In this “achingly beautiful debut” (The Boston Globe), a young Black gay man, estranged from his father, must confront his painful past—and his deepest desires around gender, love, and sex.
“A beautiful, clear-eyed portrait of love in the face of religious and familial betrayal.”—Elle
“This novel is less the arrival of a major talent and more the confirmation of one we should all already be reading. Don’t miss it.”—them
“I got tired of running away from what I should’ve been running toward.”
The venerated Reverend Doctor John Freeman did not raise his son, Davis, to be touched by any man, let alone a white man. He did not raise his son to whisper that man’s name with tenderness.
But on the eve of his wedding, all Davis can think about is how beautiful he wants to look when he meets his beloved Everett at the altar. Never mind that his mother, who died decades before, and his father, whose anger drove Davis to flee their home in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, for a freer life in New York City, won’t be there to walk him down the aisle. All Davis needs to be happy in this life is Everett, his new family, and his burgeoning career as an acclaimed violist.
When Davis learns during the wedding reception that his father has been in a terrible car accident, years of childhood trauma and unspoken emotion resurface. Davis must revisit everything that went wrong between them, risking his fledgling marriage along the way.
In resplendent prose, Denne Michele Norris’s When the Harvest Comes reveals the pain of inheritance and the heroic power of love, reminding us that, in the end, we are more than the men who came before us.
BIO
Denne Michele Norris is the editor in chief of Electric Literature, winner of the Whiting Literary Magazine Prize. She is the first Black, openly trans woman to helm a major literary publication. She co-hosts the critically acclaimed podcast Food 4 Thot and holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.
REVIEWS
“A beautiful, clear-eyed portrait of love in the face of religious and familial betrayal.” -- Elle
“Triumphant . . . an earnest, tender story about the courage it takes to let yourself be seen and loved for exactly who you are.” -- BookPage
“Gorgeous. . . This is worth savoring.” -- Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Vibrant . . . Denne Michele Norris’s emotional insightfulness and astounding talent are on display in When the Harvest Comes.” -- Chicago Review of Books
“When The Harvest Comes invites us to see the most painful truths of ourselves and our pasts, hold them up to the sun, and let the light pass through.” -- The Rumpus
“An achingly beautiful debut about family estrangement, the bonds of marriage, and the painful necessity of reckoning with the past.” -- The Boston Globe
“A novel [about] choosing love in the face of misunderstanding, and, more importantly, the freedom that comes in finding yourself.” -- TODAY
“Epic, intimate, brutal, and tender . . . Denne Michele Norris has written a breathtaking testimony about the boundlessness of love. This is the arrival of a major new American voice.” -- Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
“When the Harvest Comes is abundant with a kind of grace I’m especially hungry for these days: the possibility that we can mend at least some of what we’ve torn apart, the chance that we’re not entirely too late.” -- R. O. Kwon, author of Exhibit
[H] Random House / April 15, 2025
1.3" H x 9.3" L x 6.3" W (1.05 lbs) 304 pages