Eve Whalen, privileged child of an old-money Atlanta family, meets Daniella Gold in the fall of 1962, on their first day at Belmont College. Paired as roommates, the two become fast friends. Daniella, raised in Georgetown by a Jewish father and a Methodist mother, has always felt caught between two worlds. But at Belmont, her bond with Eve allows her to finally experience a sense of belonging. That is, until the girls’ expanding awareness of the South’s caste system forces them to question everything they thought they knew about the world and their places in it.

Eve veers toward radicalism—a choice pragmatic Daniella cannot fathom. After a tragedy, Eve returns to Daniella for help in beginning anew, hoping to shed her past. But the past isn’t so easily buried, as Daniella and Eve discover when their daughters are caught up in secrets meant to stay hidden.

Spanning just over thirty years of American history, from the twilight of Kennedy’s Camelot to the beginning of Bill Clinton’s presidency, We Are All Good People Here perfectly resonates with today’s fraught American political zeitgeist and asks us: why do good intentions too often lead to tragic outcomes? Can we separate our political choices and our personal morals? And is it possible to truly bury our former selves and escape our own history?

Publish Date: August 6, 2019

Named one of Atlanta magazine‘s “Ten Best Books of 2013,” A Place at the Table chronicles three richly nuanced characters whose lives intersect in a chic Manhattan café. With inspiration drawn from New York’s landmark Café Nicholson and rooted in author Susan Rebecca White’s love of the cuisine of the South, A Place at the Table offers a powerful testament to the unlikely journeys that ultimately guide us home.

While A Place at the Table is a work of fiction, White’s imagination was sparked by reading about Edna Lewis, the legendary African-American chef and author of the classic A Taste of Country Cooking. An avid cook herself, White was fascinated by the story of Lewis – who was the chef at Café Nicholson in the late 1940s and early 1950s – and Lewis’s friend and protégé in her later years, chef Scott Peacock.

Read about the life, times, and career of Edna Lewis in this 2006 New York Times obituary.

Spanning from a freed-slave settlement in 1920s North Carolina to Manhattan in the 1980s, A Place at the Table celebrates the healing power of food and the magic of New York City as three seekers come together, understanding that when you embrace the thing that makes you different, you become whole.

Want a signed copy of A Place at the Table? Order signed copies through A Cappella Books, Susan’s neighborhood book store.

Read a chapter from A Place at the Table.

Publish Date: June 4, 2013

For more than ten years, Naomi and Phil Harrison enjoyed a marriage of heady romance, tempered only by the needs of their children. But on a vacation alone, the couple perishes in a flight over the Grand Canyon. After the funeral, their daughters, Ruthie and Julia, are shocked by the provisions in their will.

Spanning nearly two decades, the sisters’ journeys take them from their familiar home in Atlanta to sophisticated bohemian San Francisco, a mountain town in Virginia, the campus of Berkeley, and lofts in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. As they heal from loss, search for love, and begin careers, their sisterhood, once an oasis, becomes complicated by resentment, anger, and jealousy. It seems as though the echoes of their parents deaths will never stop reverberating until another shocking accident changes everything once again.

“Book clubs: This is your next pick. I loved this book.”                – Kathryn Stockett, author The Help

Publish Date: April 6, 2010

By turns hilarious and poignant, the lives of three vibrant and unique Southern women — a proper Atlanta matron, her rebellious teenage daughter, and their housekeeper’s young daughter — intersect in unexpected and extraordinary ways in this richly compelling debut novel of family, friendship, and folly.

“White’s wit and graceful prose yield sharp insights about family, friendship and faith in the ever-changing South…. A wonderful debut.” – Publishers Weekly

“Like its characters, Bound South comes dressed in innocence and comedy, a series of hilarious and poignant stories told in gossipy backyard-fence style. But underneath, its concerns are far more serious…” – Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“This acclaimed funny and poignant debut novel describes the clashes between the new and old South…” – San Francisco Examiner

 

Publish Date: February 10, 2009