Start gifting
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Limited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks when you make the switch!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new membership supporting African American Literature Book Club with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Make the switch
Gift audiobook credit bundles
You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and African American Literature Book Club is supported by your purchase.
Start giftingBreak This House
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreFrom Printz honoree and National Book Award Finalist Candice Iloh, a prose novel about a teenager reckoning with her family’s—and her home town's—secrets.
Yaminah Okar left Obsidian and the wreckage of her family years ago. She and her father have made lives for themselves in Brooklyn. She thinks she’s moved on to bigger and better things. She thinks she's finally left behind that city she would rather forget. But when a Facebook message about her estranged mother pierces Yaminah’s new bubble, memories of everything that happened before her parents' divorce come roaring back. Now, Yaminah must finally reckon with the truth about her mother and the growing collapse of a place she once called home.
Candice Iloh is a first-generation Nigerian American writer whose books center home. They are from the Midwest by way of Washington, DC, and Brooklyn, New York. They are a proud alumna of the Rhode Island Writers Colony, and their work has earned fellowships from Lambda Literary, VONA, and Kimbilio Fiction and a residency with Hi-ARTS, where they debuted their first one-person show in 2018. Candice became a 2020 National Book Award Finalist and, in 2021, a Printz Award Honoree for their debut novel, Every Body Looking. Salt the Water is their third novel.
Reviews
★"A unique bildungsroman about growing up with an inconsistent and absent mother that is grounded in Iloh’s expert craftsmanship for character and setting"—SLJ, starred review"Iloh’s meditation on grief, individuals’ capacity for change, and perseverance of family [is] a thought-provoking read."—Publishers Weekly
“Iloh’s coming-of-age story deconstructs the tropes of Black familial life and shines a glaring light onto the importance of addressing trauma”—Booklist
"A tender, poetic storyabout what it's like to experience loss and learn to continue living anyway."—Book Page Expand reviews
Want the printed book?
Get the print edition from African American Literature Book Club.
Get the print editionAfrican American Literature Book Club is proud to partner with Libro.fm to give you a great audiobook experience.