Malawi's Sisters

by Melanie S. Hatter

Hatter's artful, moving novel looks closely at the murder of a young black woman and her family's devastation. Old--and new--questions about race and civil rights in 21st Century America arise alongside the unfolding story of Malawi and those who live in the wake of her loss.

Genres: Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

Published March 15, 2019

About the author

Melanie S. Hatter is the author of two novels and one short story collection. Selected by Edwidge Danticat, Malawi's Sisters won the inaugural Kimbilio National Fiction Prize and is published by Four Way Books, 2019. The Color of My Soul won the 2011 Washington Writers' Publishing House Fiction Prize, and Let No One Weep for Me, Stories of Love and Loss was released in 2014. Her short stories have appeared in The Whistling Fire, Defying Gravity, TimBookTu and Diverse Voices Quarterly. She was a runner-up winner in the Fiction category of the 2015 and 2016 Montgomery Writes contests sponsored by the Maryland Writers' Association.

She is a participating author with the PEN/Faulkner Writers in Schools program in Washington, D.C., and serves on the board of the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation. Melanie received a bachelor's degree in mass media arts from Hampton University and a master's in writing from Johns Hopkins University. She has a background in journalism and corporate communications. For more information, visit http://www.melanieshatter.com.

Reviews

[Amandayb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book on so many levels. First, the storytelling is brilliant. It takes unexpected twists and turns but never veers into unbelievability, which could easily happen with a family coping with such a dramatic loss. Instead, the story gently examines their pain and how they cope.

In addition, the characters are sharply drawn, fully realized people who bring their own baggage to the fore. You may not always agree with their choices but they will keep you reading way past your bedtime.

The best feature of the book may be how it tackles race relations in America. The author is careful to provide different perspectives on criminal justice, policing and violence in our country. Her efforts will stay with you long after you have turned the last page.

[Tamela Gordon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like Malawi's Sisters. But, I was underwhelmed with the character development and I sense that the writer failed to do research on the topic of being murdered by a white supremacist. The plot is inspired by the murder of Renisha McBride, yet, she's listed as having been murdered in 2014 when in fact it was 2013.

There's also the issue of the main character, Kenya, who is blatantly and unapologetically homophobic. Add to that the other character Ghana who's dating an 'all lives matter' white cop.

The book is built on respectability tropes, narrow thinking, and goes out of its way to question the relevance of Black Lives Matter - both the movement and the organization.

[Theodore Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book hits like it shouldn’t have to, but we’re glad it does. Endlessly prescient and sadly timely at once; that’s the continuous pain of contemporary America told by folks from its margins for what seems like generations now, isn’t it? This is the terribleness and beauty Hatter paints in Malawi’s Sisters, a book so well-crafted and urgent you don’t even realize it’s pulled you instantly into its necessary and beautiful story from the first page until the last, when you can finally put it down, take a welcome breath denied to so many others. I trembled along as I read this work of webs and lies and brutal truths—the emotions she paints and sure-handedly leads you through have the ability to drain, to uplift, to engender pain and empathy in effortless ways. She got me misty-eyed at the penultimate scene, the story rushing into the void it had created through pain and the struggle for salvation, replete with all the difficulty that makes it the worthy goal we imagine it is. It’s a deftly told family story with all those raw edges and warm embraces whose finale shouldn’t have been, shouldn’t be now, should never be going forward, yet….

Thank you, Melanie Hatter for putting this story into the world, making it live in ways that it needs to, and in the end, for showing us how we can learn what we all hope to know; only love can save us.

[Josie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointed. I was looking forward to reading this book and helping me learn/understand more about police/ vigilante/racism in the aftermath of the tragic death of a young black woman. Although the book did discuss these issues and its effects on a family, it went into homosexuality, infidelity, drug and alcohol abuse. Whereas, I recognize that these are paths that people suffering may choose to take, I felt that by the author mentioning all of the paths taken, by all of the characters, that it took away from the main story line itself. Too many ideas. I felt it needed editing on the ideas.

[Megan Kogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the messiness of the novel. Depicting a family struck by the sudden murder of the youngest daughter.

The novel touches on the imperfectness of various issues (I can only learn and assume) people face when Black in the United States.
The book touches on infidelity, homosexuality, and interracial relationships.

To have excluded certain “non-politically correct” items, such as Kenya being uncomfortable with her son being gay, would have taken away from real lived experiences. I appreciate the author for including the perhaps uncomfortable aspects of changing relationships that is so often seen in real life.

[Kara Trammell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for a class, but I am in love with the story. It's beautiful. The story intertwines the lives of the characters, their thoughts/emotions/feelings/relationships and the issue of race. The sisters are all named after countries in Africa; Kenya, Ghana, and Malawi. LOVED this book so much.

[Tara Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sensitive and timely novel about the aftermath of gun violence in America. Hatter captures the story behind the headlines, delving into the family trauma beyond the immediate cost of a life. A worthy choice for the inaugural Kimbilio National Fiction Prize.

[Karen Bates]

Good story about how a family is impacted by a "stand your ground" law. Set in Washington DC (family home is in upper NW). Three daughters, one dies in shooting after stopping to ask directions during a trip to Miami