Blood Bond

Blood Bond is an epic tale of how three generations of women in a family overcome devastating secrets, scars and loss. This novel is not only a look at the outer forces that shape women’s lives, which include sexism, misogyny, and racism, but the inner forces, which include an ability to love and to forgive. This is the story of how a violation of trust in the first generation has a long-reaching effect on the family. The story opens with Carol, an irrepressible 8-year-old, who finds her father, Mitchell, a Vietnam veteran, who was babysitting her while her mother, Josephine, was at work, slumped over in a chair. Unbeknownst to the child, her father has overdosed on heroin. Before her father went to Vietnam, he had been a Christian man who didn’t drink or smoke. He and the mother, Josephine, had been high school sweethearts, who married young. After Carol’s birth, they became a close-knit family. Although poor and Black, life is good for the young couple. That is, until Mitchell is drafted into the army and is shipped to Vietnam. He returns home with the soldier’s disease. This is before Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Syndrome is hardly a phrase in American lexicon. This life-altering, tragic event destroys this young family.