Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

A 2026 NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literary Work - Fiction

A woman learns the incredible story of a real-life American Kingdom--and her family's ties to it--in this enthralling novel from the New York Times bestselling, NAACP Image Award-winning author of Take My Hand.

As featured in The Washington Post ∙ People ∙ Harper's Bazaar ∙ NPR ∙ TODAY ∙ ELLE ∙ PopSugar ∙ Reader's Digest ∙ SheReads ∙ Woman's World ∙ Real Simple ∙ BookBrowse ∙ and more!

Nikki hasn't seen her grandmother in years. So when the elder calls out of the blue with an urgent request for Nikki to visit her in the hills of western North Carolina, Nikki hesitates only for a moment. After years of silence in her family, due to a mysterious estrangement between her mother and grandmother, she's determined to learn the truth while she still can.

But instead of answers about the recent past, Mother Rita tells Nikki an incredible story of a kingdom on this very mountain, and of her great-great-great grandmother, Luella, who would become its queen.

It sounds like the makings of a fairy tale--royalty among a community of freed people. But the more Nikki learns about the Kingdom of the Happy Land, and the lives of those who dwelled in the ruins she discovers in the woods, the more she realizes how much of her identity and her family's secrets are wrapped up in these hills. Because this land is their legacy, and it will be up to her to protect it before it, like so much else, is stolen away.

Inspired by true events, Happy Land is a transporting multi-generational novel about the stories that shape us and the dazzling courage it takes to dream.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780593337745
ISBN 10	0593337743
Title	Happy Land
Author	Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Penguin Putnam Inc
Year published	2026-03-03
Number of pages	384
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.