We Rip the World Apart : A Novel

A sweeping multi-generational story about motherhood, race and secrets in the lives of three women, perfect for readers of Brit Bennetts The Vanishing Half and David Chariandys Brother

When 24-year-old Kareela discovers shes pregnant with a child she isnt sure she wants, it amplifies her struggle to understand her place in the world as a woman who is half-Black and half-white, yet feels neither.

Her mother, Evelyn,fled to Canada with her husband and their first-born child, Antony, during the politically charged Jamaican Exodus of the 1980s, only to realize theyd come to a place where Black men are viewed with suspiciona constant and pernicious reality Evelyn watches her husband and son navigate daily.

Years later, in the aftermath of Antonys murder by the police, Evelyns mother-in-law, Violet, moves in, offering young Kareela a link to the Jamaican heritage she has never fully known. Despite Violets efforts to help them through their grief, the traumas they carry grow into a web of secrets that threatens the very family they all hold so dear.

Back in the present, Kareela, prompted by fear and uncertainty about the new life she carries, must come to terms with the mysteries surrounding her familys past and the need to make sense of both her identity and her future.

Weaving the womens stories across multiple timelines,We Rip the World Apartrevealsthe ways that simple choices, made in the heat of the moment and with the best of intentions, can have deeper repercussions than could ever have been imagined, especially when people remain silent.