Monkey Bread retraces the trajectory of a man who tries to come to terms with his past. Chris James was born in Dakar, Senegal. Abandoned by his mother at the age of 4, he is abused by priests running an orphanage until he is rescued, through adoption, by an American diplomat named Vernon. Chris, angry and withdrawn as a child, becomes an adult with a skewed sense of values and a darkened vision of the world. After Vernon's death, Chris returns to Senegal in the hope of finding his mother and solving the mystery shrouding his childhood. After setting up a detective agency, he is hired by a...

Better Will Come follows two brothers, Jay and Joe Wilson, on a quixotic quest to abolish racism and make up for the sins of slavery, segregation, and discrimination. Fueled by very different motivations, their self-appointed mission to bring justice and pecuniary compensation to millions of African Americans takes them from a Washington, D.C. storefront church to the forefront of a boutique, modern-day civil rights movement. The "Retribution Brothers," as Jay and Joe become known, use cutting-edge, if not laudable, methods to raise funds, foster mass awareness, and bring about social change....

Shine Eye Girl chronicles a tightrope walk. Sally Harris is coming of age in one of Washington, D.C.'s most forlorn neighborhoods. Daughter, sister, mother-to-be, she falls for a Somali immigrant named Mo. Together they break bread, get down, get grown, get ahead. The world takes aim and shoots. It's the pitfalls of ghetto life. It's the confusion of green love in the age of deceit. It's blood ties. It's the eerie sound of dreams crashing back to the ground. Time takes no sides. Treasures found are treasures lost. Humor often comes up short. Loyalties call. Tightrope walkers fall. Barely,...