Good Dirt

• Author: Charmaine Wilkerson
• Genre: Historical Fiction
• Publication Date: January 28, 2025
• Publisher: Ballantine Books

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The daughter of an affluent Black family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom in this moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake, a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

When ten-year-old Ebby Freeman heard the gunshot, time stopped. And when she saw her brother, Baz, lying on the floor surrounded by the shattered pieces of a centuries-old jar, life as Ebby knew it shattered as well.

The crime was never solved—and because the Freemans were one of the only Black families in a particularly well-to-do enclave of New England—the case has had an enduring, voyeuristic pull for the public. The last thing the Freemans want is another media frenzy splashing their family across the papers, but when Ebby’s high profile romance falls apart without any explanation, that’s exactly what they get.

So Ebby flees to France, only for her past to follow her there. And as she tries to process what’s happened, she begins to think about the other loss her family suffered on that day eighteen years ago—the stoneware jar that had been in their family for generations, brought North by an enslaved ancestor. But little does she know that the handcrafted piece of pottery held more than just her family’s history—it might also hold the key to unlocking her own future.

In this sweeping, evocative novel, Charmaine Wilkerson brings to life a multi-generational epic that examines how the past informs our present.

I read an ARC of Black Cake and loved it right from the start. Wilkerson told a difficult story in the most sensitive and beautiful way, so I was already on the lookout for her future releases. With this book, she’s earned her way to a well-deserved spot on my auto-buy list. 

What Wilkerson did with a generational tale in her debut, she has expanded the scale to encompass more than 2 or 3 generations, but rather hundreds of years of family history. To start with, the thread running through everything is the jar, Old Mo. It’s hard not to like the Freeman family—they’re a really loving and supportive family who is marked by their shared trauma, the shooting of Baz, their older child and only son. In addition to losing Baz, the jar was shattered. 

The Freeman family has kept possession of Old Mo since its earliest days, and it was used for a number of purposes over the years. Old Mo becomes a character in its own right, since the story of the jar reflects the people who made it and their lives, but has also had something added to the story in each new generation. Granted, losing Old Mo doesn’t mean the family will forget where they came from, but rather that they will get through one more tragedy together. 

Ebby, Baz’s younger sister, was in the house and was the first person to respond to her brother being shot, which no one was prepared for in their affluent neighborhood, although the Freemans were the only Black family. This led to an ongoing interest in the cold case by the general public, and what is quickly revealed to be a lot of unresolved trauma for Ebby, despite multiple therapy attempts. 

As we begin, Ebby is left at the altar by her fiancé in a very public debacle that has shockwaves throughout her social circle and has disrupted her life. As she works her way through the loss, we are given flashes into the history of Old Mo, from the creation of the jar to its demise on the mantle of the Freeman house in an upscale suburb in recent years. I found myself fascinated by all of it, and seeing how the family history tied into the overarching theme of the story. 

Wilkerson’s superpower is an ability to create an emotional pull to her writing, no matter which characters she is writing about or when the setting is. All of it is equally fascinating, and tying the roots of the Freeman family tree to the creation and journey of Old Mo, from enslavement and oppression to wealthy and likable, always focused on education and bettering themselves. But along the way, we learn about some of the morally gray decisions characters have made, despite the characters being good people for the most part.

Alongside the history of Old Mo and the Freeman family, we also see Ebby take some time out to focus on herself and get recentered after her public shaming, only to come face to face with her own past and be pushed to deal with it. Her ability to listen starts out a path to learning even more about herself, as it shines new light on her brother’s unsolved murder. She’s not only grieving for her brother, but also her relationship, and finally getting to the jar and how it relates to her story personally. 

I can’t speak highly enough about Wilkerson’s writing. She touches on sensitive topics, like grief, loss, pregnancy loss, and even enslavement, as well as the challenges a Black family encounters living in a world dominated by white people, regardless of their income and resources. Wilkerson’s writing brings such vivid descriptions to the page, and creates such multidimensional characters, no matter how brief their role is in the story. This is a book I’d recommend to anyone, but especially if you like multigenerational family sagas, Black history, complex depictions of emotions and trauma, and how our histories all impact each of us in a different way. 

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