Recognition

This fourth novel by O.H. Bennett represents a departure from his earlier work, characterized by rich depictions of African-American families rendered in quiet but powerfully charged prose. These qualities are present in Recognition, but with the addition of a twisting plot that gives the book a thriller-like intensity.

Dana, a single-mother, is driving home one rainy evening when, as she passes a homeless panhandler, she recognizes the features of her long-absent husband. Warren Reynolds disappeared from Dana's life a decade earlier - his body mysteriously missing after a terrible auto accident from which a pregnant Dana had to be rescued. After glimpsing the man she believes might be her husband, Dana begins surreptitiously searching for him, and in the process is plunged back into memories of the difficulties she and Reynolds were grappling with at the time of his disappearance. She struggles with whether she can reveal her belief that her husband might be alive to her friends, her in-laws, and, most importantly, her son.

Masterful and psychologically penetrating, Recognition is a taut, engrossing work from an experienced writer ready to break out across wide, cross-generational audiences.