Child of God

by Lolita Files

Everybody knows everybody else's business in Downtown, Tennessee. Neighbors while away afternoons at the local bar, swapping rumors about voodoo, incest, and illegitimate children. Usually they're gossiping about the Boten clan.
In this epic family saga, Lolita Files unveils the hidden lives of three generations of the Boten family. She introduces us to Grandma Amalie, a mother so fiercely protective, she will quietly sacrifice everything for her son. There's Grace, who conceals the identity of her child's father for more than twenty years. There's Aunt Sukie, whose strange power over her husband, Walter, is matched only by the strength of her dark magic. And then there's Lay, the bad seed, whose secret betrayals will cost his family dearly.
The family's past begins rising to the surface when a mysterious fire takes the life of young Ophelia Boten's infant son. The tragedy sets the family in motion, its members on a quest for self-discovery that will lead them to the drug world of inner-city Detroit, a midwestern college campus, the jungles of Vietnam, and back again. Ophelia sets her own course, one that will ultimately bring her into the arms of a caring and benevolent lover. But before she can embrace her new life and begin a family of her own, she must fully understand and accept the Boten clan's tormented legacy.
Inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet, Child of God is a story of family bonds, of forbidden love, of sacrifice and redemption. Moving deftly forward and backward in time, the narrative weaves the past with the present, and the family's mistakes echo unforgettably through each successive generation. As rich as it is rewarding, this is Lolita Files's most ambitious novel to date.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Book Club, African American, Chick Lit, Southern, Race

369 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 7, 2001

About the author

Lolita Files is an American author, screenwriter, and producer whose work spans fiction, nonfiction, and television. She is the author of six bestselling novels, including the popular book club titles Scenes from a Sistah and Child of God. Her novel sex.lies.murder.fame was optioned for film, with Files adapting the screenplay. She also coauthored Once Upon a Time in Compton with former Compton Gang Unit detectives Timothy M. Brennan and Robert Ladd, a nonfiction account of their years navigating gang wars, the rise of Gangsta rap, and the investigations into the murders of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G.
Files earned a degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Florida and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Before turning to writing full time, she worked in corporate communications, marketing, and property management, experiences that influenced her early novels. Her path to publication began when she submitted short fiction and pages from Child of God to a major literary agency, resulting in immediate representation and her first book deal.
Based in Los Angeles, Files continues to write novels and nonfiction while developing and producing film, television, and new media projects.