Friends and Family

By: Natalie Baszile

Narrator: TBA

Penguin Audio

ISBN: 9780593492161

Publisher: Viking/Pameal Dorman

Publication Date: 10/06/2026

Format: Other

My Rating: Currently Reading (ARC)

OCT 2026 MUST-READ BOOKS

From the author of Queen Sugar, a piercing examination of friendship and loyalty as two best friends find themselves at odds over their beliefs on race, identity and allyship, especially when it comes to their teenage children

Babs and Nora became friends thanks to their kids. Now, the desire to protect their children might tear them apart.

Babs and Nora have spent a decade’s worth of morning walks sharing family secrets, local drama, and advice—everything from tips on lingerie choices to Babs’s suggestions to Nora, a white woman, on how to raise Nathan, her adopted Black son.

But their worlds are turned upside down when the cops are called on their kids while they’re home alone, leading to a traumatic police encounter for Nathan. In the aftermath, Babs and Nora find themselves divided as never before, and Nathan looks for refuge with Babs and her family, where, unlike in his own home, race, identity, and culture are always up for discussion. Babs can see that Nathan is a young Black man without community trying to find himself. Torn between respecting Nora’s boundaries and embodying the values so important to her own family, Babs will make a choice that will shape their lives forever.

Set in a tight-knit enclave in the Bay Area, Friends and Family is an eye-opening exploration of friendship and privilege, race and community, and what it means to truly be a good friend and ally.

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Praise

“Tenderness meets tough love in this page-turning story of two friends—one black, one white—who face life-altering choices as a crisis threatens to divide them. This story explores identity, privilege, friendship, and family in an upscale San Francisco setting, but it mines those gray areas that can be found in relationships everywhere. A compelling reminder that it's one thing to be loved, another to feel seen.”

—Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake and Good Dirt

“Natalie Baszile lays out the intricacies of prejudice and forgiveness with clarity and empathy. As her protagonists confront the limits of their understanding of race, motherhood, and each other, Baszile explores how we might find grace in today’s turbulent world. This is exactly the kind of book I want to read right now, from a sure voice we know and love.”

—Katie Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Girls and Trucks and Embassy Wife

"Friends and Family is a timely and topical, masterfully layered story chock full of characters who shine on every page. Baszile writes boldly and beautifully about family, betrayal, love, and cross-racial friendships. Everyone in America should read this book."

—Bernice L. McFadden, author of Sugar and Firstborn Girls

“This book is an open call to us all to not just stay in our lives, but to fully show up for our lives. It is an honest reckoning with the ways race impacts even our most intimate relationships—with our families, friends, and with ourselves. Over the course of Friends and Family, we see the sometimes blessed often messy journey of a woman who is Black transitioning into a Black Woman.”

—Tiphanie Yanique, author of Land of Love and Drowning and Monster in the Middle

“Grab hold of this rare, necessary portrayal of friendship, marriage, sisterhood and parenthood that, with sympathy and grace, tells the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

—Kathryn Ma, author of The Chinese Groove

“An emotional, mental, and spiritual exploration of what friendship means, and that family is not always determined by blood, [with] characters [who] are rich, real and full-bodied. Friends and Family is a gem of a novel that will continue to shine long after the last word is read.”

—Donna Hill, author of Nola and Baldwin, and I Am Ayah

"A sharp, emotionally rich story about friendship, loyalty, and the ways love can be tested by race, identity, and politics.”

—BET

About the Author

Natalie Baszile is a writer and filmmaker. Her debut novel, Queen Sugar, was named a Best Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle, an NAACP Image Award nominee, and was the inspiration for the acclaimed television series co-produced by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey. Her non-fiction book, We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land & Legacy was a Wall Street Journal Book of the Year. Natalie's non-fiction work has appeared in National Geographic, O, The Oprah Magazine,The Bitter Southerner, and numerous anthologies. Natalie has had residencies at the Ragdale Foundation, Virginia Center for the Arts, Hedgebrook, SFFILM and the Djerassi Resident Arts Program. Her short film “Black Girl in Paris” premiered at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival. A native Californian, Natalie’s southern roots stem from Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama. She lives in the Bay Area. WEBSITE