), but at times the writing about it, and the random murders in this book, felt disgustingly gratuitous. I can read pretty much anything as long as there is context in it. Between my problems with that and the collision of the two narratives, for me, this book leaves little to be desired.
Okay, so, there is a present day narrative between Sherry and her mother Dumpling as they travel across the country to participate in a family reunion that neither have been to for many many years. These two have a very fractured relationship, Sherry is a wanderer who has struggled to feel settled anywhere and Dumpling has had a toturous childhood with molestation by her Uncle, an Uncle who has molested her sisters, her mother and her aunts. Now, I have no doubt that this kind of thing went on (and still does), but at times the writing about it, and the random murders in this book, felt disgustingly gratuitous. I can read pretty much anything as long as there is context in it. Between my problems with that and the collision of the two narratives, for me, this book leaves little to be desired.
May 2, 2013
A beautifully written story about a mother and a daughter, who were not close, who rebuild a relationship during a road trip to a family reunion. There are many questions that Sherry and Dumpling have for each other but have never asked. Sherry also writes a book about her family history. I loved this book and how it visits the pain and suffering of the past and how the family has continued to work through the difficult times and persevered. The road trip not only helps Sherry answer her questions about her past and where she came from, but it helps to rekindle the mother/daughter relationship between the two.
This book was hard to put down. The author did a great job with the details in the story and is a fantastic storyteller. I felt as if I were actually there, back in the times of slavery, afraid each day of what might happen.
I received a copy of this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
This book was hard to put down. The author did a great job with the details in the story and is a fantastic storyteller. I felt as if I were actually there, back in the times of slavery, afraid each day of what might happen.
I received a copy of this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
February 25, 2010
I just finished this one over the weekend and it was wonderful! It was not at all what I expected, and that was a very good thing. It took me down my favorite road of families, African-American history, secrets and spirits. I couldn't put it down and I will miss these characters very much.
October 7, 2018
As always...amazing storytelling by Ms. McFadden! Definitely recommend! I’ll have to come back after I process my thoughts...just WOW! Two books in one..amazing creativity!
September 9, 2022
Beautifully written. A story of love, family, and dysfunction. The story is told in two voices, both good. A story of hate, brutality and heartache of slavery. The narration was excellent.
March 28, 2014
The framing story takes a little while to really grab you, but there is a payoff in the structure and the ending of the novel that makes it worth a bit of a slog. The meat of this book is an amazingly intense inter-generational story that takes us from slavery to the North to vegetarian daughters with pierced noses that mothers don't understand. Very much about family, in the best and worst ways, and with some of the most breathtaking scenes of both violence and beauty that I've read.
May 24, 2016
Wow!! This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. The book begins with a mother and daughter taking driving across country. While doing so, the mother and daughter reconcile their relationship and the mother shares the family history. The family history begins during slavery and eventually reveals a family secret that has effected many women in the family. The book is heart wrenching and will leave you with a deeper appreciation for our ancestors. A must read!
September 22, 2014
I really liked the story of this mother and daughter teaching other their history while on the way to a family reunion. I like that there is a story within a story, which I was not initially expecting. Beautiful writing from Ms. McFadden with stories that ring out with a truth that could be my, or anyone's, family history even though it's fiction. Powerful story.
June 16, 2015
I loved this book just as well as the others I have read. It 's about a family discovering their family tree and all the stories behind each character. It jumps back and forth from slavery days up to today. Sherry and her mama Dumpling travel from Calif to Georgia by way of car and catch up on the famikhistory.
December 14, 2017
Powerful & sad
This book was excellent! Family secrets, shame, lies, from the past to the future. Keeping silent only hurts you, and it continues through the family lines. The characters were so believable and you felt every pain, heartache that comes with it. This book kept me glued, and I’m happy I picked it up.
This book was excellent! Family secrets, shame, lies, from the past to the future. Keeping silent only hurts you, and it continues through the family lines. The characters were so believable and you felt every pain, heartache that comes with it. This book kept me glued, and I’m happy I picked it up.
February 14, 2014
Hard to get hooked, then, hard to put down. Stories so realistic in the past and present times, that the meeting of the two shocks and calms. Delicious lingual feast.
July 31, 2015
Excellent read!
August 25, 2020
3.75 ⭐ While there were things to like about this book, including the two main characters, the backstory (though interesting) was a little too much and sometimes confusing.
August 4, 2022
Some parts were TOUGH to get through (trigger warnings for sure). But the storytelling was divine.
August 5, 2019
I have been hearing the praises of Bernice McFadden for a few years now. She has been hailed as an under-rated author of color.
Nowhere is a place is a standalone family saga. It captures the secrets of the Lessing family from when the great great grandmother Nayeli is captured to the 1950s. It is a dual narrative with the past being written as a story. And for me, the past is more intriguing than the present. To be nick picky, I wished the present was fleshed out more considering the events that unfolded near the end. And that these characters were a bit more fleshed out. But the writing was engaging even if the secret can be easily guessed. But overall it is worthwhile reading.
There is this poem in the front of the novel which can resonate with any person of color.
i was torn from my somewhere and brought to this nowhere place
i felt alone in this land that was nowhere from my everywhere.
i didn’t understand the tongue
i didn’t understand the tongue
i didn’t understand the tongue and why it was the trees here bore
strange fruit that watched me with dead eyes
cruel hands
cruel hands
cruel hands, tied me down, strung me up, dug into me and sold me off
what came out of me
time flowed like the river
like the river, time flowed on, but i held tight to the memories of my
someplace, refusing to believe that my everywhere had always been
here in this nowhere place
Nowhere is a place is a standalone family saga. It captures the secrets of the Lessing family from when the great great grandmother Nayeli is captured to the 1950s. It is a dual narrative with the past being written as a story. And for me, the past is more intriguing than the present. To be nick picky, I wished the present was fleshed out more considering the events that unfolded near the end. And that these characters were a bit more fleshed out. But the writing was engaging even if the secret can be easily guessed. But overall it is worthwhile reading.
There is this poem in the front of the novel which can resonate with any person of color.
i was torn from my somewhere and brought to this nowhere place
i felt alone in this land that was nowhere from my everywhere.
i didn’t understand the tongue
i didn’t understand the tongue
i didn’t understand the tongue and why it was the trees here bore
strange fruit that watched me with dead eyes
cruel hands
cruel hands
cruel hands, tied me down, strung me up, dug into me and sold me off
what came out of me
time flowed like the river
like the river, time flowed on, but i held tight to the memories of my
someplace, refusing to believe that my everywhere had always been
here in this nowhere place
December 27, 2023
This book was heavy!! And by heavy I mean that the subject matter is difficult to read about but it was written so wonderfully that I was captivated and it brought out all the emotions.
In this book, Sherry, who is in her mid to late thirties, is taking an impromptu road trip with her mother who she has never had a good relationship with. Her mother describes her as weird but really she’s just a free spirit hahaha. Anywho, while on this road trip from Nevada to Georgia for a family reunion, Sherry asks her mother to tell her about their family history. And her mother does so, starting with her great-grandmother (Sherry’s great-great-grandmother), Lou. The book then becomes a story within a story about their family history and Sherry’s relationship with her mom.
I loved just about everything about this book! The relationship dynamics between each and every character were fascinating to read about and the resulting trauma was so sad and heart breaking. The story truly moved me and has encouraged me to seek more books by this same author. Just phenomenal - 5 stars!
In this book, Sherry, who is in her mid to late thirties, is taking an impromptu road trip with her mother who she has never had a good relationship with. Her mother describes her as weird but really she’s just a free spirit hahaha. Anywho, while on this road trip from Nevada to Georgia for a family reunion, Sherry asks her mother to tell her about their family history. And her mother does so, starting with her great-grandmother (Sherry’s great-great-grandmother), Lou. The book then becomes a story within a story about their family history and Sherry’s relationship with her mom.
I loved just about everything about this book! The relationship dynamics between each and every character were fascinating to read about and the resulting trauma was so sad and heart breaking. The story truly moved me and has encouraged me to seek more books by this same author. Just phenomenal - 5 stars!
December 24, 2021
I happened upon this book by chance. First time reading a book by McFadden but definitely adding others to my list.
This book kept me turning the pages and not wanting to put down. With it having a story within a story, McFadden tells a compelling story of a family going back generations. This story captured my attention from the start and provoking ALL the emotions. The quick witted comments from Dumpling had me chuckling, and then the majority of the time I was fuming mad, heartbroken and just emotionally spent as McFadden deep dives with graphic illustration of slavery, white cruelty, family secrets, generational pain and survival.
Describing this book as a "good" read doesn't seem appropriate. I will state with the well developed characters, fast paced narrative, and phenomenal writing by McFadden, I would highly recommend.
This book kept me turning the pages and not wanting to put down. With it having a story within a story, McFadden tells a compelling story of a family going back generations. This story captured my attention from the start and provoking ALL the emotions. The quick witted comments from Dumpling had me chuckling, and then the majority of the time I was fuming mad, heartbroken and just emotionally spent as McFadden deep dives with graphic illustration of slavery, white cruelty, family secrets, generational pain and survival.
Describing this book as a "good" read doesn't seem appropriate. I will state with the well developed characters, fast paced narrative, and phenomenal writing by McFadden, I would highly recommend.
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July 27, 20214.5
Displaying 1 - 30 of 189 reviews