Caul Baby: A Novel

By Morgan Jerkins

Now in paperback, New York Times bestselling author Morgan Jerkins's fiction debut,  an electrifying novel for fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Jacqueline Woodson, that brings to life one powerful and enigmatic family in a tale rife with secrets, betrayal, intrigue, and magic. 

Laila desperately wants to become a mother, but each of her previous pregnancies has ended in heartbreak. This time has to be different, so she turns to the Melancons, an old and powerful Harlem family known for their caul, a precious layer of skin that is the secret source of their healing power.

When a deal for Laila to acquire a piece of caul falls through, she is heartbroken, but when the child is stillborn, she is overcome with grief and rage. What she doesn’t know is that a baby will soon be delivered in her family—by her niece, Amara, an ambitious college student—and delivered to the Melancons to raise as one of their own. Hallow is special: she’s born with a caul, and their matriarch, Maman, predicts the girl will restore the family’s prosperity.

Growing up, Hallow feels that something in her life is not right. Did Josephine, the woman she calls mother, really bring her into the world? Why does her cousin Helena get to go to school and roam the streets of New York freely while she’s confined to the family’s decrepit brownstone?

As the Melancons’ thirst to maintain their status grows, Amara, now a successful lawyer running for district attorney, looks for a way to avenge her longstanding grudge against the family. When mother and daughter cross paths, Hallow will be forced to decide where she truly belongs. 

Engrossing, unique, and page-turning, Caul Baby illuminates the search for familial connection, the enduring power of tradition, and the dark corners of the human heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Apr 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9780062873170

Morgan Jerkins

Morgan Jerkins is the author of Wandering in Strange Lands and the New York Times bestseller This Will Be My Undoing and a Senior Culture Editor at ESPN’s The Undefeated. Jerkins is a visiting professor at Columbia University and a Forbes 30 Under 30 leader in media, and her short-form work has been featured in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Elle, Esquire, and the Guardian, among many other outlets. She is based in Harlem. 

Reviews for Caul Baby

[Tory Cross · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow this book was incredibly incredibly good — I never had any guess where it was going next and it was incredibly beautifully written. I’ve never read anything like it.

[bookwyrmm_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very intense, unique read that blends magical realism and social justice, or lack there of.

[froxgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Love her non-fiction but didn't enjoy most aspects of this story, the exception being the doulas.

[beth.clarke · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Such a great premise, but the writing wasn't vivid enough and the characters lacked depth. It was all okay.

[perednia_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A novel that involves folklore, hard-hitting politics and social issues, and a lot of love concerning mothers, sisters and all kinds of kinfolk.

[hccpsk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Morgan Jenkins (This Will be My Undoing) makes her fiction debut with Caul Baby, a book about the beauty and pain of being a Black woman and raising Black women. The Melancon family has a history of mystical caul babies—born with their outer membranes intact—that they fuse to their skin. People pay thousands of dollars for small pieces of the caul that they cut off because they believe them to hold healing properties. Josephine Melancon, heir to her mother’s prosperous caul livelihood, cannot have a child of her own to carry on the family name and business. Through a stroke of luck, her longtime boyfriend knows a pregnant teenager on the path to academic and professional success forever twining these two families and their generations of women together. Jenkins does a lot right—including some nice writing at times, an interesting story, and really centering powerful Black women in her story. She understands how to make these women feel real and the complicated relationships that arise. Unfortunately, some plot points make no sense even in the realm of magical realism that Jenkins plays with, but doesn’t really commit to. It’s like she couldn’t quite decide what kind of book she wanted so everything went into the pot; it works for a while, but eventually it’s all just a little too much. Caul Baby will still appeal to many readers with its themes of family, belonging, motherhood and Black identity overriding the stumbles of Jenkin's first novel.