Can we ever really run away from our past? Or our place of origin? The children of daddy ‘King’ will try the best they can to do just that. This book brings out the truths to these questions. Siblings Junior, Mande, CeCe and Tokey trying to find their truths in this world that seems to be out of their control. When their daddy, King, passes away from a fall the siblings converge onto the family’s compound called the Kingdom. King built this from land passed on down from generations. While the children seem worlds apart his death brings them closer no matter how hard they fight it. Junior has a secret life that keeps him happy but he has to hide it from everyone but his wife who is holding onto her marriage no matter what. Mance has a fiery temper that has put him behind bars a few times and a family who is waiting for him to change. CeCe ran away from the kingdom as soon as she was old enough and never looked back but she left someone who has patiently been waiting for her return. Tokey is the baby who has eaten her fears for years, trying to find her identity and answers to what happen to her missing mom. A notice that they have 4 weeks to vacate the kingdom has them searching for answers and finding truths about themselves and where they belong. Very soul wrenching book that makes you think about your own truths and how we complicate our lives needlessly.

To be honest I struggled with this book. I wanted to like it, then I wanted to stop reading, but for whatever reason I persevered and I was rewarded. The characters were complex and I did not like most of them, but the way that Terah Shelton Harris wove them and the story together was masterful. I did not know anything about heir property before reading this book (shame on me) and now understand what a precarious position that places families. The ways that Harris wove together the four siblings' stories (and a few others as well) could at times feel disjointed and confusing, but if you are willing to hang on, the story comes together beautifully and you see the reason she wrote the book the way she did. I highly recommend this book.

Long After We Are Gone
Written By Terah Shelton Harris
Published By Sourcebooks Landmark
Release Date May 14, 2024


"Don't let the white man take the house

This book is a complex read that contains family drama, lies, and secrets that bring the stories of how 4 siblings fight to protect and save 200 aces of land that was left to them by their patriarchal father. Each sibling has their own issues and find it hard to keep their lives afloat while trying to keep the secrets and complexities that they so want to keep hidden. The author has done a brilliant job of showing how families can have tragic situations that will make it hard to hold onto secrets as well as relationships between themselves. The characters are well developed and deeply flawed yet while we are made privy to their problems you will feel the need to root for them. I honestly do not feel that I can give this book justice but I can say that this is a beautifully written family drama that follows a family of four that have their own problems but come together to keep what their father fought for so long to remain in his name.

5 beautiful stars

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.

Wow! I have rarely encountered such strong, rounded, memorable characters. I loved them. Mance. Strong. Angry. Scared for his Deaf son. Absolutely devoted to Lisha but not able to govern his frightening temper. Not above the side hustle of dubious legality. Junior. School principal. Lovely wife and daughters. Just admitting to himself that he is gay. Has lived his whole life splitting into what he thinks of as the straight, socially acceptable Outer Man, and the fearful, uncertain, gay Inner Man he rarely lets out. Cece. Beautiful and sexy New York lawyer living the dream until she begins to dip into the firm’s till and becomes embroiled in extortion sex with a colleague. Tokey. Baby of the family. Secretly fears she is different. Stress-eater. Has a truly unhealthy relationship with Little Debbies.

The four Solomon children come together for the funeral of their father, King, and quickly learn that there is an existential threat to their North Carolina land, the Kingdom, which has been in the family for 200 years. Despite the fact that they seem to have rarely spoken to one another in the past few years, and that although they love each other they don’t really like each other, their family dynamic falls right into its former groove, such that the siblings communicate in half-formed sentences. As siblings do.

I love the secondary characters such as Miss Jessie, who has all the answers and is only waiting to be asked. And even Hazel, the mother the Solomons never knew, is revealed in flashbacks. Uncle Shad. Oh what a villain, but what a rounded, honest villain. He does not pretend otherwise. He tells Mance, You gotta own your shit,” which is a brilliantly true statement I once heard elsewhere. And gorgeous Ellis, who saves the day.

All of the action in this character-driven story are so real and true to themselves that it is such a pleasure to read. Compared to the author’s first book, this one is real and satisfying and unique. So good.

I wasn't sure at first if I would finish this book, but I kept going. It was after the four siblings came back home after the loss of their father that it started to get interesting. Each of the siblings had issues to deal with and the possibility of losing their ancestral home brought out their secrets and their shame. This was a dramatic read involving hardships, secrets, violence, homophobia, addictions, and learning to accept their actions and no longer hiding their secrets. Thank you, NetGalley, and the publisher for the ARC.

This story is told in alternating viewpoints of the children of Solomon, who has tasked them with returning to North Carolina to save their ancestral home from "the white man." It's searing, gut-wrenching, and powerful. I'm so glad I read it.

I fell in love with this author after reading her debut One Summer in Savannah. So I was excited to read another book by her. While I expected another read that would hit the all emotional feels, I didn’t expect this amount of intensity. The writing of several characters, flaws and all must have been quite the challenge, because despite wanting to be so frustrated with some characters to the point of almost not liking them, you are forced to feel sympathy and compassion and yes even love for them. That is a brilliant task this author has accomplished! And not many authors can do that. I hope others find themselves familiar with this author, because she is definitely a name that people should know!

Fabulous book! Enjoyable read, as the stories of each sibling fit together so well with them all coming together in the end. I will highly recommend this to anyone.

This is a slow burn - the writing is fantastic, but I struggled with some of the characters. That being said, that was probably the point - showing that each of the Soloman siblings is struggling with their own demons. Also incredibly enlightening on heir property - something truly messed up that I didn’t know anything about. I would say my only critique is the back and forth between the sibling viewpoints in each chapter - I felt that as soon as I got into what was going on with one of them, it would cut to a different sibling.

Terah Shelton Harris’ Long After We Are Gone is a wonderfully educational story! Until I read this book, I had no idea how poor landowners (usually black) had their land legally taken away because heir property doesn’t hold up in courts, and they couldn’t afford to have wills drawn up.

When Patriarch King Solomon dies, his 4 children come back to The Kingdom. All of them have their own demons and secrets that drive their motivations. Very likable characters and strong storyline, I’d recommend this book to all of my readers!

This novel weaves the story of the King family. The name king is revered, but it is also a mantle. This is thrust upon the owner by circumstance and the weight of being King is crushing.

The King family was easy for me to connect with. You can look into each character and see someone you know, possibly a family member of your own.

People may not realize, but all through the south are places like Diggs. The people, the power of a name, the trading of secrets and bartering of goods all well worn practices.

This family is connected by generational trauma. In the outside people don’t see the chains, they see a family land rich who has kept their acreage and home for over 200 years.

The story educates the reader on heir property, something I didn’t know existed. Heir property, in the sense that without a will the property goes to the heirs is all well and good, until of course people find loopholes to steal land and property from people for pennies on the dollar. Rich, educated,, soulless men willing to do anything to own these lands the heirs have toiled in for hundreds of years. Land that their blood, sweat, tears and lives have bled into to sustain it.

You will come away from this novel changed. Be prepared to think of these characters and this family long after reading the final words.

To the author, thank you. The perspectives you tell this story from give the reader the feeling they are right next to the person going through each encounter right alongside them.

*Long After We Are Gone*, a captivating novel by Terah Shelton Harris, unfolds against the picturesque backdrop of North Carolina's valuable waterfront property. The story revolves around four siblings, each grappling with their own personal battles. Their lives intersect once more in the aftermath of their father's passing, as they unite to preserve their family's ancestral home—the Kingdom—from being sold to a development company.

Harris's daring debut weaves a rich tapestry of family bonds, regrets, and redemption. The novel's authentic characters and evocative prose explore the depths of human frailty. If you're drawn to powerful family sagas that resonate with emotion, I wholeheartedly recommend *Long After We Are Gone*.

I was invited to read this book thanks to the awesome publisher, and I’m so glad because this was such a page turner! I could not stop!

Torah Shelton Harris tells an interesting story of the effect of heir inheritance on land ownership in North Carolina. The King family has lived on a former plantation and overseen 200 acres surrounding the house since the Civil War ended. When the patriarch dies, an entity steps forward to claim 5 acres of the land, including the land under the house. Investigation reveals that King’s brother Shep, who has been estranged from the family, sold the land to get back at his brother. The family comes to a logical, if drastic, solution to resolve the issue that will open up myriad lines of discussion for interested book clubs. Personal issues going on in the lives of King’s four children add layers to the story that are also ripe for discussion and give readers pause for thought about how they might respond in such a situation..

What a beautiful book. Terah Shelton Harris handles deep, complex topics with a graceful hand. The story follows four siblings, which can sometimes lead to slow or boring parts of the story. But that never happened! Every sibling was interesting, and I was never anxious for one sibling’s part of the story to be over and to move onto another one.

Heir property is something I knew nothing about and I appreciated getting to learn about it in a fiction setting. The only drawback for me was that I found parts of the mother’s storyline hard to believe because people in small towns talk. A lot. I won’t say more because of spoilers, but all in all, a great read!

Interesting story about the acceptance of self, past and present. At the end of the day, it's a process we all go through. The story has a paranormal feel to it as the past is so much a part of the siblings lives that it carries it's own narrative in a sense. The ending was something I did not expect and the better part of the whole book IMO. This is one of those books you definitely will want to discuss as it goes freaky and what the heck as it concludes.

Long After We Are Gone is a riveting read. There are echoes of Faulkner in this tale of four siblings tasked with preserving the land their family has worked for two hundred years against the greed of developers and their own conflicting desires. It is impossible to read the novel without empathizing with Junior, Manse, CeCe, and Tokey as they deal with the death of their father King, the perfidy of their Uncle Shad, and the ramifications of 'heir' property law. The real-life implications of the legal hurdles many Black families must jump to keep the land that belongs to them add to the relevance of the book.

Terah Shelton Harris has crafted a must-read novel. Her skillful handling of four viewpoints allows the reader to laugh, cry, admonish, and cheer for each sibling as they confront their precarious situations and struggle to conquer the obstacles they face. It was no stretch to imagine this book as a play or a movie, one which I would gladly attend. I strongly recommend you read this one!

I feel that this book by Terah Shelton Harris was expertly crafted. It's my first read of hers, but after reading Long After We Are Gone, I definitely want to pick up One Summer in Savannah.

So many explosive topics are dealt with in this novel - lies, secrets, family relationships and drama, the judicial system, prejudice, crime, death, homophobia, and sexual manipulation. Throw all of those together in Harris' fictional, Southern town of Diggs, North Carolina, and you've got a formula for a successful novel.

The four siblings, who are basically estranged even though three of them still live in the same town, are brought together in the beginning of the novel for the unexpected death of their sixty-three year old father, King. The Solomon family has always resided on a 200 acre tract of land once referred to as the old Solomon Plantation. All of their lives, it has been called The Kingdom, and their father's last words were, Don't let the white man take The Kingdom.

That single event not only brings the siblings together but sets off the array of lies, secrets, and drama. Even though the house of The Kingdom itself is bordering in a stage of disrepair, city lawyers and their clients from Charlotte circle like vultures wanting to claim the land. Loopholes are shown in the judicial system as well as greed and disregard for feelings by the almighty rich wanting to get richer.

Harris develops each of the four siblings' characters throughout the novel as they come to deal with the immediate problem as many other problems are revealed from their pasts and present lives, also.

Thank you, NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark, for this exciting family saga that hits the shelves May 14th.

When the family patriarch dies suddenly, four siblings who have left the family behind to pursue other dreams are reunited in an effort to save their ancestral lands from an unscrupulous land developer who has found a legal loophole to their ownership of the inherited land. As we learn more about each sibling, we learn that "King" was really the glue that held the family together. With his passing, his children discover some long buried secrets about their deceased mother, and learn that leaving their past behind in their small rural town isn't as easy as hopping a bus to the city. As each adult child is drawn back, we read chapters devoted to their individual stories and how they not only need each other but they also need the land to remain in the family as the "Kingdom" is what defines their fierce independence and fighting spirits.
This is a book about the deep ties that bind a family together despite how time and distance may have drawn them apart. You'll want to cry, laugh and scream along with these individuals as they learn to accept their fears and move into the future as a united family.

This book had my heart hurting and my mind rooting for the poor children of King. As someone who has lost a parent, I understand the pain of loss and also the guilt/confusion of meeting up to expectations that can’t be spoken aloud anymore. Each of the 4 had a terrible secret, but they were secrets that didn’t come from personal weakness but rather from circumstances beyond their controls. I felt invested in the development of each character and felt proud of them when they admitted to their mistakes and came together as a family.