"I read Rattlebone when it was first published in 1994. I loved it then, and all these years later I love it more. Now I understand how rare it is to find a book that contains such indelible characters, and such enormity of heart. Welcome back, Rattlebone, may you get all the love and attention you have long deserved."

– Ann Patchett

“Each skillful plot twist, each new, wonderful character has the effect of a sip of literary love potion. There is magic dust sprinkled over each and every page . . . Maxine Clair has offered us hope without rhetoric. She has told a story of struggle with a quietly triumphant end that says, sometimes, even in places called Rattlebone, black girls get to live happily ever after too.”

– Veronica Chambers, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

“Told in a style that is memorable for its ability to shift tones and to capture, in rich and controlled language, new levels of consciousness . . . Clair consistently attains the poetry organic to everyday speech while avoiding the quaint, the forced and the patronizing.”

– Michael Parker, WASHINGTON POST

“This brilliant debut belongs on the same shelf as V. S. Naipaul’s Miguel Street and Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John . . . Rattlebone is enchanting, sexy, wise, and richly imagined.”

– Howard Norman

“Strong, melodic, and honest . . . We need stories like this to replenish us.”

– Terry McMillan