Pomegranate
A Novel
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.
Add to basket failed.
Please try again later
Add to Wish List failed.
Please try again later
Remove from Wish List failed.
Please try again later
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Buy Now for $26.99
-
Narrated by:
-
Machelle Williams
-
Janina Edwards
-
By:
-
Helen Elaine Lee
About this listen
A “deep and beautiful” (Jaqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author) novel about a queer Black woman’s fight for recovery, freedom, and redemption after incarceration—an unforgettable story of addiction, motherhood, and self-reinvention.
Ranita Atwater is “getting short.”
She is almost done with her four-year sentence for opiate possession at Oak Hills Correctional Center. Three years sober, she is determined to stay clean and regain custody of her two children. Ranita is regaining her freedom, but she’s leaving behind her lover Maxine, who has inspired her to imagine herself and the world differently.
My name is Ranita, and I’m an addict, she has said again and again at recovery meetings. But who else is she? Who might she choose to become? Now she must steer clear of the temptations that have pulled her down, while atoning for her missteps and facing old wounds. With a fierce, smart, and sometimes funny voice, Ranita reveals how rocky and winding the path to wellness is for a Black woman, even as she draws on family, memory, faith, and love in order to choose life.
Pomegranate is a complex portrayal of queer Black womanhood and marginalization in America from an author “working at the height of her powers” (Tayari Jones, New York Times bestselling). In lyrical and precise prose, Helen Elaine Lee paints a humane and unflinching portrait of the devastating effects of incarceration and addiction, and of one woman’s determination to tell her story.
Critic Reviews
"Casting two distinct voices brilliantly underscores Ranita's rebirth; Williams and Edwards masterfully relay then and now." (Booklist)
"Both narrators capture Ranita's fear and sarcasm, along with the softer side she frequently keeps hidden. Listeners will find themselves invested in Ranita's determination to forge a new life." (AudioFile Magazine)
Beautiful story
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.