After a nine-year literary hiatus, Sister Souljah, activist, novelist and former hip-hop performer satisfies her long-waiting fans with the prequel, “Midnight: A Gangster Love Story.”
Centered on the fast lifestyle, drugs and violence of New York, Midnight, a supporting character in Souljah’s best-selling novel, “The Coldest Winter Ever,” takes center stage.
The 2008 release peaked at No. 31 on USA Today’s Best Selling Books List and remained on the list for four weeks.
Midnight, a handsome, proud Sudanese immigrant, comes to New York as a child and grows as a man struggling to uphold his Islamic values amid his urban surroundings.
Souljah provides the explanation of how Midnight was raised and got to be the man in which her readers were familiar.
Interestingly, Midnight enjoys the good times that women offer him, but he doesn’t take their advances to heart because he realizes that they don’t really know him. Women are in love with his style and his looks, all unsubstantial things.
Midnight knows “a man is his own beliefs, his own ideas and actions. If you knew me, you would know what I believe. If you knew what I believe, then you would understand how I think. You would understand my ideas and actions.”
At 14 years old, Midnight became a citizen of the United States. He was an American on paper, but he never became one in his heart or mind.
Midnight’s African-born father was not a king, but he was a “phenomenon.” His father was the advisor to the prime minister of Sudan, the most powerful man in the country.
He lived on an estate with 15 acres of land, four houses, eight buildings and all of the land he could see in every direction was owned by his family.
He was reminded at a young age that Africa was the best place in the world.
He and his mother left Africa without their influence and abundant riches to live in the rough inner city of Brooklyn.
This gangster love story follows the life of Midnight, his family and those who are close to him as he grows and learns from his experiences in America.
This novel creates a sense of understanding and answers those unanswered questions about this mysterious man.
Readers will appreciate the wait for this fulfilling novel. Sister Souljah is also writing the sequel to “Midnight.”
In an article published in USA Today, Souljah promises the sequel “will tie up all the loose ends” from her first two novels.
It has been deemed “the sequel the world is waiting for.”