The Turner House

Angela Flournoy

Apr 2015 · HarperCollins

About this eBook

Siblings revisit family history as they debate the fate of their Detroit childhood home in this critically acclaimed debut saga.

A National Book Award Finalist

The Turners live on Yarrow Street for over fifty years. Their house sees thirteen children get grown and gone—and some return; it sees the arrival of grandchildren, the fall of Detroit’s East Side, and the loss of a father. Despite abandoned lots, an embattled city, and the inevitable shift outward to the suburbs, the house still stands. But now, as their powerful mother falls ill and loses her independence, the Turners might lose their family home. Beset by time and a national crisis, the house is worth just a tenth of its mortgage. The Turner children are called back to decide its fate and to reckon with how each of their pasts might haunt—and shape—their family’s future.

A major new contribution to the literature on American families, The Turner House brings us a colorful brood full of love, pride, and unlikely inheritances. It’s a striking examination of the American dream and a celebration of the ways in which our families bring us home.

Ratings and reviews

Funny. Ain't nothing like family drama. Good book! Just please don't make a sequel!

Wonderful book about families,love,hope,joy,and sadness.well written and very much worth reading. Leaves you with a feeling of peace and joy .

A Great read about family, life, time and changes. Aunt Ella Mae would be proud!!!

About the author

ANGELA FLOURNOY is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the University of Southern California. Her fiction has appeared in the Paris Review, and she has written for the New Republic, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications. She has taught writing at the University of Iowa and Trinity Washington University. She was raised by a mother from Los Angeles and a father from Detroit.