We Rip the World Apart

From the acclaimed author of Hold My Girl comes a sweeping multi-generational story about motherhood, race, and secrets.

When 24-year-old Kareela discovers shes pregnant with a child she isnt sure she wants, her struggle to understand her place in the world as a person who is half-Black, half-white—yet feels neither—is amplified.

Her mother, Evelyn, fled to Canada with her husband and their first-born child during the politically charged Jamaican exodus in the 1980s, only to realize theyd come to a place where Black men are viewed with suspicion—a constant and pernicious reality Evelyn watches her husband and son navigate daily.

Years later, in...

From the acclaimed author of Hold My Girl comes a sweeping multi-generational story about motherhood, race, and secrets.

When 24-year-old Kareela discovers shes pregnant with a child she isnt sure she wants, her struggle to understand her place in the world as a person who is half-Black, half-white—yet feels neither—is amplified.

Her mother, Evelyn, fled to Canada with her husband and their first-born child during the politically charged Jamaican exodus in the 1980s, only to realize theyd come to a place where Black men are viewed with suspicion—a constant and pernicious reality Evelyn watches her husband and son navigate daily.

Years later, in the aftermath of her sons murder by the police, Evelyns mother-in-law, Violet, moves in, offering young Kareela a link to the Jamaican heritage she had never fully known. Despite Violets efforts to help them through their grief, the traumas they carry grow into a web of secrets that threatens the very family they all hold so dear.

In the present day, Kareela, prompted by fear and uncertainty about the new life she carries, must come to terms with the mysteries surrounding her familys past and the need to make sense of both her identity and her future.

Weaving the womens stories across multiple timelines, We Rip the World Apart reveals the ways that simple choices, made in the heat of the moment and with the best of intentions, can have deep and lasting repercussions—especially when people stay silent.