Authors Interviewing Characters: Laila Ibrahim
In an early twentieth-century America roiling with racial injustice, class divides, and WWI, two women fight for their dreams in a galvanizing novel by the bestselling author of Golden Poppies.
1915. May and Naomi are extended family, their grandmothers’ lives inseparably entwined on a Virginia plantation in the volatile time leading up to the Civil War. For both women, the twentieth century promises social transformation and equal opportunity.
May, a young white woman, is on the brink of achieving the independent life she’s dreamed of since childhood. Naomi, a nurse, mother, and leader of the NAACP, has fulfilled her own dearest desire: buying a home for her family. But they both are about to learn that dreams can be destroyed in an instant. May’s future is upended, and she is forced to rely once again on her mother. Meanwhile, the white-majority neighborhood into which Naomi has moved is organizing against her while her sons are away fighting for their country.
In the tumult of a changing nation, these two women—whose grandmothers survived the Civil War—support each other’s quest for liberation and dignity. Both find the strength to confront injustice and the faith to thrive on their chosen paths.
Laila Ibrahim interviews Naomi and May
Laila: I want to start with an appreciation and an apology. Naomi, I’m sorry May invited you to be a part of this conversation, rather than me. Thank you, May for remedying my mistake. I should have reached out to both of you at the same time.
May: You are welcome.
Laila: Even after all of these years of thinking about race in America, I find myself challenged to de-center Whiteness. It’s very humbling. But enough about me. How do you two hold the legacy of your grandmothers and their relationship?
Naomi: Long ago I realized I couldn’t measure myself by her actions, but could gauge my life by the values I share with her. Walking away from her home with a baby tied to her back knowing they might both die or worse. Mattie was a strong woman in a way I will never have to be. I just have to be strong in the way I am called to be. For me that is fighting for my home and for my children.
May: I recently realized that my grandmother didn’t know what she was doing at my age, either. From this distance, her life seems simple, the choices easily made. I’m grateful she and I got to talk about her struggles—in her marriage, as a mother, as a daughter. She had to make hard choices. Harder probably than any I have to make.
Laila: Speaking of choices. Modern readers might believe that neither of you support access to abortions. Do you?
Naomi: I want women to have the choices that help them be safe, strong and free. Birth control is one of the very best means for that. Ending pregnancy is a very complicated decision/choice/issue that I cannot make for other people, but they should be allowed to make for themselves.
May: Amen. I have nothing to add.
Laila: Do you believe the next generation of your families will stay close to each other?
Laila: Oh, I made you both tear up.
May: They won’t, will they Naomi?
Naomi: No. Such is life. Our grandmothers made a bond that brought us together, but the next generations are not going to care about their great or great, great grandmother’s dear friend’s great grandchildren.
May: That is amusing just to hear you say it. The bonds of affection spread out over time. It is difficult for me to make time for my own dear first cousins. Second, third cousins…well, I cannot expend too much energy on them.
Laila: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. Is there anything else you want to add.
Naomi: Although our story may not be as dramatic as Mattie and Lisbeth’s, we feel it is important for people to know about our struggles too. And for modern readers to know that we fought for them as well?.
May: And we hope that you will keep up the fight for your grandchildren. We cannot measure the steps to freedom and justice close up, only from the distance of time.
Laila: That is a great reminder. We are out of time right now, but I’m thrilled that will be continuing our conversation. I’ll see you both soon.
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Laila Ibrahim is the bestselling author of Golden Poppies, Paper Wife, Mustard Seed, and Yellow Crocus. She spent much of her career as a preschool director, a birth doula, and a religious educator. That work, coupled with her education in developmental psychology and attachment theory, provides ample fodder for her novels.
She’s a devout Unitarian Universalist, determined to do her part to add a little more love and justice to our beautiful and painful world. She lives with her wonderful wife, Rinda, and two other families in a small cohousing community in Berkeley, California. Her young adult children are her pride and joy.
Laila is blessed to be working full-time as a novelist. When she isn’t writing, she likes to take walks with friends and her beloved dog, Hazel Nut, do jigsaw puzzles, play games, work in the garden, travel, cook, and eat all kinds of delicious food. She enjoys zooming/calling/facetiming into bookclubs when she’s available.
Visit the author at https://www.amazon.com/Laila-Ibrahim/e/B004KNLZMA/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1
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Category: On Writing
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