Friends and Family: A Novel by Natalie Baszile (Hardcover) (PREORDER)

Fiction - Contemporary - Friendship - African American & Black 

RELEASE DATE: 10/6/2026  (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER'S WAREHOUSE)

From the author of Queen Sugar, a piercing examination of friendship and loyalty as two best friends find themselves at odds over their beliefs on race, identity and allyship, especially when it comes to their teenage children

Babs and Nora became friends thanks to their kids. Now, the desire to protect their children might tear them apart.

Babs and Nora have spent a decade’s worth of morning walks sharing family secrets, local drama, and advice—everything from tips on lingerie choices to Babs’s suggestions to Nora, a white woman, on how to raise Nathan, her adopted Black son.

But their worlds are turned upside down when the cops are called on their kids while they’re home alone, leading to a traumatic police encounter for Nathan. In the aftermath, Babs and Nora find themselves divided as never before, and Nathan looks for refuge with Babs and her family, where, unlike in his own home, race, identity, and culture are always up for discussion. Babs can see that Nathan is a young Black man without community trying to find himself. Torn between respecting Nora’s boundaries and embodying the values so important to her own family, Babs will make a choice that will shape their lives forever.

Set in a tight-knit enclave in the Bay Area, Friends and Family is an eye-opening exploration of friendship and privilege, race and community, and what it means to truly be a good friend and ally.

AUTHOR BIO: 

Natalie Baszile is a writer and filmmaker. Her debut novel, Queen Sugar, was named a Best Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle, an NAACP Image Award nominee, and was the inspiration for the acclaimed television series co-produced by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey. Her non-fiction book, We Are Each Other's Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land & Legacy was a Wall Street Journal Book of the Year. Natalie's non-fiction work has appeared in National Geographic, O, The Oprah Magazine, The Bitter Southerner, and numerous anthologies. Natalie has had residencies at the Ragdale Foundation, Virginia Center for the Arts, Hedgebrook, SFFILM and the Djerassi Resident Arts Program. Her short film "Black Girl in Paris" premiered at the Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival. A native Californian, Natalie's southern roots stem from Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama. She lives in the Bay Area.

Review Quotes:
Best Book of Fall 2026: Oprah Daily

"The highly anticipated second novel from the author of Queen Sugar--which was adapted into an acclaimed TV series created by Ava DuVernay and produced by Oprah herself--excavates the often unspoken complexities of interracial friendship.... This is the kind of novel that practically demands a post-reading debrief; expect your group chat to be buzzing." --Oprah Daily

"This cinematic story is about family, and friends who become family.... the pages fly by. Baszile deftly employs San Francisco itself, with its staggering wealth disparities and craggy physical landscape, as both the setting and the perfect metaphor for the nuanced challenges even the closest friends and family face." --Booklist, starred review

"Resonant.... Baszile treats all her characters with compassion in this evenhanded story. Readers will be left with much to chew on." --Publishers Weekly

"Tenderness meets tough love in this page-turning story of two friends--one black, one white--who face life-altering choices as a crisis threatens to divide them. This story explores identity, privilege, friendship, and family in an upscale San Francisco setting, but it mines those gray areas that can be found in relationships everywhere. A compelling reminder that it's one thing to be loved, another to feel seen." --Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake and Good Dirt

"Beautifully written and emotionally resonant, Baszile raises profound questions about what truly makes a family, what sustains our closest friendships, and how race shapes even our most intimate relationships. Baszile has given us more than a story to savor; she's given us an opportunity to reflect on race, love, and belonging. I absolutely loved this novel." --Victoria Christopher Murray, New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Personal Librarian and Harlem Rhapsody

"Baszile returns her unsparing and insightful focus to the complicated terrain of friendships, families, and communities, particularly where they each collide with race and class. What happens when Black folks stop worrying about what white folks think? What happens when we stop trying to prove them wrong? What will interrogations of ourselves and each other vis a vis whiteness, cost us? Baszile captures it all in this cinematic, profound, and deeply intimate novel. This is a book with a raging yet tender heart." --Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies and The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman

"Friends and Family is a soulful gumbo that brims with the spice of nuance and the richness of real people facing impossible decisions. I gobbled up Natalie Baszile's sumptuous prose by the spoonful, but it's the hearty themes of this book--the importance of found family, self-assertion, and self-reflection--that will stay with me for a long time." --Zakiya Dalila Harris, New York Times bestselling author of The Other Black Girl