The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

Left me wanting more. Masterfully written. Deesha Philyaw knows the craft of writing as well as she does the nuances of sex -- Candice Carty-Williams, author of Queenie
This book is the one I've passed to friends, family and anyone else who will listen to me rave about how warm and wonderful this writing is. This collection is as wise as it is tender, the writing beautiful and honest. I'll be returning to these stories for a long time to come -- Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of Open Water
Joyous... It's a book in love with life * The Times *
Glorious - the smart, sad and very funny portrait of several generations wrestling with their desires and their faith * Observer *
Tender, truthful... joyous... full of flawed, bruised, bold, complex, intensely human characters -- Sarah Waters
It's terrific. I'm savouring every story in it, reading them once, then again. -- Madeline Miller
Joyful, riotous... Philyaw's great triumph is to permit her characters to inhabit fully their rich and particular interior lives -- Alex Preston * Observer *
Deesha Philyaw's The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is startlingly fresh and flavoursome. These characters will blast through readers' preconceptions and win them over. All hail Philyaw for telling it like nobody else -- Emma Donoghue, author of Room and The Pull of the Stars
Exquisite... at turns tender and heartbreaking and moving and funny, with sharp, gorgeously crafted sentences that have the ability to both spear through your heart and bolster it. There is such love for these women. Delicious -- Bolu Babalola, author of Love in Colour
Touching, inspiring, funny, raw, these church ladies will make you want to switch congregations -- Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry
Deesha Philyaw's debut collection is outstanding.... Raging and aching and joyful, these vividly drawn characters tackle sexual shame, fraught mother-daughter relationships, absent fathers and sibling loyalty with a hard-won wisdom * Daily Mail *
Beautifully crafted. A lovely collection -- Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist
It's impossible to pick a standout from this collection of short stories as they're all that good... a tender and rich look at all the complexities and layers of female sexuality * Red magazine *
Achingly intimate... deftly crafted * Sunday Times *
I've [...] been really enjoying The Secret Lives Of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw, which are short stories that are incredibly sexy without being sexually explicit, which I think is a massive skill -- Candice Carty Williams * Stylist *
Philyaw's frank, lyrical prose is a thing of beauty, deftly capturing whatever she turns her hand to, be it fractured mother-daughter relationships or burgeoning romances. These short stories offer an arresting view on the inner lives of black women, and the nourishment they find in their spirituality and each other * Financial Times *
An astounding collection... so powerful -- Lauren Christensen * New York Times Book Review Podcast *
Brilliant * Stylist *
Following in the footsteps of Hurston, Angelou and Morrison before her - Deesha Philyaw tenderly explores words left unsaid and stories yet to be told by capturing the raw intimacies of Black women and those they can't help but love. A triumph -- Melissa Cummings-Quarry, Black Girls Book Club
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is one of the most original and essential short story collections of the year. Deesha Philyaw cuts right through the hypocrisy, religiosity and overbearing men to give her readers a rare glimpse into the deliciously dark, irreverent and fascinating world of church-going women. As a former church lady, I've been waiting to read a collection like this for an awfully long time -- Jan Carson
By turns warm and wicked, funny and caustic, Deesha Philyaw conjures characters who immediately feel like friends. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is a collection to dash through and then turn back to savour a second time -- Julia Armfield, author of Our Wives Under the Sea
Warm, sharp, familial, and refreshing * Elle *
The writing is at once deeply, satisfyingly familiar and brilliantly, sparklingly new. Excellence -- Sareeta Domingo
Mind-opening, heart-revealing, soul-shaking....triumphant -- Robert Jones, Jr., author of the New York Times instant bestselling novel, The Prophets, a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction
Tender, fierce, proudly black and beautiful, these stories will sneak inside you and take root * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *
Triumphant... Philyaw's stories inform and build on one another, turning her characters' private struggles into a beautiful chorus * Publishers Weekly *
Vivid, vibrant stories that will linger on your tongue like sweet tea * Vox *
An award-winning, deliciously rebellious short story collection that teems with feeling * Waterstones *
This collection marks the emergence of a bona fide literary treasure * Minneapolis Star Tribune *
Our new decade deserves a new literary force with major literary skills. Deesha Philyaw uses the comic, the allegorical, and the geographic to examine Black intimacies and Black secrets. Her work is as rigorous as it is pleasurable to read -- Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy
Sex, friendship, freedom, and agency are centered throughout this cheeky, insightful, and irresistible new book * Ms. Magazine *
I adored this collection... equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking * The Bookseller (Editor's Choice) *
Enticing * Independent *
Beautifully crafted -- Book of the Week * Stylist *
An honest, joyful exploration of Black female culture -- Elle Osili-Wood * BBC Radio 4 - Front Row *
Sparkling * Foyles *
Superb * Gay's the Word Bookshop *
Fresh, gutsy and charged with hurtling energy * Irish Times *
A brilliantly real collection. These are stories pulsating with life, full of small, devastating epiphanies that will mean so much to so many readers -- Sarah Gilmartin
A warm and affectionate "sisterly" chronicle of the lives of small town American black women * Meath Chronicle *
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is exquisite! Deesha's ravishing tales of private desires of church loving black women took hold of my heart, squeezed it tightly, then slowly let go. I loved these delicious, uprising and intimate stories and every friend I've ever loved will find one landing in their lap next year -- Maxine Mei-Fung Chung, author of The Eighth Girl
To encounter Deesha Philyaw's work is to encounter contemporary folktales. They are the stories of southern customs and mores and of voices over the back fence. The daughters and granddaughters of Toni Cade Bambara and Bebe Moore Campbell readers need this book -- Yona Harvey, author of Hemming the Water and writer for the Marvel Comics World of Wakanda series
Full of lived-in humanity, warmth, and compassion * Pittsburgh Current *
These are stories about Black women that haven't been told with this level of depth, wit, or insight before, so it will not shock me if Oprah gets around to selecting it before the end of the year * Pittsburgh Post-Gazette *
I am a major fan of Deesha Philyaw: THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES. She is a phenomenal storyteller, but don't take my word for it. Read her book and be changed and enlightened -- Terry McMillan
Beguiling * New Yorker *