The Days of Afrekete, Asali Solomon

I read this in one sitting on a long flight and it was very satisfying. Mrs Dalloway is one of my all-time favorite novels so I am quite leery of re-tellings, but this one is effective, precisely because it doesn’t cleave too closely to the original (if you didn’t know, you might not even think about the connection). Still, the ways it updates or adapts the original are fun and interesting (if you read Woolf’s novel and were like, MORE SALLY! — this is the book for you). A queer Black woman married to a white male politician who is about to be indicted on corruption charges throws a dinner party (and thinks back on her life). It’s a quick, lovely read.