COURTNEY
MCLEAN THOMPSON

A coming-of-age novel exploring issues of race, love, and loss in the contemporary American South.

After spending the summer at a photography intensive in New York City, seventeen-year-old Kackie Aiken, a feisty redhead from a blueblood Southern family, believes she’s outgrown the small, historic town of Mandeville, South Carolina, of which her ancestor is a founding father. But when she returns home for her senior year at University High School and is promptly partnered for a project about the Civil Rights Movement with Walt Singletary, a new Black student at the primarily white prep school, Kackie is forced to confront her family’s dark history amidst intensifying hostility in a class led by the eccentric Dr. Leavitt.

Set against the backdrop of historic Mandeville’s tricentennial celebration—and under the menacing gaze of Mayor Tommy Cooper, whose influence shadows the school and the town—Kackie and Walt face relentless opposition as they seek out the truth and find one another in the process. Old loyalties strain. New affections complicate. And the deeper Kackie digs, the more she discovers her family’s complicity in the systemic evils that bind their community.

Can Kackie and Walt resurrect the ghosts of the past without being destroyed by them? Nobody Wants to Remember is a soulful and heartbreaking coming-of-age story about confession and repentance, even when they cost you what you most hold dear; and about how, especially for Kackie and Walt, the truth may not always set you free.

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What early readers are saying . . .

“This is a work full of humanity, honesty, and beauty ... a gripping reminder of our great need for social repair.”

 “This book is magnificent. It gripped me all the way through ... We need this story.”

“I can’t begin to tell you how I couldn’t put this novel down... required reading for every middle schooler in America.”

“I have laughed out loud, wept like a baby, searched my heart... and am ready for book #2!”

“One of the most moving, educational, well-written books I’ve ever read ... It has left me in tears.”

“I loved this book. I couldn’t put it down, and when I did, I couldn’t wait to pick it back up.”

“What a beautiful book! It is redemptive without ever being trite or self-righteous. It’s unflinchingly honest.”

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