Own Son

Set in America during the 1980s, this novel follows two young lovers as they learn what it means to stay together while Black in a country that often treats them as enemies. Their early romance is sweet and full of promise, but the couple soon finds that survival takes as much effort as affection.

The story is told through Yana, a seventeen-year-old girl who is deeply in love with the boy she has always imagined, and Keon, a dreamer trying to put aside the painful events of his family's past. When Yana becomes pregnant with their son, their hopes, fears, and tangled feelings push them toward a future neither can predict.

D.E. Eliot blends the joy of first love with the hardship of hard times, in a story that carries the mood of the blues, where passion and heartache are bound together. The novel is a love story that also looks at family, race, and the choices that shape a young couple's life.