If This World Were Mine

A close circle of friends. A sexy stranger. How strong are the bonds of friendship?
With a nine-week stay on the "New York Times" bestseller list, E. Lynn Harris's third novel, "And This Too Shall Pass, " put his "sizzling and fast-paced" books at the top of everyone's must-read list. Readers across the country were thrilled to watch his true-to-life characters wrestle with questions of faith, family, and love. In his new blockbuster, "If This World Were Mine, " Harris introduces four new characters whose friendship and deep bonds of intimacy are threatened by conflicts of career and romance.
Friends since their days at Hampton Institute, the four group members are as different as the seasons, yet they all share a love of one another. Yolanda, a media consultant, keeps it going on with a no-nonsense attitude and independence that are balanced by the theatrics of Riley, a former marketing executive, whose marriage has reduced her to "a kept woman with kids." Computer engineer Dwight's anger at the world is offset by the compassion of Leland, a gay psychiatrist, whose clients make him question why God ever invented sex. Together, these four friends keep a collective journal they call "If This World Were Mine, " and share their personal diaries each month at a gathering filled with humor, gossip, and affirmation.
But after five years, the once-strong bonds of friendship are weakening, and the group must handle challenges of work, lost love, and a stranger in their midst: gray-eyed John Basil Henderson, a former NFL star whose past has begun to haunt him. As the group members confront their true feelings toward each other, resentments and long-held secrets surface, and thestability of the group begins to disintegrate. When one of them faces death, the crisis forces the friends to recognize and accept the inner strength that the group has nurtured in each of them. Is their past friendship strong enough to survive the future? With home training tales from Uncle Doc, Leland's gay uncle and purveyor of Miss Thing's Wings, Chicago's premier chicken emporium, the group reaffirms honesty as the bedrock of their friendship. As Leland and Yolanda pledge to each other, "I love you. That's all."

"So much humor is sprinkled through E. Lynn Harris's warm and timely new novel that we almost miss the pain lying underneath or the significance of its theme: Harris, who has written poignant love stories about African-American life before, turns eloquently again to the question of how people--black people in this case--learn to love in a tough and toughening society. What we don't miss is the complicated political dilemma that Harris weaves quietly and seamlessly through the lives of the four protagonists, all of whom, as the book opens, find that their star is rising."
--Pat Holt, "San Francisco Chronicle"
"A breakout bestseller that features a sizzling mix of fast-paced storytellingand lyrical sexuality."
--Paula L. Woods, "Dallas Morning News"
"It is rare to read a novel with African-American characters as refreshing as these. Harris keeps the dialogue lively and the action zipping along while fully developing story and characters. Ultimately both fun and moving, the book has something to impress nearly any reader."
"--Booklist"