Kin by Tayari Jones

Two motherless children grow up as close as siblings. Vernice and Annie have been friends since they were babes in the same cradle, growing up in Honeysuckle, Louisiana. When Annie was only three days old, her mother, Hattie Lee, nursed her one last time before handing her over to her grandmother and leaving town. Meanwhile, when Vernice was only a couple of months old, her father killed her mother and her very reluctant aun raised her. It is with these losses that Niecy and Annie are bound together, yet they are total opposites in almost every other way. Annie is the stormier of the two and headstrong in finding her mother one day, while Vernice is always more careful and guarded. The former heads off in search of her mother--and in ways, in search of herself as well, while Vernice goes to college--they struggle with identity, racism, and what it means to have and be a family. This is another great book from this author.