WINNER, THE PUBLISHING TRIANGLE 2024 FERRO-GRUMLEY AWARD FOR LGBTQ+ FICTION
FINALIST, 2024 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FOR LESBIAN FICTION
AMAZON’S BEST BOOKS OF 2023 * TOP 20 BOOKS OF THE YEAR * ONE OF EDITORS’ SIX PERSONAL FAVORITES
CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION 2024 LONGLIST SELECTION
AMAZON’S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR SO FAR at #6 ( June 14, 2023) * ONE OF EDITORS’ SIX PERSONAL FAVORITES
AMAZON * EDITORIAL REVIEW
An Amazon Best Book of April 2023: "‘People like to think fiction’s less serious than other kinds of writing, and I’m here to tell you it can make the real more bearable.’ So quoth Ranita Atwater, the protagonist of Helen Elaine Lee’s Pomegranate, a sly paeon to the power of great fiction and its ability to be a Trojan horse delivering the truth. At the start of the novel, Ranita has just been released from a four-year stint in prison, her sobriety is precarious, and she has yet to earn the privilege of seeing her two kids again. First she must face the trauma that put her on this trajectory, and it’ll take a village—including Ranita’s formidable but forgiving aunts, her dubious but hopeful son and daughter, an unflappable therapist, and an unexpected love, to help get her there. Lee takes her time revealing the flashpoint, and it’s a testament to her deft character development that this revelation isn’t even necessary to engender compassion for someone so deeply flawed, but winningly well-intentioned. You’ll root for Ranita as she struggles to give herself the same kind of grace being shown to her, and as she tries to understand, and put into practice, aunt Jessie’s edict to ‘love with accountability.’There’s no avoiding the simile: This empathy-expanding novel is like a pomegranate—break it open and you’ll find a treasure trove inside.” —Erin Kodicek, Amazon Editor
USA TODAY * AMAZON’S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR SO FAR
“Gelman and Woodworth say the Amazon Editors and team work hard to create a balanced list of different genres and viewpoints. But what they hope the books all have in common is that you can’t stop thinking about them once the final page is turned.
They also hope to bring more attention to great books that haven’t yet gotten the media attention and sales numbers they deserve. For Woodworth, that book is Helen Elaine Lee “Pomegranate,” a novel about a queer Black woman working hard to heal after she’s released from prison.
‘They’re the most exquisite sentences I’ve probably read all year,’ says Woodworth.”
BOOKLIST * AUDIOBOOK REVIEW
“‘I live my life forward and backward,’ chapter one opens. The “forward,” presented in first person, is 36-year-old Ranita— determinedly voiced by Williams—moving toward a cautiously hopeful future as she leaves Oak Hills after serving “four years of captivity” on drug charges. Ranita “backward” is relayed in third person, empathically embodied by Edwards, who reveals the decades past that led to Ranita’s incarceration…Casting two distinct voices brilliantly underscores Ranita’s rebirth; Williams and Edwards masterfully relay then and now. "
BOSTON GLOBE * THE BEST NEW BOOKS FOR SUMMER 2023
“A slow-burning, bittersweet novel of recovery, repair, and familial love, “Pomegranate” follows Ranita Atwater, who is trying to rebuild her life and make peace with her children after being released from prison and leaving behind the woman she loves.”
MS. MAGAZINE * READS FOR THE REST OF US: THE MOST ANTICIPATED FEMINIST BOOKS OF 2023
“This is a powerful novel about the effects of addiction and incarceration on one queer Black woman. Even more so, it is a complex, layered illustration of the effects of structural racism, patriarchy, marginalization and violence can have on queer Black women throughout the U.S.”
HARVARD BOOKSTORE REVIEW
“This is a gorgeous novel, filled with empathy, wisdom, and love. In the aftermath of a four-year prison sentence, Ranita Atwater feels shattered by her past - her traumas, her addictions, and the people she’s lost. Now she holds the fragments of her life in her hands like little jewels, precious and fragile. In order to rebuild her life and family, and to mold a brighter future for herself, she must first confront the darkness she’s tried to suppress. Reading Pomegranate, it’s clear how much time, dedication, and passion Helen Elaine Lee brought to this elegant work. The story feels both real and raw, and the characters shimmer with life.”
BUZZFEED NEWS * 14 AMAZING NEW BOOKS YOU NEED TO READ ASAP
“Ranita Atwater has just finished serving a four-year prison sentence for drug possession, and she’s determined to build a joyful life for herself—to stay clean, reunite with her kids, and repair her broken relationship with her aunts. Much of Ranita’s day-to-day existence is taken up with the logistics of survival: going to NA meetings and therapy sessions, attending check-ins with her DCF caseworker. With heartbreaking immediacy, Lee captures the inhumane realities of incarceration and the seemingly endless obstacles faced by people trying to rebuild their lives after being released from prison. But though this novel is often bleak, it’s not hopeless or gratuitous. Lee writes beautifully about the healing power of Black kin networks, queer love, community support systems, and literature. Ranita is a Black queer woman who’s been failed over and over again—by men, by racist institutions and unjust laws, by systems designed to degrade her—but she steadfastly refuses to make herself smaller.”
PARNASSUS BOOKS * THESE BOOKS WON’T BURN: 32 HOT READS FOR JUNE
“Ranita is a queer, Black woman fresh out of prison and on a mission to stay clean and regain custody of her kids. Lee paints a deep, gorgeous portrait of Ranita’s life and struggles, past and present, and crafts a moving story of love and redemption. Ranita came alive off the pages and has taken up residence in my brain since I finished the book. If you like Yaa Gyasi or Jesmyn Ward, make Pomegranate your next read.”
BOOKLIST * STARRED REVIEW
“Ranita is released after four years in the Oak Hills prison, four years of being told what to eat, when to go to bed, and how to live her life. Suddenly surrounded by all the sights and smells and noises of the outside world, she needs to make those decisions for herself. Ranita is desperate to stay sober and clean, find a place in the world, and regain her children. Every detail of prison life and the obstacles facing an emerging prisoner is deftly displayed in Lee’s gritty prose. Temptations surround Ranita, and she clings to memories of friends in prison, her children, and group meetings to keep herself strong. In third-person flashbacks, readers meet Ranita’s overpowering mother and her loving but helpless father as well as the men who encouraged her out-of-control behavior. Throughout the story, as she walks the streets between meetings, counseling sessions, work, and family, Ranita begins to notice the beauty in the world as she collects pieces of “city glass.” With the help of her counselor, Ranita begins to see her life, like the pomegranate of the title, to be filled with unexpected treasures. Lee has created a powerful, beautifully written story of a woman who painfully confronts her past to build her future.”
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY * STARRED REVIEW
“Lee (The Serpent’s Gift) returns after more than 20 years with the powerful story of a woman’s return to society after being released from prison. Ranita Atwater, 36, was convicted of a drug charge four years earlier. She grew up as the only child of middle-class Black parents in Boston, where her strict mother died when Ranita was 13. (Her beloved father while she was in prison.) As a free woman, she longs to see her three children, who are cared for by her protective aunt Val; and to someday reunite with Maxine, the sweet and politically engaged fellow inmate she fell in love with at the prison. With the help of her aunt Jessie, Ranita makes unsteady progress toward building a new life: she gets a dishwashing job, moves into her own apartment, and is eventually allowed to visit her kids. Through therapy, she begins to come to terms with her past, including her addiction to drugs and alcohol and her relationship with the children’s father, who died six years earlier. With a light, poetic touch, Lee balances the painful details of Ranita’s reality with genuine, persistent hope for new beginnings. It’s irresistible.”
KIRKUS REVIEW
“Lee’s third novel returns to the terrain of The Serpent’s Gift (1994) as it follows a Black woman working to reunite with her children in the wake of addiction and incarceration.
“After a four-year sentence, Ranita Atwater exits the Oak Hills correctional facility into a freedom that is shackled to her past. As Ranita seeks to shore up her sobriety and defend her parental status, she bumps up against memories from her former lives—her childhood as a girl with a loving Daddy and a Mama who found her wanting; her tumultuous relationship with Jasper, the father of her children, who introduced her to opiates; her descent into heroin addiction with David Quarles; and the blossoming joy of her love for Maxine, a fellow inmate. The novel alternates among these timelines, following the logic of Ranita’s memory. Each chapter-length flashback trades the first-person narration of the present-day sections for a third-person perspective. But as she opens up to state-mandated therapist Drew Turner, Ranita reveals the traumas at the core of her struggles with addiction. Throughout, Ranita speaks of racism and systemic injustice with awesome clarity. “In prison,” she tells Turner, “...you’re just breathing flesh that can house contraband, and cause violence, and run.” Also: “Being a commodity. Being bred….All of that’s echoing, day in and day out.” Diction is a central theme, as Ranita, a lover of words and facts, considers how men have used a nickname—Cherry—to define her according to their perception. The novel bristles with strong women, from aunties Jessie and Val to the inmates and sponsor who inspire Ranita to have faith in herself. Because it eschews plot twists for emotional reflection, the novel drags at times; but Lee’s handling of trauma is deft, and her portrayal of the carceral system’s cruelty is unflinching and empathetic. The novel's slower moments are like a pomegranate's dull skin before it breaks to reveal a cache of jewels.”
SOUTHERN BOOKSELLER REVIEW
“Pomegranate is a raw, beautiful story of reintegration and a mother trying to do and be better for her kids. Oscillating between present-day Ranita and her past self, this story paints a real, painful picture of a woman caught in a cycle of drug use and eventual prison time, and her daily fight for sobriety and wellness when she returns to her family.”
BALTIMORE BEAT
“The novel is a refreshing story of reunion, introspection, and love…
…Ranita is a dynamic and vulnerable character that Lee uses to showcase the imperfect, worthwhile life of a Black woman trying her best after captivity…. [Her] journey throughout the novel is full of grief, sorrow, and love as Lee writes a fictional tale tethered to the actual violence of a police state…
…The cast of characters in Pomegranate invites readers into a world of depth and conflict. The Atwater family is not a stoic caricature or flattened trope. Each member is written with detail and attention reminiscent of families from twentieth-century works like Sula and Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, or The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor…
…There were deeply sorrowful scenes in the novel, but there were also moments that made me kick my feet giddily. Ranita’s relationship with her biological family and chosen loved ones are both beautifully written and familiar.”
AUTOSTRADDLE * QUEER & FEMINIST BOOKS COMING YOUR WAY, SPRING 2023
“Pomegranate is a story about queer Black womanhood, incarceration, addiction, redemption, healing, and thriving. At the opening of the novel, Ranita is three years sober and almost done her four year prison sentence. She’s yearning for freedom, but she’s also sad to be leaving Maxine, the lover who inspired her to think about herself and the world differently. In lyrical prose, Lee follows Ranita as she looks to the future, wondering who she will be, if she will regain custody of her children, and what life looks like beyond mere survival. For fans of Jesmyn Ward and Yaa Gyasi!”
BLACK BOOK STACKS * JOSHUNDA SANDERS* THE PERFECT, QUIET NOVEL AS WE COMMEMORATE PRIDE MONTH
“Over the last few weeks, I’ve been focused on reading books for a Boston Globe round up and Pomegranate was near the top of my list. It’s the perfect way for me to commemorate Pride month, because Pomegranate is a layered and quiet portrayal of a queer middle-aged Black woman, Ranita Atwater.
Pomegranate follows Ranita from the brief time before her prison sentence is ending through her recovery and therapy sessions, the early days of her fighting to reclaim and rebuild her life, as well as atone to her children for her long absence due to drug and alcohol addiction. Leaving prison is the first of many steps toward returning to something like normal, but she has also left the woman she loves, Maxine, behind. This fact is stitched lovingly through the book, making it bittersweet and tender.
The novel alternates from the first person to the third, and the prose moves fluidly between the past that led to Ranita’s incarceration, to the present, in which she fights to remain free in order to make peace with her children. Through a lot of hard work facing her personal demons and challenges, Ranita begins to regain her confidence, and repair her relationships with her kids.
Pomegranate will make readers root for Ranita’s tenacity – I certainly did. I appreciated, too, the rare portrayal of a Black woman’s work on her mind and spirit through talk therapy, and all the thoughts that accompany this common but not often visible relationship. I also liked the scenes of Ranita trying to find her community, and in the end, succeeding.”
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