The House of Eve

Goodreads Choice Award

Nominee for Best Historical Fiction (2023)

From the award-winning author of Yellow Wife, a daring and redemptive novel set in 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, DC, that explores what it means to be a woman and a mother, and how much one is willing to sacrifice to achieve her greatest goal.

1950s Philadelphia: fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college, in spite of having a mother more interested in keeping a man than raising a daughter. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright.

Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his par­ents don’t let just anyone into their fold. Eleanor hopes that a baby will make her finally feel at home in William’s family and grant her the life she’s been searching for. But having a baby—and fitting in—is easier said than done.

With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, Ruby and Eleanor will both make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.

Genre - Historical Fiction

384 pages, Hardcover

First published February 7, 2023

Literary Awards

NAACP Image AwardNomineefor Fiction(2024)

My Verdict

This is a powerfully immersive story of Black love and feminine ambition constantly challenged but never diminished. In the years after the war and long before the women’s movement, these characters, and real women like them, were eager to use education as a steppingstone to a better life. Johnson illustrates, though, that there’s more than financial advancement at play. Ruby and Eleanor prioritize education as the path forward, and their most concrete goals involve college degrees and well-paying careers (not just jobs), but their true desires run broader and deeper.

The social currents Johnson depicts are recognizable in 2024 too. Class, race, color, reproductive freedom, respectability politics: The issues and social forces Ruby and Eleanor grapple with are familiar. This is Johnson’s great strength: weaving distinctive characters in riveting situations that shine a light on broader experience. This was a strong book and I give it 4 stars.