★ 04/11/2022
Wolfe debuts with the heartbreaking story of a young girl and her family during a summer of destruction and tragedy. It’s 1999 and the Chicago Housing Authority is tearing down the Robert Taylor Homes, where 12-year-old FeFe Stevens lives with her mother and older brother, Meechie. FeFe enjoys the summer double-dutching and running around with her friends Stacia Buchanan, part of the building’s ruling gang family, and Precious, a religious girl from FeFe’s church. After a new girl, Tonya, appears, FeFe invites her to play with them despite Stacia’s dislike of her. Wolfe’s richly realized characters endure racism, displacement, and violence, but also experience love. Short, evocative chapters build a foreboding sense of the inevitable while FeFe is forced to reckon with harsh realities around her, among them Tonya’s mother’s crack addiction, Stacia’s gang loyalty, Meechie’s struggle to resist gang life, and other ravages of life in the project. As the destruction of their building approaches, tensions and violence rise. By the traumatic end, FeFe is left lonely and scared, but her pain pushes her to escape. Wolfe’s arresting and atmospheric narrative comes fully realized. This is a gut punch. Agent: Meredith Kaffel Simonoff, DeFiore & Co. (June)
"[A] powerful novel.... Tragic, hopeful, brimming with love, Wolfe’s debut is a remarkable achievement.” — New York Times Book Review
“This incredible book is about pulling yourself up regardless of your circumstances. I felt this one deeply, and I hope you enjoy it as well.” — Stephen Curry
“First-time novelist Wolfe writes with lacerating precision and authenticity…. In a fictional counterpart to Dawn Turner’s memoir, Three Girls from Bronzeville , Wolfe’s deeply compelling characters, sharply wrought settings, and tightly choreographed plot create a concentrated, significant, and unforgettable tale of family, home, racism, trauma, compassion, and transcendence.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Wolfe’s arresting and atmospheric narrative comes fully realized. This is a gut punch.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Wolfe has written a bittersweet coming-of-age novel set in building 4950 [of the Robert Taylor Homes] in the summer of 1999... A complex and compassionate look at the friends and families, relationships and resistance that existed in that long-gone but not forgotten time and place.” — Chicago Magazine
“A poignant look at growing up in Chicago public housing by a debut novelist who lived in one of the city's most notorious developments…. Wolfe has a wonderful ear for dialogue, deploying pitch-perfect vernacular and slang.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
"This coming-of-age story is laced with self-discovery and shows how tragedy in childhood can follow us forever." — Good Housekeeping
"Toya Wolfe is a storyteller of the highest order—a wise and compassionate chronicler of girlhood, of Chicago, and of the things that make us human. Last Summer on State Street is a stunning debut." — Rebecca Makkai, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Believers
“Last Summer on State Street is a triumph, a beautiful ode to the humanity, complexity, and compassion of people in a community too often defined by pathologies. You will root for the brave and surefooted Felicia, Precious, Stacia, and Tonya, as well as their families—all striving amid the rubble. What a lovely debut told with warmth, grace, and a piercing affection.” — Dawn Turner, author of Three Girls from Bronzeville
"Last Summer on State Street is a love letter to girlhood, the tenuous bonds of friendship, and the places we call home. As a daughter of Chicago's South Side, this novel took me inside a community I just passed by, but didn't truly see. Wolfe dazzles in this intimate portrait of race, grief, and the times in our lives that shape who we become." — Nancy Johnson, author of The Kindest Lie
“[A] thoughtful snapshot of the end of public housing high-rises in Chicago.” — Chicago Tribune
“Last Summer on State Street is a beautifully observed portrait of family and female friendship. Toya Wolfe is a marvelous writer; her deft storytelling and keen understanding makes her debut novel a great pleasure to read.” — Audrey Niffenegger, New York Times bestselling author of The Time Traveler’s Wife
“[R]eaders who enjoyed Sandra Cisneros’ House on Mango Street will fall in love with this book…. Racism, the power of our own histories, and the regrets that shape our futures are all on gorgeous display in Toya Wolfe’s Last Summer on State Street .” — Manhattan Book Review
“Last Summer on State Street is an ode to Black girls who are often forgotten. Toya Wolfe tells a compelling, warm, and funny story about a group of girls growing up in a Chicago public housing development. Wolfe delves into their lives with tenderness and care. Despite how outsiders may see their community, Wolfe lets us in to see the girls’ innocence—and their struggles.” — Natalie Y. Moore, author of The Billboard
“I can’t stop thinking of Toya Wolfe’s novel Last Summer on State Street. Filled with both tenderness and tragedy, this moving tale of friendship and family pulls us into a corner of America too long neglected and scorned. Wolfe writes with such grace and such restraint, I felt like I was sitting on the front porch listening to a story told by a friend. What a spectacular debut.” — Alex Kotlowitz, author of An American Summer
First-time novelist Wolfe writes with lacerating precision and authenticity…. In a fictional counterpart to Dawn Turner’s memoir, Three Girls from Bronzeville , Wolfe’s deeply compelling characters, sharply wrought settings, and tightly choreographed plot create a concentrated, significant, and unforgettable tale of family, home, racism, trauma, compassion, and transcendence.
Booklist (starred review)
Last Summer on State Street is a triumph, a beautiful ode to the humanity, complexity, and compassion of people in a community too often defined by pathologies. You will root for the brave and surefooted Felicia, Precious, Stacia, and Tonya, as well as their families—all striving amid the rubble. What a lovely debut told with warmth, grace, and a piercing affection.
Last Summer on State Street is a beautifully observed portrait of family and female friendship. Toya Wolfe is a marvelous writer; her deft storytelling and keen understanding makes her debut novel a great pleasure to read.
"Last Summer on State Street is a love letter to girlhood, the tenuous bonds of friendship, and the places we call home. As a daughter of Chicago's South Side, this novel took me inside a community I just passed by, but didn't truly see. Wolfe dazzles in this intimate portrait of race, grief, and the times in our lives that shape who we become."
I can’t stop thinking of Toya Wolfe’s novel Last Summer on State Street. Filled with both tenderness and tragedy, this moving tale of friendship and family pulls us into a corner of America too long neglected and scorned. Wolfe writes with such grace and such restraint, I felt like I was sitting on the front porch listening to a story told by a friend. What a spectacular debut.
"Toya Wolfe is a storyteller of the highest order—a wise and compassionate chronicler of girlhood, of Chicago, and of the things that make us human. Last Summer on State Street is a stunning debut."
Last Summer on State Street is an ode to Black girls who are often forgotten. Toya Wolfe tells a compelling, warm, and funny story about a group of girls growing up in a Chicago public housing development. Wolfe delves into their lives with tenderness and care. Despite how outsiders may see their community, Wolfe lets us in to see the girls’ innocence—and their struggles.”
I can’t stop thinking of Toya Wolfe’s novel Last Summer on State Street. Filled with both tenderness and tragedy, this moving tale of friendship and family pulls us into a corner of America too long neglected and scorned. Wolfe writes with such grace and such restraint, I felt like I was sitting on the front porch listening to a story told by a friend. What a spectacular debut.
01/01/2022
In Honey and Spice , following Babalola's buzzy debut story collection, Love in Color , young Black British woman Kiki Banjo—host of a popular student radio show and known for preaching bad-relationship avoidance—gets tangled in a fake liaison with the very guy she's been citing as big trouble. From Bays, co-creator of the Emmy Award-winning series How I Met Your Mother , 2015 New York-set The Mutual Friend features Alice Quick, mourning her mother, barely managing as a nanny, and trying to make herself sign up for the MCATs even as her tech millionaire brother experiences a religious awakening. In Blush author Brenner's latest, three sisters from a Gilt -edged family in the jewelry business are torn apart following a publicity stunt gone wrong, with one sister dying in a subsequent accident and her daughter struggling to regain traction within the family. In Coleman's Good Morning, Love , aspiring songwriter/musician Carlisa "Carli" Henton's efforts to keep her business and personal lives separate crumble when she meets rising hip-hop star Tau Anderson (50,000-copy first printing). From Egyptian-Irish BBC broadcaster El-Wardany, These Impossible Things features friends Malak, Kees, and Jenna, on the verge of adulthood as they struggle to be good Muslim women yet wanting to follow their dreams (50,000-copy first printing). In Fowler's It All Comes Down To This , three sisters—freelance journalist Beck, struggling with her marriage and a desire to write fiction; Claire, an accomplished pediatric cardiologist, recently divorced; and Sophie, leading a glamorous life she can't afford—face their mother's impending death and the fate of their beloved summer cottage on Mount Desert Island, ME. In Ho's Lucie Yi Is Not a Romantic , a follow-up to the LJ -starred Last Tang Standing , a hardworking career woman gives up on finding the right guy after her fiancé calls off their marriage and signs up for an elective co-parenting website so that she can have a baby—with unexpected consequences. In USA Today best-selling Moore's latest, Maine is not exactly Vacationland for Louisa when she visits her parents one summer with her three children, as she's dealing with an unfinished book, an absentee husband, and a father suffering from Alzheimer's, plus a young stranger in town trying to get her own life in order (100,000-copy first printing). In popular Patrick's The Messy Life of Book People , Liv Green forms a tentative friendship with the mega-best-selling author for whom she works as a housecleaner but is surprised when the author dies suddenly and in her will asks that Liv complete her final book (75,000 paperback and 10,000-copy paperback first printing). In Saint X author Schaitkin's Elsewhere , an interesting departure, Vera grows up in a small town where for generations women keep vanishing mysteriously (200,000-copy first printing). Vercher follows the Edgar-nominated, best-booked Three-Fifths with After the Lights Go Out , about a biracial MMA fighter aging out of his career and facing his father's end-stage Alzheimer's when he scores a last-minute comeback fight. Already a multi-award winner, Wolfe debuts with Last Summer on State Street , about Felicia "Fe Fe" Stevens and two close-as-hugging friends—a happy threesome that expands to an uneasy foursome even as the Chicago Housing Authority prepares to tear down the high-rise in the projects where Fe Fe's family lives (50,000-copy first printing).
Author Toya Wolfe draws on her own childhood for this powerful debut novel that examines the summer of 1999. That was the summer when the demolition of the Robert Taylor Houses on Chicago’s South Side uprooted everyone’s lives. Narrator Shayna Small, as FeFe, reflects upon that time with an engaging voice. As FeFe relives those events, Small moves smoothly into distinct character voices, making local accents easy to understand. FeFe’s voice is full of love and worry for her brother, Meechie, and her friends Precious, Stacia, and Tonya. Stacia is testing her voice and power as she tries to find her place in her gangsta family. Tonya is fearful as she craves friendship, at the same time needing to protect her mother and herself. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Author Toya Wolfe draws on her own childhood for this powerful debut novel that examines the summer of 1999. That was the summer when the demolition of the Robert Taylor Houses on Chicago’s South Side uprooted everyone’s lives. Narrator Shayna Small, as FeFe, reflects upon that time with an engaging voice. As FeFe relives those events, Small moves smoothly into distinct character voices, making local accents easy to understand. FeFe’s voice is full of love and worry for her brother, Meechie, and her friends Precious, Stacia, and Tonya. Stacia is testing her voice and power as she tries to find her place in her gangsta family. Tonya is fearful as she craves friendship, at the same time needing to protect her mother and herself. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine