Crystelle Mourning: A Novel

(Paperback)

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With her well-employed fianc and a comfortable life in New York City, Crystelle has a life most young professionals would envy. She has come a long way from the rough Philadelphia neighborhood where she grew up. But she hasn't left the past behind her. A ghost from her West Philly days continues to haunt her -- the spirit of her high school sweetheart Jimmie, who she watched get gunned down one unforgettable night years ago. Emotionally distraught from her unsettling memories and the suspicion she may be pregnant, Crystelle goes back to her old neighborhood to reconnect with friends and family. There, with the help of Jimmie's mother, a woman who Crystelle loves like family -- and who makes a prison visit to the young man who murdered her son -- Crystelle can finally come to grips with her past, realizing the power of forgiveness and the need to move on.

A profound and intense story with deeply resonant depictions of urban African American life, Crystelle Mourning is a triumphant, lyrical beginning to a bright new talent in fiction.

Reviews

"With its languid pacing and rhythmic voice, Eisa Nefertari Ulen's novel at times feels like an elongated spoken-word poem....Ulen manages to pull it off with her nuanced depictions of Black life and her obvious love for her characters as they strive to create new realities out of the heartbreaking events of the past."

-- The Washington Post
"Ulen wisely takes her time revealing Crystelle's pain, creating an authentic quality to her story. You feel for Crystelle...even as you're urging her to move forward and leave the past behind."

-- Essence
"A rhythmic flow of words and descriptive detail."

-- Uptown magazine
"Eisa is a careful writer who strives to craft character, scene, and ambiguity. Her voice has the beauty and economy of poetry."

-- Jeffery Renard Allen, author of Rails Under My Back
"Affirms faith in the enduring power of young love. Welcome Eisa Ulen."

-- Elizabeth Nunez, author of Prospero's Daughter and Bruised Hibiscus

Author Bio

Eisa Nefertari Ulen teaches English at Hunter College in New York City, and her essays have been widely anthologized. Nominated by Essence magazine for a National Association of Black Journalists Award, she has contributed to numerous other publications, including The Washington Post, Ms., Health, and CreativeNonfiction.org. She is the recipient of a Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center Fellowship for Young African American Fiction Writers and a Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship. Ulen graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and earned a master's degree from Columbia University. She lives with her husband in Brooklyn.