In this heart-wrenching debut novel, a young Black gay man, estranged from his father, must confront his painful past—and his deepest desires around gender, love, and sex.

“Epic, intimate, brutal, and tender, Denne Michele Norris has written a breathtaking testimony about the boundlessness of love.”—Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

“When the Harvest Comes is a book to sink into, to luxuriate within. . . . It’s only when you’re finished that you realize that you’ve never before read a story quite like this one.”—Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby

“I got tired of running away from what I should’ve been running toward.”

The venerated Reverend Doctor John Freeman did not raise his son, Davis, to be touched by any man, let alone a white man. He did not raise his son to whisper that man’s name with tenderness.

But on the eve of his wedding, all Davis can think about is how beautiful he wants to look when he meets his beloved Everett at the altar. Never mind that his mother, who died decades before, and his father, whose anger drove Davis to flee their home in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, for a freer life in New York City, won’t be there to walk him down the aisle. All Davis needs to be happy in this life is Everett, his new family, and his burgeoning career as an acclaimed violist.

When Davis learns during the wedding reception that his father has been in a terrible car accident, years of childhood trauma and unspoken emotion resurface. Davis must revisit everything that went wrong between them, risking his fledgling marriage along the way. 

In resplendent prose, Denne Michele Norris’s When the Harvest Comes reveals the pain of inheritance and the heroic power of love, reminding us that, in the end, we are more than the men who came before us.

Denne Michele Norris is the editor in chief of Electric Literature, winner of the Whiting Literary Magazine Prize. She is the first Black, openly trans woman to helm a major literary publication. She co-hosts the critically acclaimed podcast Food 4 Thot and holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.