The House of Eve
Sadeqa Johnson tells two stories that slowly draw together. In Philadelphia, fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track for a scholarship that could lift her out of poverty, until a forbidden romance threatens everything she has worked for. In Washington, D.C., Eleanor Quarles arrives at Howard University and falls for a young man from one of the city's elite Black families, only to run up against their expectations of who their son should marry. Set in the 1950s, the novel looks at the narrow choices available to Black women of the era and the secret homes where unmarried pregnant girls were sent. It was a Reese's Book Club pick.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about The House of Eve
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Two Black women in 1950s America, a bright Philadelphia teenager and a Howard University student, face impossible choices about love, ambition, and motherhood.
Yes. Reese Witherspoon chose The House of Eve as a Reese's Book Club pick in February 2023.
The novel is set in the early 1950s, moving between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
The House of Eve was written by Sadeqa Johnson, published in 2023 by Simon & Schuster.
The House of Eve is 384 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The House of Eve takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
The House of Eve is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.