Name: We Are Not Like Them
ISBN: 9780008518189

Jo Piazza

Christine Pride

THE MOST IMPORTANT NOVEL YOU’LL READ THIS YEAR ‘Harrowing and heartening in equal measure, this book is a breathtaking tale of racial fissures, fury and friendship’ David Lammy, MP and author of Tribes

We Are Not Like Them

Told from alternating perspectives, an evocative and riveting novel about the lifelong bond between two women, one Black and one white, whose friendship is indelibly altered by a tragic event—a powerful and poignant exploration of race in America today and its devastating impact on ordinary lives. Jen and Riley have been best friends since kindergarten. As adults, they remain as close as sisters, though their lives have taken different directions. Jen married young, and after years of trying, is finally pregnant. Riley pursued her childhood dream of becoming a television journalist and is poised to become one of the first Black female anchors of the top news channel in their hometown of Philadelphia. But the deep bond they share is severely tested when Jen’s husband, a city police officer, is involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager. Six months pregnant, Jen is in freefall as her future, her husband’s freedom, and her friendship with Riley are thrown into uncertainty. Covering this career-making story, Riley wrestles with the implications of this tragic incident for her Black community, her ambitions, and her relationship with her lifelong friend. Like Tayari Jones’s An American Marriage and Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things, We Are Not Like Them explores complex questions of race and how they pervade and shape our most intimate spaces in a deeply divided world. But at its heart, it’s a story of enduring friendship—a love that defies the odds even as it faces its most difficult challenges.

A Novel

Allyson Marrs

In their acknowledgements, the authors say how this book would not have been possible without the other. As a reader, you can feel that with the alternating chapters and narrators. In interviews, I also read how each author dug into the places often not shared between races. That is, writing things that behind closed doors white people say about Black people and that Black people say about white people. 

This book is emotionally charged. I felt the challenges and heartbreaks on both sides, with the individual perspectives making me feel pretty tangled up as a reader. You will feel angry, sad, hopeful. You will root for Riley and Jen's friendship, but also understand why it may not survive. You will want justice, yet understand the collateral damage on the family of the side who gets it. 

I can write about this book for days. So I will end with this. The opening and closing chapters make this book even more special. Pride's and Piazza's choice to open from Justin Dwyer's POV and end with his mother's brings us all back to the true point of this story. This story belongs to the victims and families of police killings. 

We Are Not Like Them

Reviews

Highlights