{"product_id":"the-shape-of-dreams-isbn-9780593316863","title":"The Shape of Dreams","description":"\u003cb\u003eA trio of women bond in friendship as a neighborhood tries to seek justice from a system that has forgotten them.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Shape of Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e is a powerful prayer, a novel that indicts the injustice for which there is no quick solution. . . . [It is] a song of furor and tenderness that will leave its mark.” —Walter Mosley, bestselling author of the Easy Rawlins series\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt’s the mid-eighties in East Harlem: a twelve-year-old black boy's murdered body is found by Mathilda \"Twin\" Johnson, an unlikely hero who is both the neighborhood’s troublemaker and its conscience. When she breaks a cardinal rule—“don’t call the cops”—her decision ensnares a community and brings unmanageable grief to a mother. Anita, a postal worker and army widow, is determined to solve her son's Tyrone's murder, and her quest galvanizes the neighborhood, which is itself a complex character in this teeming novel, with its Mets fans and gossips, immigrant shop owners and latch-key kids. The local dreamers include a charismatic man of the cloth, a teenage girl with a Whitney Houston voice and no prospects, and Anita’s opinionated friend Wanda, whose truant son the police harass and arrest on a regular basis.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEveryone is struggling. Anita, Wanda and Twin, the triad of this vibrant novel, are drawn into the neighborhood drug trap, while a singer, a preacher, and the church ladies who follow him believe their dreams can shape a city.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWill the three be able to break away from crack's dangerous allure? Will the reverend’s pressure on the authorities to find Tyrone’s killer yield answers? Will justice come to East Harlem?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the end, during the New York Mets’ banner summer of 1986, this community will come together to mourn, fight for a better life, and shape their dreams as best they can.\u003cb\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eBustle\u003c\/i\u003e's “Most Anticipated Books of Winter 2025-26”\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Sweeping and emotionally charged. . . . With its blend of social urgency, lyrical prose, and moral clarity, \u003ci\u003eThe Shape of Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e positions Reynolds once again as a vital voice in contemporary American fiction—one unafraid to confront injustice while honoring the resilience that binds communities together.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eHarlem World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Shape of Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e is a powerful prayer, a novel that indicts the injustice for which there is no quick solution. Centered on three women, this wondrous read is set in Spanish Harlem in the mid-eighties when crack arrived, the Mets won the championship, and a young boy is found beneath a pile of trash, murdered and nearly forgotten. Filled with all that makes a community home, April Reynolds's novel moves at a spellbinding pace, a song of furor and tenderness that will leave its mark.”\u003cb\u003e —Walter Mosley, bestselling author of the Easy Rawlins series\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Set in East Harlem in the mid-eighties, at the dawn of America’s crack epidemic, April Reynolds’s \u003ci\u003eThe Shape of Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e is ostensibly the tale of a child’s tragic murder and a mother’s desperate quest for justice. But like all revelatory novels about New York, it also tells the secret history of a community, of its neighborhood’s written-off eccentrics who are also its eyes and ears, of its all-too-fallible leaders tasked with holding it together, and its denizens trying to forge dignified lives without losing their humanity in their struggle to survive. Vivid and heartbreaking, unyielding and gritty, it is, in the end, about the alliance of three unforgettable women who refuse to succumb to the overwhelming forces determined to rob them of their agency. A story, then, for right now.” —\u003cb\u003eAdam Ross, author of \u003ci\u003ePlayworld\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Intense and dreamlike, \u003ci\u003eThe Shape of Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e is a vivid portrait of a community reckoning with violence, addiction, and surveillance in 1980s Harlem. In captivating prose, April Reynolds asks us to consider what we owe our children and each other in life's darkest moments.” \u003cb\u003e—Leila Mottley, author of \u003ci\u003eNightcrawling \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Girls Who Grew Big\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Shape of Dreams \u003c\/i\u003eoffers a loving tribute to Harlem and the restorative power of female friendship while exposing the tiny soul fractures sustained by good people trying to get by in a broken world. With exquisite grace and reverence, Reynolds explores the inevitable heartbreaks of motherhood and wearying loneliness as the three women at the novel’s center seek justice for a murdered son. Reynolds captivates as much as she reminds us that in the midst of unspeakable tragedy, the strength of the human spirit endures. Elegant, powerful and truly unforgettable.” \u003cb\u003e—Laura Warrell, author of \u003ci\u003eSweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Gritty. . . . bittersweet. . . . a vision of triumph despite overwhelming odds.” \u003cb\u003e—Thane Tierney, \u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Captivating. . . . Vividly drawn. . . with sharp, enduring voices. . . . Reynolds transports the reader to a gritty world blighted by urban decay yet full of resilience and strength.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Engrossing. . . Reynolds deftly weaves. . . a crafty murder mystery in the multihued form of an urban symphony. . . with poignant warmth and unflinching precision.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Reynolds paints a vivid portrait of East Harlem during the Reagan era. . . . Without losing track of its well-developed characters, the novel morphs into a gripping whodunit, as the neighbors try to solve [a boy’s murder] while the police drag their heels. Readers will savor this rich tableau of a resilient community.”\u003cb\u003e —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eAPRIL REYNOLDS is the author of the novel \u003ci\u003eKnee-Deep in Wonder\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the Zora Neale Hurston\/Richard Wright Foundation Award and the PEN American Center: Beyond Margins Award. She co-wrote \u003ci\u003eThe Red Rooster Cookbook\u003c\/i\u003e with Marcus Samuelson and is co-editor, with Henry Louis Gates Jr., of \u003ci\u003eThe Toni Morrison Reader\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Zora Neale Hurston Reader\u003c\/i\u003e. Reynolds has taught creative writing at New York University and the 92nd Street Y, and currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence College. A former resident of East Harlem, she now lives in Astoria, Queens.","brand":"Knopf","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233742860517,"sku":"NP9780593316863","price":29.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780593316863.jpg?v=1767741490","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-shape-of-dreams-isbn-9780593316863","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}