The Shape of Dreams (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780593316863)

A trio of women bond in friendship as a neighborhood tries to seek justice from a system that has forgotten them.

It'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 Tyrone's murder, and her quest for justice 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 who are desperate to help a friend. 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.

Everyone 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. Will 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?

In 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.

Author: April Reynolds
ISBN-10: 059331686X
ISBN-13: 9780593316863
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Language: English
Published: 02/03/2026
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.29lbs
Size: 9.25h x 6.13w x 0.84d