The author calls the novel, which follows two friends on different motherhood journeys, “a juicy, honest book”
NEED TO KNOW
- Naima Coster’s novel Take What You Can is Good Morning America’s August book club selection
- The book follows Val and Milly, whose friendship is put to the test when they decide to raise their children together in New York
- “I wanted to write a book about how motherhood hits different women differently, and how difficult it can be to stay close to someone when your lives take different paths,” Coster says
GMA Book Club’s next selection is here!
Naima Coster’s novel Take What You Can is Good Morning America’s August book club selection, the morning news program announced on Aug. 4.
The novel centers on Val and Milly, who first meet during a college trip to France. As the only Black students in their study abroad program, they form a fast friendship, fostered by an older mentor named Helene.
After a rift drives them apart, Val and Milly find themselves pregnant at the same time. When Milly suggests that Val join her in Brooklyn, so they can raise their kids together, it seems like a good opportunity to rekindle their bond. But the two women’s lives are drastically different now. Milly is a successful influencer wed to a restaurant mogul, while Val is a journalist struggling under her workload.
Credit: Pamela Dorman Books
Soon, the pair see their friendship once again put to the test as they navigate their new and separate realities, the book’s synopsis teases.
Coster, the bestselling author of What’s Mine and Yours, explains that her latest book portrays a complex portrait of adult friendship.
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“The differences between the friends are something that they can’t talk about, and because of their silence, the resentments between them start to pile up,” the writer says in an exclusive video shared with PEOPLE.
Coster continues, adding, “It’s especially difficult for Milly and Val to face how different their lives are, because they started in a really similar place…the book moves between their present in Brooklyn and their past in France to show all the things that bring these women together, and all the things that threaten to tear them apart.”
Credit: Christine Han
The reality of parenthood is also a prominent theme in the novel, which We All Want Impossible Things author Catherine Newman has already deemed “utterly bewildering” in an early review.
“I knew that I wanted to write a book about how motherhood hits different women differently, and how difficult it can be to stay close to someone when your lives take different paths,” Coster says. “Take What You Can is a juicy, honest book that I think will give you a lot to talk about with the people in your life, and I hope that you’ll read it.”
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Coster is also the author of the novel Halsey Street, a finalist for the Kirkus Prize.
Take What You Can hits shelves on Aug. 4 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.
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